Interviews
My daughter couldn’t fit in Japan, so I decided to go back to America (Japanese)
(Japanese) So I decided to go back to Japan for a while, and I did. I went back, but Japan wasn’t good, just as I expected. My older child came here when she was in the third grade, and she moved to the fourth grade and went back to Japan, to an elementary school in Honmoku in Yokohama. And she told me that they would have oden for lunch. And she just couldn’t like it. And my younger one didn’t like Japan so much that we decided to go to, go back to America. And in March, 1978, I got here with my suitcase and one bag. I went to a hotel in downtown LA by taxi from LAX, rented a car, drove, walked and found a house. It’s the house I live in now in Monrovia. And I said to myself, this is good enough, and told my family to send my stuff here, with cats and other things. We have two cats, they were born in Missouri and went to Yokohama and stayed there for 10 months and came back here in California. They’ve been with us since then.
Date: July 17, 2016
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura, Mitsue Watanabe
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
Doing chores
An expert researcher and scholar on Japanese immigrant clothing.
Grandmother's influence on decision to go to Japan
(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.
Wife's family in Japan
(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.
Impression of Japan upon arrival
(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.
New Year's food
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Food growing up
(b.1948) Nikkei from Southern California living in Japan.
His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans
(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.
Working in cane fields as teenager to supplement family income
(b.1925) Nisei of Okinawan descent. Had a 38-year career in Japan as a baseball player, coach, scout, and manager.
Kibei schoolchildren in Hiroshima, Japan
(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.
The reason he came to the United States (Japanese)
(1949 - 2019) Taiko player. Founded five taiko groups in Southern California
Grandfather's arrival in the U.S., experiencing discrimination
(b. 1939) Japanese American painter, printmaker & professor
Mother's immigration to U.S. as a treaty merchant
(b. 1927) Japanese American Nisei. Family voluntarily returned to Japan during WWII.
Why her parents came to Canada
(1918-2004) Interned in Slocan during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community.
Family background of Fredrick Yoshihide Sasaki
(b. 1918) Issei businessman in Canada
Relationship with my father
(b. 1920) Incarcerated during World War II. Active member of the Japanese Canadian community
