Interviews

1. How I started learning social work (Japanese)

2. Benefits of getting American citizenship (Japanese)

Yoshiko Yamaguchi

(b. 1931) Shin-Issei Social Worker

Benefits of getting American citizenship (Japanese)

(Japanese) I didn’t think that I would need American citizenship. But when I thought about it more deeply, I realized that it would be helpful to Japan if there were citizens in America who have knowledge of Japan.

For example, we could stop people from passing laws that would put Japan in disadvantage - if we had citizenship. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to do that. I thought that nikkei people who know Japan well might be able to stop unfavorable things to Japan. I started realizing that being nikkei is important. So now I tell people that it wouldn’t hurt to get (US) citizenship.

United States

Date: August 28, 2015

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mitsue Watanabe

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

Interviewee Bio

Yoshiko Yamaguchi was born on January 3, 1931, in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. In 1959, she moved to the U.S. to help her sister and her husband, who got married in America. She soon met the man who would later became her husband, and she has lived in America since then. Later, she studied social welfare at the University of California, Los Angeles. Now she teaches class on getting citizenship at places such as community centers in the suburbs of Los Angeles, while also engaging in a variety of activities regarding Japanese cultural inheritance and social welfare. (April 2018)