Basketball Star Sumi Tashiro Passes

The star of Lompoc’s pre-World War II girls basketball team, has died.

Sumi Tashiro Tsuji died the morning after Christmas at the age of 88 in Monterey. Cancer had been discovered in August.

Sumi may be seen here on the Photographs page of this website in a photo with Chiyo Iwamoto Kobayashi and Kaoru Bill Honda. They are each holding up Block L’s which they received last May when they visited Lompoc.

In Vanished in the team photo from 1941, Sumi is seen front row center with a basketball directly in front of her knees. I don’t think that was an accident. In my two long interviews with Sumi, the basketball team was a joyful topic of conversation. After the 1939-40 season she was named to a Central Coast All-Star team which played Stockton, the state champion She was proud of that, just as she was for the 700 series she bowled years later in Hanford, the first woman to accomplish the feat in that city.

Sumi was always full of life. She had a great smile, a voice like a foghorn, and she was candid, willing to talk about drinking that took place at the Nihonjin picnics, and about the controversy over whether Katie Inouye, a Christian, should be allowed to play on the Lompoc basketball team. The two teamed at guard on the squad.

Katie never saw Sumi again after they graduated high school together in 1941. Even at the gatherings occasioned by Vanished, they missed one another. Sumi came to Lompoc in May 2010 but Katie could not. Katie came in October when Sumi could no longer travel.

“She was the one I really wanted to see,” Katie said today. “I used to go over there (to the Tashiro farm outside Lompoc) and eat tomatoes out of the warehouse. She was very independent. She never hesitated to speak out. I had good times with her. She was a roughneck like me.”  

Sumi worked most of her life as a hairdresser. She was widowed in 1986 and lived in recent years with her brother Yeiki in Manteca. Of the four Tashiro siblings, only Yeiki survives.

John Does Radio Gig

Hi Everybody:

Tuesday I appeared on Colin Marshall's radio show on KCSB, the UC Santa Barbara campus radio station.  Bill and Lucille Honda, and probably a few others listened as I was interviewed by Nick Welsh, Executive Editor of the Santa Barbara Independent. I didn't really plan the points I wanted to make, and I rambled like an old farmer. Ah well, it's a learning experience. Next time I'll come at least a little prepared with talking points.

In other news, Dr. Kent Haldan has agreed to speak with me at the Berkeley Buddhist Temple on February 6, so that will really be a thorough discussion.

To all who have read the book, talked to a friend about the book, sought shelf space in a bookstore, or in any way helped make the book visible, thank you so much.

We wish you the happiest of holidays.

John

Press Coverage Still Strong; Third Printing Ordered

The last week has seen continuing strong press coverage for Vanished.

Editor Nick Welsh of the Santa Barbara Independent called the book “emotionally moving and historically complex.”

Columnist George Toshio Johnston in the Rafu Shimpo of Los Angeles mentioned the book for the second time, this time with a photo of Carrie Otani from M&S Pharmacy in Los Angeles where the book is on sale. The caption reads: “She said it sold out and a second shipment has come in for sale.”

The Santa Maria Sun published Chapter 16 of the book with a color cover photo of Kenji Ota and a half-page inside shot of Kaoru Bill Honda. The story title is “Nobody Will Sit with Me,” the comment made in the pages of Vanished by Kenzo Nishimura on his first day back at school on December 8, 1941. Honda is pictured seated on his couch and Ota is seated cross-legged on the mat of his judo dojo.

Monday George Yoshitake and John McReynolds spoke to a crowd of 150 at the Lompoc Valley Historical Society. They had a great time and sold twelve more books! John got a chance to meet Irma Bortolazzo Gadway, a childhood friend of Terry Wakumoto. Those two will soon be in contact. Jim Sloan asked to be remembered to the Shimomura family.

Chaucer’s bookstore in Santa Barbara, the Santa Maria Library book shop, the Book Loft in Solvang and Sushi Teri Restaurant in Lompoc all ordered more books this week.

With all this activity we have decided to invest in a third printing. This will not only give us more copies but will allow us to correct errors regarding the birthplace of Robert Iwamoto (he was born in Kanagawa despite what it says on page 37), the misspelling of Miyagishima on page 16, and Terry Wakumoto not being nisei but sansei. We will also add a definition of “joss house.”   

The speaking date at the Berkeley Buddhist Temple is being changed. Check back next week or so for the new date.

Thank you, everybody for all your support.  

New Speaking Engagements, New Outlet

Hi Everybody:

In book sales, just like every other business, activity rises and falls, then rises and falls again. The last week has been quieter than the frantic days of October and November but some remarkable breakthroughs took place.

First George and John have been invited to visit the Berkeley Buddhist Temple on Sunday, January 16. This is a singular honor. Many of the members of the temple remember Mrs. Kyogoku who with her husband Rev. Itsuzo Kyogoku served the Lompoc community from the early 1930's until 1941. They served Berkeley after the war. Thank you to Kiyoshi and Emiko Endo Katsumoto and to John and Dawn Yoshitake-Kawamoto for making arrangements. Emiko Endo Katsumoto is granddaughter of H.S. Iwamoto of Lompoc's Iwamoto Store. Dawn Yoshitake-Katsumoto is daughter of George Yoshitake.

Also, Carolyn Sanwo of Heritage Source, the independent bookseller specializing in Japanese and Japanese American titles, has invited John and George to sign books at the HS booth at the annual Los Angeles Times Book Fair on April 30. This year instead of UCLA, it will be held at USC. This is another very big deal. "I've gone to that event several times as a student, but I never thought I'd be signing books there," John chuckled this week. Thanks to Lynn Mori, daughter-in-law of Michiko Hozaki Mori, for making connection between us and Heritage Source. Check out the website at http://www.heritagesource.com/.

George and John have also been invited to speak at the annual Christmas dinner of the Lompoc Valley Historical Society on Monday night. They plan to do once again their "Hey George, Why Did I Write This?" routine that you all have heard. They're getting to be like Seinfeld and Kramer. Thanks to Karen Paaske for setting it up.

And a new book outlet has been opened. The Santa Maria Library gift shop is now featuring Vanished: Lompoc's Japanese in the "local authors" section.  This addition means that the book can be purchased in Lompoc, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Solvang, Santa Maria and Santa Barbara.

Finally, a special honor for George Yoshitake takes place this week in Las Vegas. George has been invited by Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) to do interviews at the Nevada Test Site and the Atomic Test Museum in Las Vegas for a show in Japan. George was an Air Force photographer who worked at the Nevada Test Site in the 1950's.