In Chicago, there was a lot of – still a lot of prejudice. I remember being asked to a senior prom by a Caucasian boy, but then he had to un-invite me at the last minute because they were having a party at their home, and his mother wouldn’t have me in the home, being Japanese. You know, it’s funny, I don’t – I remember accepting it, “That’s okay, that’s okay,” because I was used to a lot of prejudice in a way. And I remember just walking down the street sometimes, someone would just push me over, and so I think – you know, I was glad that he asked me, but I also accepted when he had to un-ask me.

Chicago Illinois postwar prejudices United States World War II

Date: November 8, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: June Berk

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

Interviewee Bio

Takayo Fischer, born in November 1932, is a Nisei American stage, film, and TV actress. During World War II, as a young child, she and her family were forcibly evacuated from the West Coast and spent time in the Fresno Assembly Center before being relocated to Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps. Fischer later lived in Chicago, Illinois, where, as a young adult, she won the crown of “Miss Nisei Queen.” She has appeared in dozens of major Hollywood films, including Moneyball (2011), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She also appeared in the stage production of The World of Suzie Wong in New York in 1958 and many productions with East West Players in Los Angeles. (June 2018)