Hello everyone,
I participated in the roundtable discussion held at the JANM on April 12th on 'Hapa-ness' and found it to be quite enlightening. It was nice to hear others share experiences that I had as I was growing up, but I also mentioned how nice it was for the twentysomethings nowadays because we as Hapas, as well as American society in general, are embracing who we are and wearing our Hapa-ness as a badge of honor, something that wasn't really happening when I was growing up in the late '60s and early '70s, even though I grew up a military brat living in Japan. I still remember the stares that we got when we'd go off base and when my mom, sister, and I stayed with my dad's family in lily-white, rural Washington state while he was in Vietnam. When I lived in Tokyo after college (from '86 to '92) I still felt like a foreigner despite my command of the language and knowledge of the culture.
Another enlightened & refreshing point from yesterday was hearing how the greater Nikkei community has been opening up to Hapas, which wasn't something that I felt 20 or 30 years ago. Our family was still considered 'outsiders' to the Japanese-American community in the Northwest because (I felt) that my mother was from the 'Old Country' as opposed to being JA, and for not having had the shared internment experience like the others had. It felt very nice to hear from the gentleman who works as a volunteer in the JANM that we Hapas truly are the future of the JA community as well as of the JANM.
I look forward to participating more in the Hapa community, online & in person.
I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the program. I was so pleased to see so many people in attendance really engaged and participating. It was so wonderful that so many people shared their really thoughtful and enlightening stories. We'll be posting photos and some video clips from the program to this site, along with the hand-outs. There will also be some articles added in response to the program. If you're interested in contributing an article(s), let us know!
Hopefully, this is just the beginning of the dialogue which we can continue both online and with more programs like this. In fact, after the program ended, Lisa Sasaki and I were talking with Curtiss Rooks about what the next one will be, so stay tuned!
Thanks for posting. It's always nice to hear that all the work that goes into a program was well worth it!
- Vicky Murakami-Tsuda