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)

Murakami,Jimmy

Losing his sister in camp

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

Todd,Kathryn Doi

On Getting the Call from J. Anthony Kline

(b. 1942) The first Asian American woman judge

Sakai,Stan

Family’s acceptance

(b. 1953) Cartoonist

Wakayama,Tamio

Father's Sacrifice

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

Janzen,Terry

Growing Up in Japan

(b. 1930) Half Japanese and grew up in both Japan and the United States.

Ochi,Rose

Fifty Years and Going Strong

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

Ochi,Rose

Pop and Balls

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

Oda,Harunori

Getting started in America

(1927-2016) Shin-Issei businessman

Ohtomo,Hachiro

Facing discrimination in America (Japanese)

(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner

Takei,George

George's Mother & Brad

(b. 1937) Actor, Activist

Ito,Willie

Parents

(b. 1934) Award-winning Disney animation artist who was incarcerated at Topaz during WWII

Ohtomo,Hachiro

My daughter couldn’t fit in Japan, so I decided to go back to America (Japanese)

(b. 1936) Shin-issei welding business owner

Naganuma,Kazumu

His sister Kiyo was like a second mother to him

(b. 1942) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

Ninomiya,Masato

How he met his wife

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

Sakata,Reiko T.

Parent’s Marriage

(b. 1939) a businesswoman whose family volunterily moved to Salt Lake City in Utah during the war.