Michael Sumida and Hazel Diaz

[00:04] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Hi, my name is Michael James Sumida I'm 33 years old. Today's date is Tuesday, September 14, 2021. I am in Tacoma, Washington, and my conversation partner is Hazel.

[00:22] HAZEL DIAZ: Hi, I'm Hazel Diaz. I'm 35 years old. It is Tuesday, September 14, 2021, and I am in Anvil Pennsyl, and I am here with my interview partner. And so I'm going to dive right into it. Can you tell me where you were born and what it was like growing up?

[00:45] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I was born in the great Pacific Northwest in a town called Puyallup at. What is that? Good Samaritan Hospital, which is, coincidentally enough, right next to Puyallup fair, which was actually a pot latching place before it was a fair and then it was an internment camp and then it became a fair again. So, yeah, I was born in Puyallup, Washington.

[01:23] HAZEL DIAZ: What was it like growing up there?

[01:25] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: What was it like growing up in Puyallup in Tacoma, Washington? Tacoma Spanaway. These are all, like, pretty close to each other. It was like growing up in the. It's like. I don't know, it was like a suburb with a bunch of different. A bunch of different people because we live right next to joint base Lewis McChord, which is a joint base. So it's a air force base and an army base combined. So there was a lot of different cultures and diversity growing up, but for the most part, most part, it was like, you know, any normal place in America, I guess.

[02:20] HAZEL DIAZ: Did you have any siblings? What did your parents do? What was your family like growing up?

[02:28] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I have two older half sisters from my dad's first marriage that I'm estranged to for the most part. And then I have an older brother, his name's Christopher. And. And my parents. Well, my dad was. Was a police officer for Seattle Police Department for 30 years as a half Japanese, half Native American man. And then my mom was. Has had a couple different jobs, but I think the last one she had that I remember was being a sous chef for Pacific Lutheran University. She's Filipino and Eastern European and I don't know, what was the question again?

[03:42] HAZEL DIAZ: Kind of what was your family structure, life like at home growing up? So I'm wondering, being that your dad was a cop for 30 years, what your relationship with your dad was like? What's your dad like?

[03:56] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: My dad is like beating all the statistics that you typically hear about cop dads. He wasn't a drunk. He didn't hit people. He rarely cursed. He was around the entire time. I was A child in my childhood. So in a lot of regards, as far as being, I don't know, Native American and a veteran, I was in some ways blessed to have both my parents that weren't then have troubles with integrating into mainstream society for the most part. So there wasn't really any substance abuse or anything like that. My dad showed up to all my wrestling matches. My mom taught me how to cook, my brother taught me how to be a bully, you know, normal. What is it, nuclear family or whatever, where like, for some reason in Western society we always decide that, like, you have to make it on your own by yourself, isolated from like, your grandparents or like your brothers or anything, which is weird, but they were, they were exactly that. We had two dogs. We didn't go on summer vacations too often. But.

[05:34] HAZEL DIAZ: Is there anything that you'd like your parents to know this, you know, this is an archive for future generations or anything that you think history should know about your parents?

[05:48] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Yeah, maybe.

[05:51] HAZEL DIAZ: Anything you've wanted to say to your parents that you've, like, never sat down and like, really looked them in the eye to say?

[05:59] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Well, I kind of had to do that last year because my dad died of pancreatic cancer, which his mom actually died of breast cancer from the same genome indicator. She. She died at actually 16 years old. So my dad never really. Well when he was 16 year old. So I never really got to know my. My grandma on my dad's side. And being native, being a native man, my dad never, um. How do you say that? He. I guess there was a. It was just something you didn't talk about being Native, you know, and being a veteran. Because actually, interestingly enough, me, my brother, my mom and my dad are all veterans. My mom and my dad were in the Air Force and my brother was a Black Hawk mechanic in the. In the army. And I was a medic in the Army. So great source of personal pride to be a family that serves this country. I love the land and some of the people. Some of the people are like, okay. Other people are like, no. What I would like to say to my dad about growing up, I would like to say to my father, who's past or future generations, that I would say, although I lost a lot of culture being removed from Native American culture, the way that, you know, in North America we are with Indian residential schools, was my grandma's experience that she ran away from Canada to the United States. And then my father's experience as a Native American was essentially putting your head down and grinding away. I was Lucky to escape a lot of generational traumas that I would say a lot of people my age that had different family dynamics than an experience. I got really lucky to have a very present mother and father throughout my entire childhood, which I think hopefully has made me a decent human being.

[08:56] HAZEL DIAZ: You had mentioned that your mom and your dad and your brother all served. Did you feel that that was part of the reason that you joined the Army? What. What was your motivation behind that? And how did your family react when you decided.

[09:20] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Well, there's only really three reasons to join the military. Honor, college education, you're a criminal with no way out that you're out, typically, historically, in the United States. I definitely had a sense of honor about it. Having your entire family serve, it's like an unspoken kind of expectation. But also, I wasn't that great of a student in my formative years, and I knew that going straight out of high school to college wasn't really my pathway at the moment. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to join the military. I'm going to get some money in my pocket, and while I think about going to college, I'll do this other thing, being a medic, see if I like that. So my main motivation for joining the military, other than honor, was to get a college education because it's hard out here to make a living.

[10:43] HAZEL DIAZ: Was there anything about the service that surprised you? I mean, knowing that you're. You have a lot of family members.

[10:52] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Sorry, somebody called me.

[10:56] HAZEL DIAZ: Knowing that you had a lot of family members that were in the service, was there anything that you didn't expect or that surprised you? When you were first enlisted, were you enlisted? Yes.

[11:06] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Yeah.

[11:07] HAZEL DIAZ: I assume you said if you went for college that you, you know, you had already gone to college. I assumed you'd be an officer. Yeah.

[11:13] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Is there anything that I. That was different about the military that I didn't.

[11:19] HAZEL DIAZ: Anything that surprised you about. About the army or being a medic?

[11:30] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I mean, there's a lot of things that surprise you, right? It's like how much administration can bog down the efficiency of doing something. How exercise every day doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy, although they offer you plenty of benefits. My particular experience with continuing education in the military is you don't have any time for that. Also that if you. If you show up on time, wearing the right stuff and minimally don't say the wrong stuff, you could get easily promoted, for the most part, through most of the military. The other things that surprised me, how good breakfast always was. The fact that they always had hot coffee, the fact that when I count up all the hours that I was actually working, I was making less than like, you know, 50 cents an hour. But that's okay. That's all part of the experience, right?

[13:08] HAZEL DIAZ: What was the best part of the experience?

[13:13] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: The best part of the experience was going places you would have never gone if you had not joined and seeing things that you would have never seen or experienced if you had not been in the military in that particular time, moment in time. I mean, you don't often see oil fills on fire in Iraq or wells being made or roads being built or IEDs being exploded. Unless you go there.

[13:55] HAZEL DIAZ: Is there, is there anything you miss about your time in service?

[14:01] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I would say, you know, the band of brothers, the camaraderie of arms. Even when I say that with, like, my facetious undertone, the reality is that you do feel connected to the people that you experience these experiences with. Especially since a thing like being in the military is a giant. It's a giant administration machine that you can very easily get lost in. And having people to commiserate your misery with really helps.

[14:44] HAZEL DIAZ: Yes. Trauma bonding is real. Is there, is there anything that you don't miss about the service that you glad is over?

[14:54] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Having to wake up early when I don't want to ever, like, ever again. Being questioned about my uniform at any point. Paying respect to people that I don't think deserve my respect. But a thing about that is that, like, you know, you don't think about it at the time, but the military teaches you a lesson about that, is that there's always going to be somebody that's like your boss that you don't really like, get along with, respect, hold in high regard. So you learn things.

[15:52] HAZEL DIAZ: Is there anything about the lessons that you have learned that you carry with, you know, with you every day?

[16:01] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Yeah. Life is a test that you take and you get the study, you get the study material afterwards. That's what I've learned from the military, is that you should expect the test. You should expect to fail most tests and then have to read, get the proper material to study and do the test again. And most of the tests that you fail are tests that aren't like actual, like, you know, paper and pen tests. It's like, oh, I should have said this instead of this, this opportunity. I don't know when this will come again, but I know that this is the right answer. After the fact.

[16:51] HAZEL DIAZ: I guess. Speaking of after the fact, how long have you been out of the service? Now.

[16:58] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: 11, 11 years and like nine months. So August 22, 2006 to August 23, 2010. While ago.

[17:25] HAZEL DIAZ: Can you tell me about transitioning back into the civilian world and what that was like?

[17:37] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Transitioning into civilian life is like waking up on an inflatable mattress on a lake. Like, they're like, oh, yeah, well, we got all these programs. We'll help you out, you know, make sure you land on your feet. And that's like the mattress part. But like, you actually try to like, go get a job, talk about, I don't know, your trauma bonding or your PTSD or get medical care within a timely manner through the VA office. It's like getting off of that mattress and having to swim to shore to get the things you want. You don't know how, like, if you like wake up on this mattress on the middle of the lake, you don't know how far to the edge to actually get to land it is. But you know, you have to do it right. Like, and then this metaphor, land is like normal in society. I would say it's hard. It's hard to relate to people that don't have those experiences. The military very much forces a certain personality, certain type traits in your personality to bubble to the surface and other parts of it to fade away very easily. I mean, the U.S. the military just likes you to, you know, be lame machismo Rambo characters that, like, can emotionally process the idea of actually killing a human, another human being or that, like, you know, that kid. The reason that kid is like, you know, asking for a candy bar every day is because he knows you can sell it for 5 cents so they can help his mom or. I don't know. Sorry, I'm just going off on tangents.

[20:04] HAZEL DIAZ: I'm wondering if you would have any advice for people getting out of the service today from the decade that you've been out and the adjustments that you've had to make in order to transition back into the civilian world.

[20:25] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Transition's hard. No one will understand. And even the people that do understand your situation is going to be completely different from the experience that they experienced. So have a good support network, have family or friends or at least one other person that you can talk to about this stuff without any fear of judgment. Yeah, mainly the fear of judgment, right? Because, like, being a dude in a patriarchal society, having feelings or showing affection or being soft in any kind of way is typically seen as a weak beta male bs, even though that whole demographic is a bs. So you're going to take some Weird study of wolves and apply it to human beings. It makes no sense. Yeah, I would say that. Have a good core of, like, two or three people. Like, the reality is, the older you get, you have less and less friends. And having to have five good friends is hard. And if you have that, you can probably survive anything, to be honest, as long as you're continually talking to them. Statistically, that's what they say. They say, you know, people that talk to the same people throughout their lives live, you know, 10 years longer, have way less stress, don't have heart attacks, eat healthier. I mean, the data on that's just crazy.

[22:16] HAZEL DIAZ: Who is in your support network that has. That has provided that foundation for you?

[22:27] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Well, since my entire family is in the military, my brother, my mom, and my dad at the time, most of my friends cannot relate to what I did. And the other friends that could relate were, like, completely, you know, converted, however you want to say, into a military. Like, they love the military lifestyle. So I didn't really have anything to talk to them about because I did not enjoy my time in the military. To be frank, I would say that the friendships you forge after your military service more define you as an individual than the friendships you've developed or cultivated before, because you have to purposely decide the kind of person you want to be after the military than the kind of person they tell you to be in the military.

[23:44] HAZEL DIAZ: What active choices did you make about the type of person you wanted to be after?

[23:52] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I wanted to be the kind of person that hold values over material possessions, and that will only work with people that align with my personal values. I would say that before joining the military, I was very much okay doing a lot of things that I would now consider morally compromising to my own integrity. And after, I just simply refuse to live a life where I need to compromise my moral integrity at all without it being my own volition. You know, I feel like a lot of the time you get forced into scenarios and situations in the military where you have to go along with whatever's happening because you have to.

[25:07] HAZEL DIAZ: Did you run into any situations where you had to make that compromise? And they, you know, it really solidified that that was something you're not willing to do Again.

[25:51] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: There'S a lot of things.

[25:56] HAZEL DIAZ: Can you tell us about a story or scenario that really highlighted to you at the time that this is something that you didn't want to compromise again? And it doesn't have to be related to your time in service. It can be related to your life. And any way you see valuable just to kind of tell a better story about you and your values and kind of how you.

[26:25] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I think the thing that upset me the most morally about the military is the rapid sexual harassment of women in general. Like, it is an ongoing incestuous problem in the military that every single female medic I ever knew was sexually harassed by a sergeant that was above them, ever. Like, almost all of them. So seeing that and seeing that, like, essentially every system, safety network that you're supposed to use to, like, stop that doesn't really do anything, was the realization that I don't want to work for an organization that I don't know the head of, like. And it's something that you can't really talk about while you're in the military at all. You know, stuff like sexual assaults missing, you know, soldiers getting moved from certain battalions to other battalions with essentially no punishment for the kinds of things they have done to other soldiers, was something that just irked me in a way that I just could not willingly and knowingly continue to be in that organization, seeing those things. You know, every person that's in the military counts down the days until they're out, unless you like it. Right. So.

[28:36] HAZEL DIAZ: Can you tell us about an incident or a specific time that this was. It basically caught your attention or changed, you know, the way that you.

[28:51] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Oh, you know, when I didn't get the HHC duty choice to work in the medic office, and I got put out to, like, route clearance unit, and the female got put in there, and then my sergeant tried to sleep with her. You know, just that kind of stuff. But it's, like, just makes me sad about the state of American male culture.

[29:31] HAZEL DIAZ: Have you shared another. You had mentioned that this is something you can really talk about while you're in the service. But I'm wondering, is this something that you've spoken out about since you've left the service?

[29:50] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, anybody who has ever asked me, like, do you want to join the military? Or I'm like. Or has asked me anything. Typically, it's women in my life thinking about joining the military, and I'm like, that's. You gotta know what you're getting into. Like, I kind of try to be like, you know, like, it's kind of like when you're working as, like, a bartender, but, like, you're not a bartender.

[30:35] HAZEL DIAZ: Do you work in the medical field now?

[30:39] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I do not. I am. I'm an accountant. I work. I work for a Native American nonprofit in Seattle.

[30:51] HAZEL DIAZ: And how do you feel that your experience in the military has helped prepare you for your new civilian life in your current role.

[31:01] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I would not have been able to go to the college that I went to to get my accounting degree if I was not in the military without experiencing that. I wouldn't know that I could get. I wouldn't have had the confidence to get my accounting degree. Yeah.

[31:26] HAZEL DIAZ: Do you miss the medical field?

[31:36] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Yes and no.

[31:38] HAZEL DIAZ: Tell us about the yes and then tell us about the no.

[31:42] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: The most caring people in the military, in the medical field are like nurses and first responders and like my least favorite part about the medical field, doctors. And you think doctors would be the people that like, care a little bit more, but typically they have some sort of egotistical error about themselves. Like they can't do any wrong because they like fix people. Like, regardless that I'm a married captain, I'm going to be sleeping with all these nurses. Like, what's that? Or. And the way that doctors talk to other medical professionals that have a lesser degree licensure than them, it's typically like. How do you say it? Talking down. Yeah, I don't. Doctors are full of themselves, but I guess you gotta be to try to save people's lives.

[33:04] HAZEL DIAZ: Is there anything about your life, past, current or future, that you want to be part of your legacy or that you want to leave for future generations?

[33:21] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Wait, can you ask that question again?

[33:23] HAZEL DIAZ: Is there any. Is there. No, that's okay. Is there anything that you want to leave in this archive? Anything you want to say to future generations about your past, present or future?

[33:37] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Yeah. I'm a veteran from Hawaii. At first nations, we live on unceded territory on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, since time immemorial. We are a people of the fish and of the trees. We are loggers and fishermen. We will always be there. We have a duty and a stewardship to our land that we need to take deeply into consideration for our future generations. We cannot just drain the swamp, as they say. You also have to put stuff back in the swamp or else you don't have your great biodiversity that you need. I wish that people cared as much about the land and their interactions in this reality as they do about themselves. And I hope that this reaches somebody that needs to.

[35:21] HAZEL DIAZ: Can you tell us about the work that you're doing with your nonprofit?

[35:26] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Yeah, I work in Seattle feeding and we do homeless outreach programs. So we do 250 Lunch Meal Breakfast meals and lunch meals that we give out in downtown Tacoma, off of downtown Seattle office. Second in. Yesler.

[35:53] HAZEL DIAZ: What is the name of the.

[35:54] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Nonprofit Chief Seattle Club. We are currently building an 80 unit low income housing building project in downtown Seattle that has a health center ran by Seattle Indian Health Board and a cafe on the first floor. And then the next eight floors are low income subsidized housing specifically targeting homeless Native Americans. They're single, single, single dwelling, a single unit, adult dwellings, which we actually plan on opening this November. It's supposed to be our certificate of occupancy opening date. My organization's whole job is to help homeless Native Americans, or just Native Americans in general of all tribes. It feels good to be doing accounting and the nonprofit land, it's. It's something that fills my cup, as they say. Yeah, I don't. Is there anything else?

[37:31] HAZEL DIAZ: What are you most proud of in your life at this point?

[37:36] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I am most proud of in this life at this point is I had a daughter. Her name's Catalina. She was born in October of last year. She's about to be 1 years old. And she is also, I don't know, your legacy, your protege, your.

[38:09] HAZEL DIAZ: How has your world changed since Catalina, since it was just a few short months ago that she wasn't here. And now that you've brought this new person into the world, how has your perspective shifted since then?

[38:27] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I'm way more attuned to feminine products than I ever thought I would be before, that's for sure. Also a realization that almost 99% of gender normative stuff in society is just stuff we've like made up and perpetuated. I think the only two real gender roles in society is motherhood and fatherhood. And that isn't necessarily carrying a baby. You know, motherhood isn't necessarily carrying a baby and fatherhood isn't necessarily raising your own kid. So.

[39:20] HAZEL DIAZ: How has having a daughter changed your perspective about the patriarchy and men in our society?

[39:35] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Having a daughter has changed my view on patriarchy and the fact that most men don't live clean lives morally. And I think that the most important thing of fatherhood is moral cleanliness.

[39:59] HAZEL DIAZ: Can you define that for us?

[40:03] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Moral cleanliness?

[40:04] HAZEL DIAZ: Yeah. What's your definition of moral cleanliness?

[40:16] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Well, there's. There's three sayings in Hawaiian is tisnak aliwak, which is everything is one. Which means that we are not separate things. We do affect others even if we don't want them to. And things that affect others affect us even if they don't want them to. Kizdok is also utmost respect. Don't worry, I live next to a Train, too. Yeah. Utmost respect. So carry yourself in a way at which you show utmost respect to all the things that you encounter in your life and in care of. So do things in care of future generations. So if you believe that everything is one, you have everything that you interact with with utmost respect. And you. You're caring for future generations, you don't really need to do anything else.

[41:31] HAZEL DIAZ: Is. Is there anything you would like to leave or a message you. You'd like to give your daughter, you know, and. Or Even her family 100 years from now in this archive, come back to listen to your words. Is there anything that you'd like to impart on them during our last moments together here?

[42:02] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: You're stripped. You're from a strong bloodline. We survived smallpox and all the western diseases. We are the ancestors they could. The colonizers could not kill. And we will continue to be here in defiance of their unjust occupation of our land until they become immemorable and we are the only ones left.

[42:29] HAZEL DIAZ: Is there anything you'd like to say to your daughter's mother or your other family members in closing?

[42:44] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: I'm sorry if I said anything that you disagree with. This is just my opinion. If you don't like it, record your own session.

[43:00] HAZEL DIAZ: And is there anything you'd like to say to your brother who we did not get to talk too much about? What's your brother's name?

[43:07] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Christopher. Anything I would like to say to my brother? I love you, but you're, like, literally one of the laziest natives I know. Like, the guy like. I'm like, hey, here's his paperwork to get your citizenship card. And then, like, he like. And I fill it out, like, the hereditary, like, tree line part. And then he, like, leaves it under his laptop for nine months. And then I was like. And then I, like, bring it up again. I'm like, oh, we're getting our dividend check. And he's like, what? And I'm like, you didn't do the paperwork that I gave you nine months ago? And he's like, no. And I'm like, you're. You're the older one. You're supposed to be the boss. You're supposed to be the leader. What is going on here? I love him. He's. I love him, though. He's the heart of our family. The will of our family. If I'm the brains of it, he's the heart.

[44:28] HAZEL DIAZ: And anything you would like to say to your mother.

[44:34] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: Stop sending me Christian bullshit. I don't need Jesus. I will definitely tell Catalina about Jesus. I swear, she probably won't be able to avoid learning about Jesus. So you can, like, not send me Bible verses anymore. That'd be great.

[45:01] HAZEL DIAZ: Okay, I. That's all our time, so I just wanted to make sure there's nothing else you wanted to talk about. And thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing so much of your story and your life with us today. Today.

[45:14] MICHAEL JAMES SUMIDA: All right. Thank you.

[45:16] HAZEL DIAZ: Thank you so much.