Entrevistas

1. Life in Davao, Philippines

2. Kindergarten in Davao, Philippines

3. Evacuated to the Jungle

4. Captured by Guerillas after bombing of Pearl Harbor

5. Family was shipped back to Japan after the war

6. Attitudes toward Hikiagesha

7. Move to Los Angeles

8. First Impressions of the US

9. Life in the Philippines

10. Unique Identity from Having Multiple Backgrounds

11. On Nikkei Identity

12. Returning to the Philippines

Uchimura,Sawako Ashizawa

(n.1938) Repatriada filipina de nacimiento que luego emigró a los Estados Unidos

First Impressions of the US

Coming here, the first thing we saw was houses on the hills of Wilmington and San Pedro, and we were just amazed with all those colorful houses, and then huge front lawns of the houses, and the cars – different colors of cars. We only saw like – cars were only black or maroon – real dark maroon in Japan. And when we had a chance to see them, what was like in relatives’ home, we were amazed, like refrigerator, washing machine, sewing machine – electric sewing machine, and then television, that it’s inside the house, you know. That was, like amazing also. So many electrical things that we did not have. A washing machine wasn’t – even the one that you rode to squeeze was amazing to us. And just – everything we saw was like eye-popper. And also freeway was another huge surprise, and then the mountains, without hardly trees, and all brown and bare. There’s no mountain like that in Japan.

migración Estados Unidos

Fecha: July 12, 2017

Zona: California, US

Entrevista: Mitsue Watanabe, Yoko Nishimura, Leighton Okada

País: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Entrevista

Sawako Ashizawa Uchimura nació en Davao, Mindanao, en Filipinas, el 25 de marzo de 1938 como hija primogénita de Katsujiro y Ura “Mie” Ashizawa. Tenía siete años de edad en 1945 cuando su familia tuvo que dejar las Filipinas después de la derrota de Japón en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Su familia vivió en Shizuoka durante los siguientes diez años. Más tarde, la familia obtuvo el permiso de residencia estadounidense y arribó a Los Ángeles en marzo de 1956. Sawako estudió en la Escuela Secundaria de Alhambra y luego en el Colegio Municipal de Pasadena. Eventualmente encontró a un generoso mentor quien la apoyó en su educación mientras estuvo en la Universidad Estatal de San José y se convirtió en terapista profesional. Actualmente, ella sirve como voluntaria en el Sakura Garden (anteriormente la Casa de Retiro Keiro). (Marzo, 2018)