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Grandfather raised in the hotel business

My grandfather was raised in the hotel business so he had to learn how to do everything, including bookkeeping and what not, and he could really run the hotel, I guess, by the age of 14. But at that time my great-grandparents wanted him to be educated in Japan so they sent him back to Japan so he was Kibei when he came back, and of course that would be one of the reasons why there would be adverse consequences to that later on his life after Pearl Harbor.


generations hotels Japanese Americans Kibei languages Nisei

Date: April 25, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Robert Fujioka was born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1952. He attended the University of Michigan earning a BA degree and earned an MBA from the University of Hawai'i. He has been in the banking industry since 1974 and currently serves as Vice Chair, Japanese American National Museum Board of Trustees, a Trustee of the Clarence T.C. Ching Foundation, and the First Hawaiian Bank Foundation. (November 2018)

James Hirabayashi
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James Hirabayashi

Little interaction with parents

(1926 - 2012) Scholar and professor of anthropology. Leader in the establishment of ethnic studies as an academic discipline

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Jane Aiko Yamano
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Jane Aiko Yamano

Lack of language skills

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

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Jane Aiko Yamano
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Jane Aiko Yamano

Acculturation

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

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Jane Aiko Yamano
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Jane Aiko Yamano

Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

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Roy H. Matsumoto
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Roy H. Matsumoto

Treatment of Kibei after return to United States

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

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Roy H. Matsumoto
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Roy H. Matsumoto

Difficulties understanding different Japanese dialects

(b.1913) Kibei from California who served in the MIS with Merrill’s Marauders during WWII.

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Richard Kosaki
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Richard Kosaki

Teaching at the military language school during World War II

(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i

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Art Shibayama
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Art Shibayama

Learning English upon discovering that family could not return to Peru

(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.

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Art Shibayama
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Art Shibayama

Playing baseball along with American Nisei and Kibei

(1930-2018) Nisei born in Peru. Taken to the United States during WWII.

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Kimi Wakabayashi
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Kimi Wakabayashi

Her early life in Canada

(b.1912) Japanese Canadian Issei. Immigrated with husband to Canada in 1931

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Mitsuo Ito
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Mitsuo Ito

Japanese school

(b.1924) Japanese Canadian Nisei. Interpreter for British Army in Japan after WWII. Active in Japanese Canadian community

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Roy Hirabayashi
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Roy Hirabayashi

Learning Japanese at school and at home with family

(b.1951) Co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko.

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Fujima Kansuma
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Fujima Kansuma

Neighbor took care of hotel business during the World War II

(1918-2023) Nisei Japanese kabuki dancer

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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig
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Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig

Results of being more American than Japanese

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

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Francis Y. Sogi
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Francis Y. Sogi

Going to Japanese school

(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation

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