Interviews
Image of Americans
Their image of an American was Caucasian or non-Asian. So to meet an Asian American, especially a Japanese American, for them was…where do you categorize? How do you fit this person in into their idea? So I probably have changed that idea for a lot of people who have met me. But it also made me aware of being both – that I’m neither one nor the other. I am both. And so for many Japanese, they go, “Oh, does that mean your mother is American?” I said, “No, my father is American, too.” That kind of throws them. “But you have a Japanese name.” I said, “Yes, because my father and my mother are ethnically Japanese, but their nationality is American. They were born and raised in America.” So that sort of opens a lot of conversation. It has also made me aware of, in some ways, how Western I am, as opposed to Japanese. But, at the same time, I guess growing up in Hawaii, being both was not unusual. You study Japanese, you practice certain Japanese customs – that was not unusual. But for a Japanese here, it’s unusual. It’s like, “How do you do both?” And it’s not doing both, it just naturally occurs. So at one time, it’s like the students or even the teachers would say, “So, which side of your family…does that make you half?” I said, “No, it doesn’t make me half. I’m 100 percent American because that’s my nationality. But I’m also 100 percent Japanese because all my grandparents originally came from Japan. So I’m not half as much as I’m maybe 200 percent.” And so for them, it’s like a whole different concept.
Date: November 8, 2003
Location: Tokushima, Japan
Interviewer: Art Nomura
Contributed by: Art Nomura, Finding Home.
Explore More Videos
Never sang Enka outside the family
(b. 1981) Enka Singer
Both Japanese and American identities though Japanese dance
(1918-2023) Nisei Japanese kabuki dancer
The reason to stay in Japan after his third year
Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan
Results of being more American than Japanese
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
Trying to convey the meaning of the songs
(b. 1981) Enka Singer
Internship on a Native American reservation in Arizona
(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific
Different tension between East Coast and Los Angeles
Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan
A stereotype of Japanese Americans
Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan
The Kona Island community
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Differences between American and Japanese taiko
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
Meeting Japanese Americans from the mainland in MIS
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Sudden acceptance in Japanese society
(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan