Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank Sumida Interview
Narrator: Frank Sumida
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Barbara Takei (secondary)
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: September 23, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-sfrank-01-0025

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TI: So, Frank, because, I mean, you said you did some judo in Tule Lake, and you were good at judo. Were you ever recruited by the pro-Japan groups? Because they saw you, here's this strong, healthy young man who's going to Japan?

FS: No, never. Even my, the instructor, Mr. Inouye, he was in that dan. I remember two or three of 'em. But he never recruited me. Yeah. So that was a funny thing, huh? He could have got me for something. And Yamane, I met him through somebody in Manzanar, I mean, Tule Lake, but he never talked about it to me. So I don't know what he was doing in Tule Lake.

BT: So how was it that you got involved with the pro-Japan groups, and which group?

FS: In Tule Lake?

BT: Yeah.

FS: I didn't. The only thing I did was my dad signed me up for one of them dan, I don't know which one. It's the one that went pro-Japan, the repat group. Which one, I don't know.

BT: Probably the young one.

TI: So I think maybe where we're curious was eventually you were picked up to go to Santa Fe. And you read a lot about this, usually they're described as pro-Japan people.

FS: Yeah.

TI: So I guess we're trying to get a sense of why would you get picked up?

FS: Okay. I told her a couple of times, I think because my dad signed up for the Gripsholm. We were classified "enemy aliens," the family was. So that's the reason why we got sent out of Heart Mountain right away. And then from Tule Lake, I think that was the reason why I went to Santa Fe. Because I was not, officially, I was not an active member of the dan. I didn't take part in none of those stuff. Maybe I was a member, but...

BT: Did you exercise at all?

FS: No. I didn't want to get up early in the morning, that was stupid.

TI: So it almost sounds... whether it was a mistake or....

FS: No, it was not a mistake. I think it was because of my dad signing for the Gripsholm exchange boat.

BT: Well, in the first group that was picked up and sent to Santa Fe, that was a fairly elite group of members.

FS: Yeah, I was one of 'em.

BT: Yeah. And so that's why I'm wondering, what do you think the reasons were, why you were picked up? Because just to be signed up to go with your parents to Japan wouldn't have made you, or wouldn't have identified you to the army.

FS: Oh, no, I think they were already getting ready to classify people going back to Japan from here to here, condensing it. See, Tule Lake had how many people, twenty thousand at the end? So by putting me here in Santa Fe, there's only, what, five thousand? But these are known people that's gonna go someplace. Because people that were supposed to go to Japan, that talked about it a lot, emphasized it, preached about it, never went to Bismarck or Santa Fe. And I know quite a few. 'Cause I met 'em after the war, and I accused 'em, you know, of short-changing us.

BT: So did you meet Tokio Yamane as a result of his involvement with the Seinendan?

FS: No. I met, I met him in Santa Fe, next barrack bed. [Laughs] He was my bedmate. And I think I told you, I don't know if I told somebody, all that time I was in, I think it was about, almost a year, huh? Santa Fe. Huh? He never talked about the Manzanar, or the Tule Lake incident. So I never knew about it until I started reading. I started reading his history in magazines, you know, Yamane told me he was there, he got hit, he got brain clobbered. When he was there, he never talked about that. And that's what I can't understand. A bedmate, he could have talked in his sleep. But all during the working hours, lot of times I'm not working, I'll be laying down reading a magazine, he'll come in, and he'll say, "Hey, dou ka, Sumida, how've you been?" I said, "Okay," and that's it. And then toward the end, when we start getting ready to go to Japan, you know how rumors start to fly. And he's telling me all about Japan, he went to Masho chugakkou, and then he lived in Dambara Nakamachi. I remember good, huh? 'Cause he'd tell me all the time, so I remember. And then he went to, he went to Fresno High School, he was one of the track stars. And he went to the all-state champion. He mentioned those things, but never about Hoshidan.

TI: Did you ever have conversations -- did anyone ever ask you why you were with that group? I mean, amongst, like, the Isseis...

FS: Oh, yeah, people asked me, but they never figured me for that. Even while I was in Japan, we get together, we'd never talk about the Hoshidan. For some reason, I think there was no interest. Like Yamakido... Tad, Charlie, I think Charlie used to attend the session in the morning. And I think Tad wanted me to go with him, I didn't go. And there was another kid named Yamasaki Glen, he died. You ever heard the name mentioned?

BT: No.

FS: He died about five, six years ago. He was kind of a very (nice), he was a Banning High School boy. And he was a good ballplayer. He was at Heart Mountain, and I remade, re-met him in Japan. He was working as a house personnel for some colonel, and driving his car. So anyway, but all these people were tied up with the Hoshidan but never took part. So I think there was a lot of members in the Hoshidan rank, but they never went to the meeting or to the exercise. I know Yamakido was complaining to Charlie about, "How come we have to get up early in the morning and go exercise?" It was kind of stupid.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.