Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1257/

Memories of Manzanar

Manzanar? God, to me that was one of the worst places. I hated that place. Anyway, it was windy one day, windy the next day. That was the dust, too. And the building that we lived in, it was just full of those big knot holes. See, they weren’t covered; all the dust used to come. See, we’d wake up in the morning and there used to be about that much dirt on the floor. You know, dust.

And all we had was these little kerosene stoves. At first we didn’t know. It was so cold, so we turned that on. By morning, all the oil was gone. It’s cold, see.

And the first night we were there, there were these bunk beds or, what do you call these beds? Cots? Yeah. And then those mattresses, they call that? Straw mattress, we got bitten all over. My mother got so angry. There were little bed bugs. Oh god we got bitten. Terrible. So she had to go, she runs up there, she gives them hell over there. (chuckles). Bed bugs.

Anyway, so they changed all that. So we got another mattress. Anyway, it was a little bit better. But you know. That building, with all those holes, and every time the wind comes the dust will be blowing up, oh god that was awful. To me that was the most horrible place.


California concentration camps Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II World War II camps

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)

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