Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/464/

Tracing my family crest

I’ve already traced back to the city that I was from, or my roots were from. I’ve found the kamon, which is this. This is the kamon, the Inoue Hiroshima kamon. This was hard to find. I went into the kamon book, which is Inoue family crest book. I looked up Inoue, and there were hundreds of Inoues. Every family has their own mark. And so I said, okay, I had to call my grandfather. He found out he was from Hiroshima. I went into the Hiroshima Inoue, and then I had 30 or 40 of them. I was about to give up. I was thinking, I’m just going to choose the nicest one—no one would ever know—and just tattoo it on my body. And then it so happened that my father called me one day and said that there was a mon, a family crest, up at his mother’s place, the Inoue house. So I had them take a picture, send it to me. And we found exactly which one it was. So yeah, I went down enough that far to find out what city I’m from, Hiroshima, and my family crest.


families Finding Home (film)

Date: October 14, 2003

Location: Saitama, Japan

Interviewer: Art Nomura

Contributed by: Art Nomura, Finding Home.

Interviewee Bio

Enson Inoue was born and raised in Hawai`i and attended college there for 3 years studying psychology. At age 23, he went to Japan to play racquetball in a two-week tournament without any intention of living there. He won the tournament and then stayed for 3 months to give racquetball seminars. Thereafter, he continued to live in Japan, intending to return to Hawai`i in a year. Enson, however, decided to stay for still another year, teaching English and running his brother’s racquetball company in Japan. He then became a boxer and gave up racquetball. At the time of the interview in Fall 2003, Enson had lived in Japan for thirteen and a half years and had not been back to Hawai`i for six years. Now he is a professional fighter with the ring name “Yamato Damashii (Japanese Spirit or Samurai Spirit).” As for his identity, he feels that although he is an American, his home is Japan. (October 14, 2003)

Barbara Kawakami
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Kawakami,Barbara

Going back to Hawaii

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Kawakami,Barbara

Clothes of plantation workers

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Barbara Kawakami
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Kawakami,Barbara

Brother leaves for war, survival

An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.

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Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki
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Okasaki,Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi

Band-Aid realization

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

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Yukio Takeshita
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Takeshita,Yukio

Involvement in JACL

(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.

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Jane Aiko Yamano
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Yamano,Jane Aiko

Acculturation

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

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Jane Aiko Yamano
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Yamano,Jane Aiko

Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

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Wayne Shigeto Yokoyama
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Yokoyama,Wayne Shigeto

Food growing up

(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.

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Pat Adachi
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Adachi,Pat

Relationship with my father

(b. 1920) Incarcerated during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community

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Venancio Shinki
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Shinki,Venancio

Iron discipline at home (Spanish)

(b. 1932-2016) Peruvian painter

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Kimi Wakabayashi
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Wakabayashi,Kimi

Arranged marriage

(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931

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Shizuko Kadoguchi
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Kadoguchi,Shizuko

Marrying Bob against family’s wishes

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

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George Katsumi Yuzawa
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Yuzawa,George Katsumi

Death of sister in October 1942

(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement

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Roy Hirabayashi
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Hirabayashi,Roy

Learning Japanese at school and at home with family

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

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Vince Ota
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Ota,Vince

Little contact with Asians growing up on the east coast

Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan

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