Interviews

1. Family’s Japanese roots and values

2. The lack of discussion about family’s incarceration in Amache

3. Her desire to help at-risk and dependent youth

4. Her motto came from her mother

5. Unique perspective that a judge can bring to community organizations

6. How she transitioned from anthropology to law

7. Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard

Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California

Mother founded Japanese language school in neighbors’ backyard

I went to Japanese language school. My mother actually founded the Japanese language school. In our neighborhood, since we were the only family initially — our neighbors were Dutch. And they had a back guest house type of area, where the Buddhist reverend came all the way out to where we lived in the suburbs, and there were three of us in the Japanese language class: my sister, myself, and I can’t remember who the third person was.

Eventually my mother went to a different Buddhist church where she knew people, and she knew the bishop, and they were willing to come out to try to start a Japanese language school. So we were in a nursery area, and then people were from outlying areas coming into it, and they eventually were able to raise funds and build an actual building where the Japanese language school still remains. And when I had children later in life, my sons did go to that Japanese language school briefly.

education Japanese language schools languages language schools

Date: July 27, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Kira Matsuno

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

Interviewee Bio

Judge Fumiko Hachiya Wasserman is a Sansei judge for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in California. She was born in Torrance, California and grew up in Harbor City, California. She was the first Asian American female hired by the US Attorney’s office in the Civil Division, the first minority elected official in the Torrance School Board, and the first judge to ever serve on the LA Biomedical Research Institute. She currently serves in the Los Padrinos Courthouse as the site judge. She grew up in a diverse and welcoming neighborhood and felt secure in being Japanese American. She is involved with the Japanese American community, works to promote diversity, and she mentors lawyers and judges. (June 2018)

*This is one of the main projects completed by The Nikkei Community Internship (NCI) Program intern each summer, which the Japanese American Bar Association and the Japanese American National Museum have co-hosted.

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(b.1926) Democratic politician and three-term Governor of Hawai'i