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Interviews

Alice Sumida

(1914-2018) Founder of the largest gladiolus bulb farm in the United States.

Blue-eyed doll

The different clubs would have these entertainments. They would ask us to do something. In those days, I used to take advantage of it. “I’ll sing.” (laugh)

I*: And what songs would you sing?

Well depending on the crowd. You know, I had to choose. Look at the crowd and see what would they enjoy. If it was a Japanese crowd, I’d sing a Japanese song.

I: So you sang Japanese songs, too?

Oh yes. I loved…the one I like to sing a lot is when America sent a doll to Japan – goodwill. Remember? Goodwill doll.

I: So how did that song go?

Yeah, let’s see. How did that go? I sang it all the time. I’m just speechless or voiceless now. Oh, blue-eyed doll.

aoi meoshita oningyo ha
amerika umare no seruroido

nihon no minato he tuitatoki
ippai namida wo ukabeteta

watashi ha kotoba ga wakaranai 
maigoni nattara nantoshiyo

yasashii nihon no jyouchan yo
nakayoku asonde yattokure 
nakayoku asonde yattokure

English translation

A blue-eyed doll
Made of celluloid, Was born in America.

When she arrived at a harbor in Japan 
She had many tears in her eyes.

I do not understand the language. 
If I get lost, what should I do?

Warm-hearted Japanese girls 
Please be my friends and play with me.
Please be my friends and play with me.

That song. I will never forget.

* ”I” indicates an interviewer (Akemi Kikumura Yano).


dolls figurines friendship Friendship Dolls interpersonal relations Japan music toys

Date: December 6, 2005

Location: Oregon, US

Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano

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

Interviewee Bio

Alice Sumida (b.1914) Alice’s parents immigrated to California from Kumamoto, Japan, and were farming in the Central Coast area when she was born. When she was six years old, Alice’s parents placed her in a dormitory at a Buddhist Temple in nearby Guadalupe, where, until the age of twelve, she learned Japanese reading, writing, customs and culture. She then attended a country school where she first developed a love of dance when the teacher encouraged everyone to dance at Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas celebrations. Later, while in San Francisco taking voice lessons, she met her future husband, Mark, a Portland resident ten years her senior. At his insistence, they were engaged after three days and married in two weeks. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the United States entry into World War II, Alice and Mark were ordered to an “Assembly Center” in Portland that was built over the foul-smelling stockyards. After two weeks, they were recruited to the sugar beet fields of Eastern Oregon—where Alice was the only woman doing the “backbreaking work” of harvesting. When the war ended, they took up farming a barren piece of land that, after much hard work and sacrifice, they eventually transformed into the country’s largest gladiola bulb farm. Following Mark’s passing in 1981, Alice revived her earlier love of dance, and, in her 90s, she continued to compete in ballroom dance events around the world. She passed away on August 16, 2018 at age 104. (October 2018)

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