Interviews

1. Her early memories before the war

2. Learning English

3. Taking her father’s ashes, going back to Japan, learning the koto and culture

4. Sensing the war was coming

5. Coming back to America from Japan before the war

6. Working at the family flower shop, meeting Greta Garbo

7. Her experience of Japanese American Evacuation

8. Memories of Manzanar

9. Working in the camp hospital

10. Wind in camp

11. Her grandfather and Dr. Thompson

12. Her grandmother comes to Manzanar

13. Experiencing prejudice after the war

Kozawa,Sumiko

(1916-2016) Florist

Learning English

We spoke nothing but Japanese. Yes, yes. We didn’t know any English. My father spoke some English but not to us, it was always Japanese. So in the first grade, it was hard for me. Even in the old days, the Japanese would say for chair “Chi-ah, chi-ah.” It wasn’t the very “chair.” Like your different things, I forgot the many thing now. But my first grade teacher was wonderful. She used to walk home with me cause she lived on the same block. And coming home, she used to walk with me, she used to point at the weeds and say it was grass. I used to say “kusa’’, you know, “kusa’’. Weeds. Grass. On the sidewalk. That’s why she taught me English. Yeah, she was a wonderful teacher.

education English languages

Date: May 24, 2011

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Sumiko Kozawa was born in 1916 in Los Angeles. The oldest of five children, Sumi spent three years in Japan before World War II, learning koto, flower arranging, and tea ceremony. Her family’s flower shop, Tokio Florist in Silver Lake, was popular with the Hollywood community because of its fresh flowers and reasonable prices. Sumi not only helped out, but also had the opportunity to meet many people, including famous silent movie star, Greta Garbo. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Sumi and her family were sent to Manzanar. There she helped care for the family, taking care of her grandfather and younger sister. She passed away on December 2016, at age 100. (December 2016)