Densho Digital Archive - Ann Sugimoto Interview (denshovh-sann-01-0016)

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RP: And do you remember when the Executive Order came out, 9066?

AS: Yeah. No, before that, too, the day of December 7th. Oh, I will never forget, I went to my girlfriend's wedding, and, Little Tokyo, they were having a reception there, December 7th. She got married. We were all in there, and my father was a... you know, they have somebody go-between like. My father and mother there, and these people came in and took out some of the fellows.

RP: The FBI came in to take...

AS: Yeah... I don't know. And so then they say, "After this you go home," so my husband and I, we were gonna take a lady home. She worked in a home or something, up near Beverly Hills. We're goin' down and I said, "You know, I think there's a cop following us," so we stopped and he says, well, told him we went a wedding reception in Little Tokyo and we were taking somebody home, but you could hear on the radio all that thing. First I thought... you know you hear radio, these movies now? It was just like that. But, oh God, I was scared. But isn't that something like that? Happened so fast.

RP: You just mentioned that the FBI came to this wedding and took away Isseis.

AS: Yeah, they took the people that were... well, the people were language school teachers and people like that. The people who were in organizations. My father was pretty prominent, but my father, he wasn't into organizations. Well, then the sumo teachers and all that, they took them. And my father was only affiliated with church, only the church group. I guess that's... so they didn't pick him or anything.

RP: Jack talked about, about a visit by the FBI to your house. Could you tell us about that?

AS: They came to... my mother usually, entry place, she had a picture of the emperor's palace, kind of nice place to hang it. She took that down and put Abraham Lincoln's picture there. [Laughs] Crazy, huh, isn't it? Of course we had a picture of Lincoln put up there, but I mean, they came and talked to us, but there was nothing else. They figured we're okay, but funny thing how they keep an eye. So my mother took the emperor's, just his house (...). My mom didn't believe in hanging the emperor's picture, just you know... and so she put Abraham Lincoln's picture up there. Crazy, huh?

RP: And they just left?

AS: Well they talked to... they knew Jack was in the service and all that. And my folks still farmed out there, and they were still watering their crops there, at nighttime 'cause they had this, I think some soldiers camped nearby in particular. We're on the coast there. It wasn't a marina there, just like the coast. And so my mom and dad used to water the farm at night, and it is a funny thing, I said, "Mom, they're gonna come after you," because my father'd be at the end and my mother'd be at the end, and when it's filled, she'd flash a light. I say, "Hey, Mom, you're gonna get caught." But I guess they know. (...) One my brother said that fellow that was a bakery man, he was a one that was, I don't know, he was German descent. But he was kind of trying to tell us that our family was subversive and all that. Treason.

RP: This German guy was?

AS: Yeah, this bakery man, he'd go around... crazy. Anyway.

RP: Spreading rumors that you guys were spies?

AS: Yeah, but my father was not... like I said, he was only affiliated with the church at that time, which was good.

RP: And a Christian church at that.

AS: Christian church. They wondered because my father was pretty prominent, but he wasn't pulled in. But they, they took in judo teachers and Japanese school teachers, you know, people that weren't really subversive.

RP: Were there a number of Issei men that would come to your father for advice or legal help because he did know English?

AS: No, no, my father, they knew he was just, by then he's just affiliated with church and the kenjinkai, but he wasn't that involved in it at that time. At the earliest stage of our life he was, because in those days when these immigrants come to America, you know they don't have money now. Where could they go for advice? So they would go to those kenjinkais and they would refer them to my father because my father had a business and I guess he had the means to, he knew the minister of a church and all that. And he would help them that way, but otherwise he wasn't...

RP: Do you remember the kenjinkai picnics?

AS: Huh?

RP: You remember the kenjinkai picnics at all?

AS: Oh, we always went... it was kind of nice because all the... like my father and, he'll meet his friends, and their kids, we got to know their friends. That's how we got to know our people from our kenjinkai. It was really nice, and it was kind of, pretty tame. Fukushima Kenjinkai, they were pretty, they didn't drink so much. I know my father didn't. He was not a drinker, you know, like that way. Yeah, it's really something.

RP: That was a way of keeping in touch with the homeland and the people?

AS: Yeah, my dad was kind of more church family. Community, help the community. Yeah, but it's really... well, life, that's how it is. Good thing I remember good life. I had a good life.