Historic Hood River
Crafting
12-3-2025
Notes
This is one of those images you have to look at closely to decipher. Suma Kobayashi is demonstrating how she makes small umbrellas out of fruit labels, probably at the History Museum in 2006.
Suma Kobayashi was born in Hood River back in 1914, which would make her about 92 in this image. During World War II she was interned at Tule Lake and Heart Mountain, which is where she started crafting.
She worked in orchards for much of her long life, passing at age 104 in 2019. I’m hoping we’ll get some first hand accounts of her life in the comments.
You can read her full obituary here.
Kalley
What an amazing life she had. I can sure see her son Dick in her face too. Living in Oak Grove was the best place to raise our two children. It’s a tight knit community.
Thorn
What an amazing life. Oregon Japanese History amazes me–from our shared 1700 tsunami to the Atomic Age.
Did you know…
…When Suma was 3 years old, during WW1, Japan was our ally and at the Treaty of Versailles they proposed adding a widely supported “racial equality” proclamation that was rejected because the USA refused.
…When Suma was 28 years old, during WW2, when FDR signed Order 9066 (aka Internment) affecting any persons deemed a threat generally west of Highway 97 (aka The Dalles/Bend/Klamath Falls), primarily targeting the Japanese (120k+), though Germans, Italians, Hawaiians and others were also incarcerated (10k+). the Ontario mayor and future Oregon governor Elmo Smith would buck rising racism and get national attention by openly inviting and embracing Japanese citizens to settle safely in his desert town.
…When Suma was 99 years old, during President Obama’s second term, she watched her childhood peer, UofO Law School’s first Japanese-American graduate, the Oregon Bar’s first Japanese-American member, and Hood River’s own Minoru Yasui, posthumously become our state’s first recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his fight for human rights..
But despite all the history that encompassed her life, I just imagine her days as a girl in the orchards or an elder making crafts.
Rico
Thanks Thorn!
L. E.
In between the 1700 tsunami and the atomic age……..
Three Japanese sailors wash up on the Washington coast in 1834.
https://www.historylink.org/File/9065
L. E.
Beautiful craft work and she isn’t wearing glasses!
Cecelia Parker Goodnight
Beautiful designs from fruit labels!!