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

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

(Japanese) It might have been when Nakako was around five. I was thinking I would do my best to teach her Japanese, but she told me not to. “What do you mean?” I asked her. “It’ll help you in the future. Just learn some Japanese. I’ll teach you,” I told her. She was only five years old, and even though she was so tiny, she told me, “I won’t say sorry I didn’t learn Japanese.” Then, “Please try not to teach me.” So, from that moment on, I didn’t teach her any Japanese.

Now, she complains to me about it. “Why didn’t you teach me?” she says. “You were the one who said, ‘Don’t teach me any Japanese,’ weren’t you?” I tell her back. And she answers, “But who takes such a small child’s opinion so seriously?”

Japanese languages

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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Jean Hamako Schneider

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

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