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https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/1504/

Public views on marriage with non-Caucasian (Japanese)

(Japanese) Even after I came to America I was asked the question. Issei old men and women, all of them were really nice people, but they would say, “You are such a nice girl.” They thought I was a kid. When I went to the Japan Town in San Francisco for shopping where I could buy some Japanese food, they would ask me where I came from. So I would respond, “I’m not a kid. I already have two kids of my own.” They would be surprised. As we talk more, they would ask, “Why in the world did you marry a black man?”


brides international marriages marriages war brides wives

Date: September 17, 2014

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Izumi Tanaka

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

Interviewee Bio

Terumi Hisamatsu Calloway was born in 1937 in Yokohama as the 5th of 10 children and grew up in the suburb of Tokyo during the war. She met her husband, Edward E. Calloway, who was a civilian engineer working at American military base in Tokyo and married him. In 1960, after having 2 children, Terumi moved to the U.S. with her family and settled in the Bay Area and had two more children. Later they moved to the Lompoc area where all of her 4 children - 2 girls and 2 boys - grew up. In 1977, they moved to Inglewood where she resides now. Terumi was widowed in 2009, and she currently works as a caregiver. (April 2016)

Shizuko Kadoguchi
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Marrying Bob against family’s wishes

(b.1920) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Established the Ikenobo Ikebana Society of Toronto

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Masako Iino
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Impressions from interviews with Issei women (Japanese)

Tsuda College President, researcher of Nikkei history

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Sakaye Shigekawa
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Never married

(1913-2013) Doctor specializing in obstetrics in Southern California

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Harry Schneider
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Writing Letters

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

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Harry Schneider
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Meeting Mr. Amano

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

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Harry Schneider
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Marriage and Returning to US

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

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Harry Schneider
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Reception of Hamako by family

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

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Jean Hamako Schneider
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Conflicted about immigrating to America (Japanese)

(1925-2024) War bride

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Fred Y. Hoshiyama
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Marriage and Family

(1914–2015) Nisei YMCA and Japanese American community leader

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Jimmy Ko Fukuhara
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Meeting his wife, Eileen

(b. 1921) Nisei veteran who served in the occupation of Japan

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Kay Sekimachi
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Marriage to Bob Stocksdale

(b. 1926) Artist

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Mitsuye Yamada
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Her mother came to the U.S. with a group of picture brides

(b. 1923) Japanese American poet, activist

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Howard Kakita
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On telling his wife he had radiation sickness and his son’s cancer

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

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Monica Teisher
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Interracial marriage trends

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

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