Interviews
Identity as a conscious ongoing process
I think my own identity changes whether I did the project or not. I think identity is a conscious ongoing process. We always redefine who we are, depending what we want to do consciously, and sometimes it’s unconscious, who we hang out with. I know that when I hang out with my lifeguard friends I talk a different way. And I know that when I hang out with my Karate brethren I speak a different way, and I know that when I’m living in Japan I speak a different way, or living in Hawai`i, I slip right back into pidgin. And there’s a certain thing that we sometimes just drift into our identities.
The example I give is let’s say you hear someone talk on the phone. I use it for college students. Say you listen to your roommate talk on the phone, and he talks to his mother, he’s like “Yeah, okay. Yes, okay. Yeah, I gotta go,” and then he hangs up and talks to his boss and he’s like, “Oh, no problem, ha ha, sure, sure, I got it, bye bye.” And then he calls some girl he met at the bar and says “Hey baby, how you doin’?” We have these guises, so I think it’s a process, we’re always changing.
Date: May 3, 2006
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Jim Bower
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
Explore More Videos
Nihongo gakko - Preserving Japanese culture (Spanish)
(b. 1969) Former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino.
Not wanting to stand out as a foreigner
Sansei Japanese American living in Japan and Kendo practioner
Have compassion for all of humanity
(b. 1923) Nisei from Washington. Resisted draft during WWII.
Identity crisis (Spanish)
(b. 1969) Former president of Centro Nikkei Argentino.
Never sang Enka outside the family
(b. 1981) Enka Singer
Both Japanese and American identities though Japanese dance
(1918-2023) Nisei Japanese kabuki dancer
Results of being more American than Japanese
(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist
Trying to convey the meaning of the songs
(b. 1981) Enka Singer
Internship on a Native American reservation in Arizona
(b.1952) Master drummer, artistic director of the Taiko Center of the Pacific
Different tension between East Coast and Los Angeles
Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan
Differences between American and Japanese taiko
(b.1943) Shin-issei grand master of taiko; founded San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1968.
Meeting Japanese Americans from the mainland in MIS
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Sudden acceptance in Japanese society
(b. 1967) Hawai`i-born professional fighter in Japan