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

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

(Japanese) It was right when Nakako was born, so…it must have been around 1954, still at the beginning of when people were getting American citizenship, when everyone over here was studying for the citizenship exams and things and making a lot of noise about it. I got mine right away, really quickly. I got citizenship early on.

I told my husband that I didn’t want to lose my Japanese citizenship, and his response was that for the most part people cannot be loyal to two countries. So, he said me, “Do you want to be a real Japanese or do you want to marry me and be an American? Decide on one.” So, I thought about it, and he was right. It would be pretty impossible to hold two citizenships, to be loyal to two countries. So, after thinking about it, I concluded that if that were that case I would get an American citizenship and discard my Japanese one.

citizenship identity

Date: January 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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