<Begin Segment 16>

TI: I'm sorry, one other question. In terms of you being a trailblazer, you were the first woman to be on the board of the Sumitomo Bank of California.

SA: Yes.

TI: How did that happen? Why did they ask you?

SA: Well, the man who was in charge of Los Angeles Bank, Sumitomo Bank, he came over one day, so I thought he was going to come and see George. And he says, "No, I want to talk to you." I said, "Me, what for?" So he sat down and explained to me that they would like to have one woman serve on the board. I told him, well, I'm not qualified, I cannot accept it, because I have no experience, and there's nothing to back me up. I don't think I qualify, so I don't think that... I will not accept it. And he went back and he came again, and he said that they discussed this, but they felt like there was no one else they could ask. I said "Well, I'm sure there are," but I told him, "I'll try for one year, see how things go." So I was there ten years. [Laughs]

TI: And what do you think your contribution was? I mean, to have a woman there, how did they change things?

SA: Well, I don't know if they were happy to have me there, but we all got along very well. I didn't know anything about banking, I had to learn so much, because it's so important when you're asked to be on the board. But somehow, I got along well with everybody that was on the board.

TI: I'm sure you learned a lot, too.

SA: Oh, did I ever. I never realized how important banking business is.

TI: And how did that change your thinking? Did you think more about finances because of that experience?

SA: No, not that much. But I enjoyed it. And I enjoyed being on the board of the Japan-America Society, I was vice president for ten years, and at that time, I started a golf tournament. And even to this day, they are continuing playing golf tournament every year. And our first tournament was held in a place called Huntington Beach, and the green fee was five dollars. [Laughs] But that was, then everything was still not organized, but we thought we'll go pursue this plan, and it's been going on ever since.

TI: Well, you've started so many things that are still going on, it's so impressive. I have one more question about, on your family vacations, I read that George wanted the family to actually travel separately, like you would be with one of the girls and George would be with one of the girls, if you went to Europe or something you would travel on separate planes. Why was that? Why did you do that?

SA: Well, he felt... let's see, I think there was an incident that there was a family traveling together, and they lost everybody in the family, in the tragedy. And he felt like it'd be safer for us to travel separately just in case something happened. So every place we went, we had to book two separate flights to all the places that we visited. We took a two-month vacation, just our family, and traveled many places.

TI: And so was that on every flight, or just the big overseas flights?

SA: Every flight, no matter how far, it was always separate.

TI: Wow, so that took a lot of extra planning.

SA: Hmm?

TI: It took a lot of extra planning.

SA: Oh, yes, George did all the whole planning, so he set it all up.

TI: Now, did other families start doing the same thing?

SA: I don't know, I never heard. Never heard, but he wanted to be cautious. He's a very cautious person, he was always making sure of everything.

TI: So I finished all my questions, and I just wanted to say that this was such a wonderful interview. Not only did I learn...

SA: I hope I qualified. [Laughs]

TI: This was fabulous. I'm so glad we had this chance, because I think so much attention has been directed towards George, but your life is incredible in terms of the things that you've done, and learning about all the things that you've started, and they're still going on. And it's such a powerful legacy, I wanted to just thank you for everything you've done.

SA: Oh, my pleasure. My pleasure, thank you.

TI: Is there anything else that you want to say, or anything that maybe I didn't ask about that you wanted to talk about?

SA: No, I think you've covered all of it.

TI: Well, thank you so much.

SA: You're most welcome, thank you.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright (c) 2017 Densho. All Rights Reserved.