Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Sumiko Yamauchi Interview
Narrator: Sumiko Yamauchi
Interviewer: Whitney Peterson
Location: Chula Vista, California
Date: July 23, 2013
Densho ID: denshovh-ysumiko_2-01-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

WP: Can you tell me about the community that you grew up in in Los Angeles?

SY: Yes. When I went to... when we moved into Los Angeles from San Fernando Valley, the first school I went to was Chevy Chase, and it was predominately Mexican children. And it was... we lived on Los Feliz Boulevard, on one side, and I had to cross Los Feliz Boulevard to go to Chevy Chase elementary school, predominately Mexican. I enjoyed that. But then, the people started moving in, and so they had to divide the people because it was getting too many people in the Mexican elementary school. So they said from Los Feliz Boulevard on this side would have to go to this school. You couldn't, so we couldn't go over to Chevy Chase. And I went to the new school, and I wasn't very happy because I don't know if you know Griffith Park, you've heard of it? Okay. In those days, in 1939, '40s, in that area, that's where all the rich people lived. And it's the rich people that was going to this elementary school, which I felt out of place. I did finish elementary school there, there was no other Japanese people that went to that school. And even when I went to junior high school, there were maybe one or two Japanese families that went to that school, but not very many. So I wasn't really growing -- I didn't grow up with the Japanese. But when I went in the camp, that's when all of a sudden I realized I'm Japanese, you know.

WP: Did you have any best friends or a friend group that you hung out with outside of your family?

SY: Yeah, I did. I went... when I used to go to the junior high school, Washington Irving junior high school, there was a girl named Alice Perez. And we used to always look for each other, we used to have classes together, we used to eat lunch together, we used to, you know, just about do anything. And when the war broke out, we used to eat together before, you see. And so the pressure from school, she said to me, "I can't eat with you anymore. I can't be with you anymore." I think that's when I decided maybe camp is going to be better because I lost my best friend. I still remember her, and I still could remember what she looked like. She was Mexican, and like I said, I always got along real good with them. I often wonder whatever happened to her. That's about the only... that was before the war. Now, after the war, of course, I had a lot of friends then, too.

WP: What kind of activities were you a part of in that community? Were you a part of activities?

SY: No, I was never active. I was one of the followers, never a leader. I had friends, quite a few friends there, but nothing...

WP: Was your family religious at all?

SY: They used to say they were Buddhist, but they never made me go to any Buddhist services because there was none. But I remember we did used to go to, in Glendale we used to go to a Christian church. But religious, no.

WP: And what about your siblings? Were they active in anything in the community?

SY: No.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.