Densho Digital Archive - Sumiye Takeno Interview (denshovh-tsumiye-01-0013)

<Begin Segment 13>

RP: So tell us about your life after you graduated. Do you... I think you mentioned earlier that you went to San Francisco to live with your sister and her husband?

ST: Yes. I... my sister invited me and she said she thought that I should learn some sewing. So I started and then she moved so I moved with her to Los Angeles. And, and that's when, that's when I really went to sewing school. But you know I was kind of lazy. I wasn't that crazy about sewing school but I went because my father wanted me to, to learn how to sew. And I can make dresses and things but it's a chore.

RP: Did you, after you get out of high school, did you want to go to college?

ST: I wanted to go to college. And by then we were in camp. And so I finally was accepted at the Lincoln... see, there's a college there, Wesleyan college. I was accepted. So I told my father I want to go to Lincoln, Nebraska. Then he said, "No, you can't go." And I said, "Why?" "Because," he said, "I want you to marry." I said, "I don't have anybody." He said, "Yes we do." I didn't know they were arranging Roy. I didn't know that. So I was making my own arrangement. I wanted to advance my education a little more. And so then when he said that I didn't argue. I said okay. So I dropped this, all this, yeah.

RP: Right. So sewing school was kind of a, sort of a compromise.

ST: Uh-huh, yes. That's useful.

RP: Right. And was there a, was there a double standard in terms of parents wanting their sons to go to college and, and their daughters to become good homemakers?

ST: Maybe my brothers weren't that encouraged to go to college. They were... well, in the first place they had to stay and help Father on the farm. He, he needed their help. So I think actually... I never heard them complain.

RP: So your, you've lived on a farm, you grew up on a farm your whole life and now you find yourself in Los Angeles, what kind of shock was that like?

ST: Yeah. Well, I thought it was nice to be away from the farm, too. Not that I disliked it, but it was not for me. I wanted something other than, more for women to do.

RP: So you, you were able to live with a family in Los Angeles?

ST: Uh-huh. I lived with a very nice family. I had two families. One of them moved away someplace so then she found me this, another family. So they were both very nice families. And they were very kind. And sometimes they would ask me to eat with them and it's so, it was just not my thing to do but I did it. They were very pleasant. So it felt like a family.

RP: And what area did you live in? Was it west Los Angeles area?

ST: I'm sorry?

RP: What area of Los Angeles did you...

ST: Oh, this was near, near Beverly Hills, I think. I don't think it was in the Beverly Hills because that was elite area. But it was close to it. And it was very nice area. They had a bus system, too. Since I didn't drive. I made sure that I had a bus system. And they were very good to me.