Interviews

1. Keeping Japanese Performance Arts Alive in the Camps

2. Passing Time in the Camps with Baton Twirling

3. Takayo Fischer’s Love of Acting Started with Shibai

4. Facing Prejudice as a Japanese American Teenager in Chicago after the War

5. Takayo Fischer on Her First Time Expressing Outward Affection to Her Parents

6. Being Confused about Racial Identity in Postwar United States

7. Shock of Her Granddaughter Not Knowing Her Japanese Heritage

8. On the Difference between Being a Role and Playing a Role

9. Working on the Set of Pirates of the Caribbean and Meeting Keith Richards

10. The Emotional Toll of Being Incarcerated in Camp during World War II

11. Representing her Family and the Japanese American Community in Acting

12. Sister’s Trauma from being Incarcerated during World War II

13. Her Approach to Preparing for Roles

14. Getting the Role of Gwennie in The World of Suzie Wong

(b. 1932) Nisei American stage, film, and TV actress

Representing her Family and the Japanese American Community in Acting

I don’t know that I felt like everyone else. I felt like I was – I had to behave, I was setting an example – everything I did reflected not only on my mother and father or my sisters, but on all the Japanese-American community. So I had to behave and be good, because otherwise I would bring shame to the community. I felt like I was very much a part of that Issei/Nisei community right after the war. Maybe that was good for me, kept me out of trouble.

acting actors artists communities entertainers identity

Date: November 8, 2018

Location: California, US

Interviewer: June Berk

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

Interviewee Bio

Takayo Fischer, born in November 1932, is a Nisei American stage, film, and TV actress. During World War II, as a young child, she and her family were forcibly evacuated from the West Coast and spent time in the Fresno Assembly Center before being relocated to Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps. Fischer later lived in Chicago, Illinois, where, as a young adult, she won the crown of “Miss Nisei Queen.” She has appeared in dozens of major Hollywood films, including Moneyball (2011), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007), The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She also appeared in the stage production of The World of Suzie Wong in New York in 1958 and many productions with East West Players in Los Angeles. (June 2018)

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Ethnic diversity

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