Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Sumiko Sakai Kozawa Interview
Narrator: Sumiko Sakai Kozawa
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: May 10, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-ksumiko-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: Were you called to the hospital on the night that the...

SK: They used to come in the ambulance, 'cause there was no telephone or anything. Middle of the night many times, they'd knock at the door, emergency so they had to, so, "Alright." So right away, had to go.

RP: Do you remember the night that the riot broke out?

SK: Oh yes, yes, yes. At that time, yeah, I was at the hospital then. We just kept very quiet, I know. I know there were several that they brought into the hospital. The doctor was there, but we didn't do any lab work. We just sat there.

RP: Do you remember a gentleman that was stuck under a bed in the hospital, was hid under a bed? His name was Fred Tayama and he was --

SK: I heard.

RP: -- he was beaten up and then he was brought to the hospital, and then a group came in to try to find him and finish him off.

SK: Yeah, his name was Tayama, I think. Yeah, I heard about that. All those incidents that happened, they called him... not the Red. There's a name for people like that, which I forgot now.

RP: Inu?

SK: Well yeah, inu, it means dog. Yeah, he was one of these informers, I think. That's what they called inu, informers. All that comes to me now. I'd forgotten all that. I wanted to just forget everything in Manzanar. [Laughs] I didn't like Manzanar. I hated Manzanar. That's why I just want to get everything out of my head. I just want to forget the whole thing.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.