On Saturday, December 4, 2021, Tomeko Sugiyama, loving wife and mother of four children, passed away at age 100.
Immigration records show that Ryokichi came to Los Angeles on April 8, 1931, possibly to take Tomeko back to Japan for her schooling. She had mentioned that she went to Japan at about age 9. In Japan, she attended school and lived at their home in Shizuoka Ken.
Tomeko returned to America on the Asama Maru sailing out of Yokohama August 16, 1940 and arriving in Los Angeles. Tomeko was married November 3, 1940 in Los Angeles at age 19 to Sakujiro Sugiyama. The ceremony was at the Tenrikyo Church then located at 144 North Chicago Street. They raised a daughter, Alice and three sons, Toshitada, Jimmy and Ronnie.
She lived in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and in several California towns including Los Angeles, (Rt. 1 Box 1414) Montebello and Manzanar and after the Manzanar relocation camp was closed, she was eventually reunited in Los Angeles with her brothers Tom and Jim, their wives and other friends and relatives.
Tomeko was a dedicated homemaker who made lunch every day for dad and all the children as well as being an accomplished seamstress producing clothing for some of Los Angeles’s famous clothiers as well making clothes for all the children. Her favorite pastime was reading and she would spend many hours reading and learning new things. She would often claim to not read English but she had many fooled.
She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Sakujiro (Tom) and is survived by her 4 children, Alice Nakanishi (the late Richard), Tosh Sugiyama (Mitsu), Jim Sugiyama (Nancy) and Ronnie Sugiyama (Joanne), 7 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18