- Home
- The Collection
- Biographies
- Fusaichi Motoike Family
- Gosaku Yokota Family
- Harutaro Oyama Family
- Haruye Onishi Family
- Kaniji Sato Family
- Kichiro Kitamura Family
- Masaki Tanaka Family
- Yonezo Uchikoshi Family
- Hikojiro Inumaru Family
- Iwakichi Ikebuchi Family
- Iwamatsu Matsumoto Family
- Otomatsu Maye Family
- Otosaburo Muraguchi Family
- Sannosuke Nakata Family
- Sarumatsu Hatashita Family
- Sekiji Nakada Family
- Shigekuro Tanaka Family
- Sumi and Endo Families
- Takejiro Shoji Family
- Tanosuke Hatashita Family
- Tokichi Akiyoshi Family
- Tokuju Shibuyama Family
- Wakamatsu Kajino Family
- Kanjiro Takayama Family
- Photographs
- Ranch Locations
- Contact
Sumi and Endo Families
SUMI and ENDO FAMILIES
In 1930 Mitsuye Endo (41 years old) lived in Palos Verdes Estates on Palos Verdes Highway (now Palos Verdes Drive West) next to Lunada Creek near Tyburn Road. His sister, Haruko (born March 6, 1900 in Nakano town, Tottori Prefecture, Japan), and her daughter, Shizuko (4 ½ years old), lived with Mitsuye along with 3 Japanese farm laborers: Tsurujiro Ikuta (63 years old), George Hamamoto (21 years old) and K. S. Doi (23 years old). Little is known about the three laborers.
Mitsuye’s sister, Haruko, immigrated to America in 1924 already married to Hatsuji (or Hachiji) Minami. Their daughter, Shizuko, was born in March 1926 in Los Angeles County. Documents of the 1930 Federal Census indicate that Haruko and Shizuko were living with Mitsuye in Palos Verdes. Mitsuye later adopted Shizuko whose surname was changed to Endo.
According to his alien registration records, Hiromichi Sumi was born in Sakitsu town, Tottori Prefecture, Japan to Otojiro and Iyo Sumi on November 6, 1899. He arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1920 as a crew member on the Shinyo Maru. In an affidavit dated February 11, 1958 he stated that he entered the United States with the intent of joining Mitsuye Endo. Following his arrival Hiromichi worked in a Philadelphia hotel, in New York as a porter aboard a ship and in a boarding house and in Chicago as a cook. By 1922 he was in Utah working in a Union Pacific Railroad roundhouse. Later that same summer he was a gardener for Mr. Hancock Banning in Wilmington, California. In 1924 he left Southern California to work for a salt company in Northern California. In 1927 he returned to work at Mission Nursery in San Gabriel, California.
In 1931 he moved to Palos Verdes to farm on Ranch 38 (and/or Ranch 35) and subsequently married Haruko. Together they had 6 children: Yoshimichi, Norimichi, Eiko, Akiko, Michio and Nobuko. Michio passed away at the age of 3 1/2.
Sometime during the 1930’s he adopted the name, Roy. But at the same time he was also apparently using the name Hiromitsu, which possibly started from a clerical error.
Shizuko, Yoshimichi and Eiko went with their uncle, Mitsuye Endo, to visit their grandparents in Japan shortly before the start of World War II. They were stranded in Japan even though they were American citizens by birth. Hiromichi Sumi was arrested by the FBI in March 1942. His wife and 3 remaining children were sent to Santa Anita Assembly Center and later to Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas. The family was reunited in 1943 in Crystal City, Texas where they lived until their release in February 1946. The family returned to Gardena, California where Hiromichi worked as a gardener and later operated a plant nursery in Hawthorne.
Shizuko, Yoshimichi and Eiko returned to California after 10 years in Japan. They and the other siblings still live in the Southern California area. Mitsuye remained in Japan.
Hiromichi passed away in Gardena in 1984. Haruko Sumi passed away in 1987.