Interviews
Okinawan discrimination
Like Okinawan people, those days they were sadly discriminated. I remember that they lived in special area. And they were such nice people. And my mother told me I shouldn’t discriminate them. And so I became good friends with couple of Okinawa-ken girls. And at school, the other students, the Naichi girls—you know what the Naichi is, the Naichi people who came from mainland Japan. You know the Hiroshima, Yamaguchi or the non-Okinawans whose parents came from the main island of Japan—they were called Naichi. And so, because I played with the Okinawan people—they pulled their hair and they wouldn’t play together—every recess, the Okinawan girls were all alone. But, because my mother had taught me—and I like those girls, they were so nice—I really got along well with them. So, I used to play together with them. So they would pull my hair to punish me.
But, discrimination was terrible in those days. And when I interviewed the Okinawan picture brides, they told me how much they had suffered because some people were so cruel to them.
Date: February 19, 2004
Location: Hawai'i, US
Interviewer: Lisa Itagaki, Krissy Kim
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
Explore More Videos
Discrimination faced in San Francisco (Japanese)
(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama
Accepted by Japanese society as I learned more Japanese (Japanese)
(b. 1979) Sansei Nikkei Brazilian who lives in Oizumi-machi in Gunma prefecture. He runs his own design studio.
General reasons why people left Japan for Peru
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
Parents identification as Peruvian Okinawan
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
Okinawan cultural appreciation
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
Prejudice against Okinawans from mainland folks
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
Working together in Okinawa using three languages
Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.
Being Confused about Racial Identity in Postwar United States
(b. 1932) Nisei American stage, film, and TV actress
Understanding anti black racism in high school
(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney
Racial discrimination prepared her in becoming the first transgender trial lawyer
(b. 1943) Japanese American transgender attorney