Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1306/

Growing Up in Japan

There was one boy that was of a mixed marriage and we kind of hung around together for a while. I remember he found a dead rattlesnake and I took the rattlesnake and I put it in the women’s bathroom, coiled it up. Oh boy, that was my revenge. Nobody ever found out who did it. But it was rough because I didn’t know the Japanese, except the servants, and all of a sudden I’m the low person on the totem pole. I spoke fluent Japanese so I understood everything. My mother had a really rough time in camp because she was used to servants and even when we came over, she didn’t know how to cook or anything. So I would learn to cook something and then I would teach my mother and I was about 8, 9, 10, I would do that and then grandmother would also help a little bit.


families hapa intermarriage interracial marriages Japan marriages mixed marriages racially mixed people schools

Date: August 27, 2012

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Cindy Nakashima, Emily Anderson

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum with support of NITTO Tires Life History Project. Courtesy of the USC Hapa Japan Database Project.

Interviewee Bio

Terry Janzen was born in Tokyo, Japan on July 15, 1930. She is half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States. She was incarcerated at Poston for 6 months during World War II. She has been a teacher and a Chair for the Adams County Democratic Party in Washington. (April 2013)

 

* Terry Janzen interviewed by Cindy Nakashima and Emily Anderson for the exhibition, Visible & Invisible: A Hapa Japanese American History. A Collaboration with the USC Hapa Japan Database Project, videographer, Evan Kodani with support of NITTO Tires Life History Project.

Henry Suto
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Suto,Henry

Helping youth in the community

(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.

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BJ Kobayashi
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Kobayashi,BJ

Three important things learned from father

Hawaiian businessman, developer.

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Jimmy Murakami
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Murakami,Jimmy

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

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Jero  (Jerome Charles White Jr.)
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(Jerome Charles White Jr.),Jero

Embraces his Japanese heritage

(b. 1981) Enka Singer

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His clothes are part of his identity

(b. 1981) Enka Singer

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Jero  (Jerome Charles White Jr.)
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(Jerome Charles White Jr.),Jero

Hopes everyone pursues their dreams regardless of race or heritage

(b. 1981) Enka Singer

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Jero  (Jerome Charles White Jr.)
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(Jerome Charles White Jr.),Jero

Considers Pittsburg his home, but always wanted to live in Japan

(b. 1981) Enka Singer

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Jero  (Jerome Charles White Jr.)
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(Jerome Charles White Jr.),Jero

Singing the way I sing (Japanese)

(b. 1981) Enka Singer

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Kathryn Doi Todd
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Todd,Kathryn Doi

On Getting the Call from J. Anthony Kline

(b. 1942) The first Asian American woman judge

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Stan Sakai
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Sakai,Stan

Family’s acceptance

(b. 1953) Cartoonist

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Tamio Wakayama
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Wakayama,Tamio

Father's Sacrifice

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

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Rose Ochi
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Ochi,Rose

Fifty Years and Going Strong

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

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Rose Ochi
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Ochi,Rose

Pop and Balls

(1938-2020) Japanese American attorney and civil rights activist

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Francesca Yukari Biller
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Biller,Francesca Yukari

Fitting in to both sides of her family

Jewish Japanese American journalist

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Francesca Yukari Biller
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Biller,Francesca Yukari

Hapa Haole

Jewish Japanese American journalist

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