Interviews

1. The Origin of my Name (Japanese)

2. Attending Kindergarten in Panama (Japanese)

3. My father who returned by prisoner of war exchange ship (Japanese)

4. Meeting Harry for the first time (Japanese)

5. On international marriages (Japanese)

6. Masao-san (Japanese)

7. Conflicted about immigrating to America (Japanese)

8. You can’t be loyal to two countries (Japanese)

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

10. Why I’m glad I immigrated to America (Japanese)

Jean Hamako Schneider

(1925-2024) War bride

The Origin of my Name (Japanese)

(Japanese) My name is Amano Hamako. Amano is my maiden name. I was born on August 30th, 1925. For anyone from Yokohama called Hamako, the name means “beach child”. However, my father picked up a hard Chinese character for my name. He chose the “ha” from “hari”, as in “kin gin hari” (gold, silver, and crystal). The “ma” is from the character for “mitsuru” (fullness). So, if you translate that into English, it would be the presumptuous name of “Jewel Child”. It’s Hamako written with the king radical, rather than the water radical. But the origin of my name, Hamako, is that I was born in Yokohama.

identity Japan Kanagawa Prefecture names Yokohama

Date: Jan 26, 2012

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura

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

Interviewee Bio

Jean Hamako Schneider (former name: Amano) was born in 1925 in Yokohama. In 1933, she went with her father, who was to run a business in Latin America, to Panama where she stayed for two years. Her father remained in Panama after her, but came back to Japan in 1942 on a prisoner of war exchange ship. While working at a radio station after the war, Hamako met Harry Schneider, who was stationed in Japan with the U.S. Military Intelligence Service (MIS). In 1948, the two married in Japan, and, in 1950, Hamako left for America as a war bride. After that, she gave birth to a daughter and quickly acquired American citizenship. Currently, she lives in Encinitas, California. She passed away in December 2024 at age 99. (December 2024)

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