Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1261/

Her grandmother comes to Manzanar

Toward the end, my grandmother was dying. At this place. I don’t know. It’s some, like a convalescence home that they had. And so my grandfather was there too. But, you know, the men’s room and the women’s room, grandpa didn’t care. He used to have my grandmother out in the hall there. And she wanted water but they wouldn’t give her water so he used to get the water and give it to grandmother.

Anyway, towards the end somehow my mother got in contact with Father Leary and, this has been weeks now. So finally we got her back to Manzanar. And that was during the nighttime she came in. And by then, of course, she was half gone anyway, you know. We got her in the hospital and her eyes opened a couple of times, and that was about it.

And the nurse, Akita, turned her over, and you could see the bed sores she had. On her back, around her buttocks. Horrific bed sores. And nurse Akita, she shook her head. She says, my goodness, she says, they didn’t take care of her at all. So she makes this great big thing with this great big donut like, but in the morning she passed on. You could just feel that soreness into you.


California concentration camps families grandfathers grandparents Manzanar concentration camp parents 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)

Iwasaki,Hikaru “Carl”

Returning to San Jose

(1923 - 2016) WRA photographer

Ito,Willie

Parents

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

Ito,Willie

Father’s Optimism

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

Ito,Willie

Tanforan Assembly Center

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

Ito,Willie

Father making shell brooches at Topaz

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

Ohtomo,Hachiro

My daughter couldn’t fit in Japan, so I decided to go back to America (Japanese)

(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner

Fujie,Holly J.

Her grandfather was pressured to teach Japanese

Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

Naganuma,Kazumu

His sister Kiyo was like a second mother to him

(b. 1942) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Ninomiya,Masato

Foreign language education was severely restricted during the war

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

Ninomiya,Masato

How he met his wife

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

Sakata,Reiko T.

Parent’s Marriage

(b. 1939) a businesswoman whose family volunterily moved to Salt Lake City in Utah during the war.