Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/595/

Identity crisis (Spanish)

(Spanish) Well, in my case, for example, in Argentina, above all among Nisei, identity has always been a topic of discussion. “What are we? Who are we?” Whether we are Japanese or Argentine. Generally…We Nikkei always have this identity crisis, usually as adolescents or young people, where we don’t quite know where we belong.

In my case, fortunately in my case, since I lived in an Argentine community that had a lot of Japanese as well, and in which the Argentines accepted the Japanese, I didn’t feel that difference or discrimination that maybe others have felt. In that sense I feel lucky because I didn’t have that bad experience that others have probably had.

But I know that other people like me, of my generation, have not had an easy time. And then there are certain other people who seemed to prefer…they went to Japan and they felt better in Japan than in Argentina, which is their country of birth. In my case, I feel very comfortable in Argentina, I’m just another Argentine. In Japan, sometimes I feel like a foreigner but I then other times I feel Japanese. But I know that I’m an Argentine with Japanese blood and with a certain…with a Japanese background.


Argentina discrimination generations identity interpersonal relations Nisei racism

Date: October 7, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Monica Kogiso is a Nikkei Nisei Argentinian, born in Buenos Aires in the city of Escobar where the Japanese community thrives on floristry. She is licensed in tourism, currently working as a resource, tourism and event coordinator for Japan, serving as bridge between both Argentina and Japan. She is the former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino, a Nikkei organization located in Buenos Aires and is a representative for the Panamerican Nikkei Association. (January 23, 2007)

Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Content Conflict

Community activist

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Camp Experiences

Community activist

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Mike Murase
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Murase,Mike

Staff and Struggles

Community activist

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Terry Janzen
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Janzen,Terry

Postwar school-life

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

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Rose Ochi
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On Challenging Institutions

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

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Rose Ochi
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Ochi,Rose

Pop and Balls

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

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Tamio Wakayama
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Re-examining Identity

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A. Wallace Tashima
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Tashima,A. Wallace

Being Denied as a Japanese American Lawyer

(b. 1934) The First Japanese American Appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals. 

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Jean Hamako Schneider
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Schneider,Jean Hamako

On international marriages (Japanese)

(b. 1925) War bride

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Schneider,Jean Hamako

Masao-san (Japanese)

(b. 1925) War bride

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Schneider,Jean Hamako

Conflicted about immigrating to America (Japanese)

(b. 1925) War bride

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George Takei
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Takei,George

Asian Stereotypes

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Tamio Wakayama
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Defining "Nikkei"

(1941-2018) Japanese Canadian photojournalist and activist

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Terumi Hisamatsu Calloway
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Calloway,Terumi Hisamatsu

Discrimination faced in San Francisco (Japanese)

(b. 1937) A war bride from Yokohama

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Paulo Issamu Hirano
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Hirano,Paulo Issamu

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.

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