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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1065/

Didn’t speak Japanese until moving to Japan

At the time I never, never spoke Japanese in Minot, I don’t remember talking, yeah in Japanese, or…we always conversed in English and so until we landed in Yokohama and then even then you know, I don’t know, I was looking at my brother and, you know I think I remember saying something like, oh my! Oh my! Hunk of baloney or something. [laughs] Yeah, and then at the boat, my uncle came up to the deck, you know came up, and then he asked, I guess he asked in Japanese, are you Suto? And I remember I answering yes, and you know that’s [laughs] yeah, that the first conversation, yeah, that I had in [with] Japanese people we had, in Japanese.


languages migration

Date: June 17, 2008

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Janice Tanaka

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

Interviewee Bio

Henry Eiichi Suto was born on February 5, 1928 in Minot, North Dakota to Issei parents. After the death of his father and younger sister, his mother returned to Japan with Henry and his brother. Henry was 7 years old and since he knew little Japanese, he worked hard to learn and try to fit in with his classmates. When he was approached by his teacher to sign up for the Japanese Army at the age of 17, he accepted—knowing he wouldn’t be able to afford to go to college. After basic training, he was 1 of 34 selected to train under a special unit, which he later found out was a “suicide” unit to man a one-man torpedo boat. He was in this unit when Hiroshima was bombed and was one of the first soldiers to arrive with aid, thirty-six hours after the bombing.

When the war ended, he returned to the United States and lived with an uncle after his mother passed away. He enrolled in Belmont High School, but 3 months later was drafted into the U.S. Army to fight in the Korean War. He was trained to become an interpreter and was taught the Korean language at Camp Palmer. He was to go to the front lines in Korea to interrogate, but while on their stopover in Japan, he was asked to stay to serve as an interpreter there instead.

He returned to the U.S. after being discharged from the army and went to Los Angeles City College where he majored in foreign trade. He found a job at the Otagiri Company and worked there till his retirement in 1993.

He passed away on October 17, 2008 at the age of 80. (January 30, 2009)

Harry Schneider
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Harry Schneider

Learning Japanese with the MIS

(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service

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Robert T. Fujioka
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Robert T. Fujioka

Great grandfather working in Hawaii

(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii

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Robert T. Fujioka
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Robert T. Fujioka

Grandfather raised in the hotel business

(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii

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Jean Hamako Schneider
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Jean Hamako Schneider

Respecting the will of a five-year-old daughter (Japanese)

(1925-2024) War bride

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Akira Takashio
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Akira Takashio

First impression of America (Japanese)

Shin Issei – owner of izakaya (Japanese-style tavern) and kappo (small Japanese diner) restaurant, Honda-Ya

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Akira Takashio
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Akira Takashio

Longing for a life abroad and getting a chef’s license (Japanese)

Shin Issei – owner of izakaya (Japanese-style tavern) and kappo (small Japanese diner) restaurant, Honda-Ya

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Akira Takashio
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Akira Takashio

Support from Nikkei (Japanese)

Shin Issei – owner of izakaya (Japanese-style tavern) and kappo (small Japanese diner) restaurant, Honda-Ya

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Akira Takashio
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Akira Takashio

Immigration ship Brazil-maru (Japanese)

Shin Issei – owner of izakaya (Japanese-style tavern) and kappo (small Japanese diner) restaurant, Honda-Ya

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Michelle Yamashiro

Great grandfather Asato was a sumo wrestler

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Michelle Yamashiro

Grandfather loved to tell her stories of her great-grandfather Arakaki

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Michelle Yamashiro
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Michelle Yamashiro

Parents leaving Peru to move to California

Okinawan American whose parents are from Peru.

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Howard Kakita
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Howard Kakita

Adjustment to American life

(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor

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Monica Teisher
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Monica Teisher

Grandfather migrating to Colombia

(b.1974) Japanese Colombian who currently resides in the United States

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Jimmy Naganuma
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Jimmy Naganuma

Immersed in Japanese culture and language

(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City

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Masato Ninomiya
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Masato Ninomiya

What made your parents decide to move to Brazil?

Professor of Law, University of Sao Paulo, Lawyer, Translator (b. 1948)

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