Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/756/

Japanese language is the important aspect to keep identity (Spanish)

(Spanish) The third generation I would say, after my grandfather, is that [generation] which returns [or seeks earlier generations]. My mother knows a little Japanese, because she lived there for a year. I speak to her in Japanese as a way to practice, but she responds in Spanish. I feel that there is a necessity of knowing, of understanding the other [culture, which is] much more present in me or in the younger generation than in my mother. It is not that she isn’t interested in learning more Japanese; [it’s just that] I believe her feelings of being Argentine run deeper. What’s more, she did not oblige me to study Japanese; I did it on my own initiative.


generations languages Sansei

Date: July 12, 2006

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Interviewer: Takeshi Nishimura, Ricardo Hokama

Contributed by: Centro Nikkei Argentino

Interviewee Bio

Paula Hoyos Hattori is a sansei born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a student of letters and dance. Her father is a descendant of Argentine Indians, while her mother is a Nisei, a daughter of Japanese parents. Paula’s particular profile (half Argentine, half Japanese) provides a distinctive vision because of the fusion of these two cultures. (July 12, 2006)

Suto,Henry

Working tirelessly after the war (Japanese)

(1928 - 2008) Drafted into both the Japanese Imperial Army and the U.S. Army.

Amano,Miyoko

A Lifestyle Using Both Japanese and Spanish (Japanese)

(b. 1929) President of Amano Museum

Murakami,Jimmy

Teaching English in Japan

(1933 – 2014) Japanese American animator

Yamashiro,Michelle

Working together in Okinawa using three languages

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

Wasserman,Fumiko Hachiya

Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard

Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

Fujie,Holly J.

Her grandfather was pressured to teach Japanese

Sansei judge on the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California