Interviews
Since childhood, he has been interpreting for his father.
Well, I couldn't speak Portuguese at all. So my father lived in Brazil for 50 years and died without being able to speak Portuguese properly. I was 5 years old then. I learned languages quickly, so I was made to translate right away. I was already made to translate when I was 6 or 7 years old.
So, how should I put it, after my father left the scrubbing factory, he would go around to Japanese people to take orders for clothes, then sew them at home and deliver them. So he would buy fabrics and accessories, and then deliver the finished products, but in the end, even if he went to the morning market, it was full of Japanese people, so he could buy groceries even if he didn't speak Portuguese. And since he needed to speak Portuguese to buy fabrics and accessories, he would take me with him to act as an interpreter.
Living in São Paulo meant that I didn't really need to learn the language.
Date: September 19, 2019
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum