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

Working at the family flower shop, meeting Greta Garbo

In the early days, my mother used to go to the flower market. She used to have a designer cause my mother wasn’t a very good designer. We did a big arrangement showing of flowers and that was up in Wilshire Blvd. Anyway, that was a big thing we did.

And then another thing was, she was a singer, a well known singer, a blonde girl, she’s signing at the Greek Theater and after that they had a big party for her at this one place in Hollywood again. And we also did the whole thing, the arrangement for them.

We even had Greta Garbo. In those days, that was in the late twenties, early twenties, rather. She used to come in the big limousine. Where the chauffer sat was open. She sat in the back. She used to come in and buy a big armful of sweet peas. She was a really nice and beautiful person though.

California florists Greta Garbo Los Angeles United States

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)