Interviews

1. Early Childhood

2. Being “Half” in Japan

3. Sexual Orientation as a Youth

4. How Title IX Changed Her Life

5. Initial Interest in Law

6. Judge Marie Milks—Her Hero and a Mentor

7. On Being an Asian American Woman in Law

8. Confidence as a young Asian American woman

9. Not coming out at work until 1991

10. Becoming the First LGBTQ Judge to Serve on the Hawaii Supreme Court

11. Impact of Coming Out on Her Family

12. Impact of Coming Out Publicly in the US and Japan

13. Message for Young People

Sabrina Shizue McKenna

(b. 1957) Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

Being “Half” in Japan

In terms of my cultural identity being “half” in Japan, oObviously, you're considered a little bit exotic in the Japanese community, but you are also different. I would go to the countryside and visit with my aunties and uncles and if I walked down the street, you know, people would turn around and say, oh, “gaijin gaijin,” you know, foreigner, foreigner.

So, but within the U.S. schools, of course, I was Japanese and there were a lot of my friends I hung out with a lot of, um I would say, Japanese-Americans. Some were from Hawaii, some were from California, their parents, and also some other half girls like me. So growing up, a lot of my friends were Japanese-American or half. And it was interesting because we would speak Japanese to each other in school so nobody would understand what we were saying.

So in that sense, in the American schools, I had a really Japanese identity; in the countryside in Japan, I was considered a gaijin. And so, you know, it was a different - different differed depending on where I was.

half (slang) hapa identity racially mixed people

Date: July 14, 2022

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Lana Kobayashi

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

Interviewee Bio

Sabrina Shizue McKenna was born on October 7, 1957, in Tokyo, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an American father. Being half-Japanese, McKenna struggled with feeling either “too Japanese” or “too white.” Justice McKenna’s life was drastically impacted in 1972, when Title IX was passed. Title IX allowed McKenna to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii and play basketball. During her time at the university, she came to terms with her sexuality.

McKenna believes her sexual orientation might have altered her career path. After graduating from law school and working for law firms, McKenna became a law professor. Instead of running for government office, she became a judge. However, McKenna’s path to becoming a judge was not a smooth one. It wasn’t until 2011 that she was appointed to her current position as the Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii. Justice McKenna's story shows that members of the LGBTQ community can have successful and meaningful lives. (October 2022)

*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.