Densho Digital Archive - Sumiko Yamauchi Interview (denshovh-ysumiko

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WP: So you said, were you five years old when your family moved?

SY: I was five from San Fernando Valley up into Los Angeles.

WP: And so what did your parents do when they moved to Los Angeles?

SY: They had a flower shop, and they worked in the flower shop.

WP: And so all of... you and your siblings worked out with working in the flower shop?

SY: We helped in the flowers. After we finished school, we came home, there was always things that had to be done. I don't remember time to do nothing. In fact, chores were more important than doing homework. In those days, we didn't have that much homework. I mean, when I see my grandkids, they have homework, jillions of homework, but we didn't have much homework.

WP: And in your household growing up, were you taught Japanese? Did you speak that in the household?

SY: Well, because my mother and father was from Japan, they spoke predominately Japanese. But my mother had to learn English because she had a flower shop, and she had to be able to converse with the customers. So my mother knew more English than my father did. Because my father did most of the work where he didn't do anything pertaining to customers. And my mother used to answer telephone, and she'd, it was amazing, she'd take orders from the telephone and she'd write it in Japanese, you know. [Laughs] And so when we got it, we couldn't read it because it was written in Japanese, so she'd have to translate it to tell us this is what it says on there. I remember that. But my mother did learn English fairly well, because she became an American citizen when she came here to San Diego. And I think I told you, if I had to learn what she had to learn, I wouldn't be able to get my citizenship. [Laughs] It's quite... it's not easy. You have to learn the Congress and the Senate and how many there is and all this stuff. And then the Preamble and all that, and I think, "Oh, god." [Laughs]

WP: So did she teach herself English when she moved to...

SY: No, they had a school. You went to school, it was a person who could understand Japanese, but predominately she spoke English so that that's the way to learn, you know. You don't speak Japanese in order for you to learn English, and I think that's what the problem is today, things are written in Spanish so that those who can't understand, they'll never learn that way. And my mother learned quite a bit of English.

WP: And your father?

SY: My father understood, but he used to say, "Go see Mama." [Laughs] She was the businesswoman in the family.

WP: And so all of the kids, you guys spoke Japanese as well?

SY: No. Once I moved away from my mother, I didn't need Japanese anymore, so you lose it. And then when I got married, I married a Japanese man, but he was not a... he was, I was second generation, my husband was the third generation. So if you see my son, he doesn't know any Japanese other than order something at the Japanese restaurant. [Laughs]

WP: Was that ever difficult for you to communicate with your parents?

SY: No, because my mother understood English. And so I would speak, I guess you could say broken English, or how can I say that? I could speak English and she understood. She was very... how can I say? My mother was pretty smart. If she went to school, she'd probably go way beyond me. But she was very smart, and she was businesswoman-wise, money-wise, she caught on. And she had her own language as to certain words that she couldn't... but she understood. She understood... I can't tell you how much she understood. [Speaking to son] Victor. Vic, how can you say Baachaan? No, no, no. As smart as she is. She was so, she was so smart that it was, it flabbergasted us, because she understood everything.

And she went to -- my father, when the war broke out, and I think I... I don't know if anybody told you, but they froze the bank account that they had. So my father, and this is when the war broke out, he didn't trust banks anymore. So all this time, he didn't want to put any money into the bank account because he felt that, "The government could come and just take it away from me," so he didn't trust the bank. But my mother decided, "In order for me to make money, I've got to invest the money in the bank. And how can I do it?" And she learned this all by herself, by, okay, "In order for me to be able to buy me some property, I have to become an American citizen." So that's why she became an American citizen. And when she came to Encinitas, she had saved enough money to make a down payment on property in Encinitas. And so she was, had to know how to handle the money when you do those kinds of things, you know. And I think to myself, as old as she was, and as little English that she did know, she sure knew a lot.

WP: When you were kids, did you find that you had... sometimes to communicate with your father that you had to go through your mother ever?

SY: Well, a lot of times we didn't go to my father, because his name was "go ask Mama," you know. And so actually, when he said anything, whether it was right or wrong, you had to do what he said. So his... there was no... I didn't have too much communication with my father. It was strictly through my mother.

WP: And did they have contact with their family members in Japan very much?

SY: Yeah, they did after the war more so than before the war. But actually, no, not before the war. They used to write to each other, you know, and my mother used to always write to her mother because she had a mother still living then. And when the war ended and she came back to the United States, she said that first thing she had to do when she got to San Diego, she wanted to go back to Japan to visit with her mother, but she came back home. She said Japan was... at that time, Japan had not recovered from the war, and they were very devastated over there. Well, Japan is an island, they don't have any economy, everything has to be shipped in, oil has to be, steel, aluminum, everything has to come in. And the people that had land was about the only thing they had, so she really felt sorry for her mother, and she used to send a lot of things to her mother.

WP: Did they ever talk about... do you think they missed Japan before the war? Did they talk about going back to Japan or visiting?

SY: My father did. He used to always say, "When I get back to Japan..." and I think... but my mother said, I remember when my mother said, "Japan is gonna lose the war," I think my father just blew his stack. Because he was still wanting, just knew that Japan was gonna win. But my mother said no, Japan wouldn't win.

WP: Was there any discussion between your parents about sending you or any of your siblings back to Japan for schooling at all?

SY: No.

WP: No?

SY: No, never.

WP: They were okay with you guys staying in the United States?

SY: Whether they were or not, I don't... my father was not a person who you could discuss. It was, "No, you can't do it," or, "We are going to do this." So my mother was, went along with that. But when we went to New Jersey, my father had, took care of all the money and the financing and everything. When we went to New Jersey and we were all working in a factory, my mother got a paycheck, and that was the first time she ever was able to handle the money. And from there, she saved her own money and became where she was when she came back. And I think money was... my father was never, he used to wear his money around his stomach. [Laughs] You've heard of the money belt? Yeah, well, that's where he had thousands of dollars. My mother said, "You're crazy." He said, "No, I don't trust the bank." So my mother, in those days, I don't know if you remember, but if you had a savings account, they gave you pretty good interest. If you had it in savings, you didn't touch it. But nowadays they don't do that. And so she knew that you can get money from the little money that I put in, that was money that she didn't have to work for, you know, because the money was making money. And that was the reason why she became an American citizen, because she wanted to buy property so that she can make money.