Interviews
Not bringing shame to family
Of course we were raised in a Japanese American community, so that we were always cautioned about not bring shame onto the family, and whatever you do is going to reflect on the family kind of stuff. So we’d get admonitions of that sort.
I remember one time when one of the local nisei boys, I think he was a little bit older than me, ran away. And there was a orphanage in our community, and the orphanage sent their kids to the local school, so that they were our classmates. Apparently this one kid, he and some kids from the orphanage ran away one day. And I can’t remember what they were doing, [or] what they did, but it became a big gossip in the community about that.
And it’s used as a lesson about how not to bringing shame on your family. Now the community that I grew up in was, I would guess, about 50/50 Japanese Americans and Japanese and non-Japanese. In my specific class, three-quarters of us were nisei. We were the majority. But, we still had the sting of racism, you know, sort of ground into us.
Date: January 7, 2004
Location: California, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.
Explore More Videos
Peru Shimpo for the Nikkei community (Spanish)
(b. 1937) Professional journalist
A teenager's memories of how a local newspaper misrepresented Japanese Americans
(b. 1925) Draft resister
The role of the media in influencing people's opinions
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Reaction to a 1942 speech by Mike Masaoka, Japanese American Citizen League's National Secretary
(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement
First learning about the incarceration experience in college
(b. 1955) Lawyer
Support from the Japanese American community
(b.1971) Professional figure skater and Olympic gold medalist.
Heightened awareness of identity as a Japanese American
(b. 1955) Lawyer
Feeling angry upon reading of Supreme Court case, 'Korematsu v. United States'
(b. 1955) Lawyer
Reasons for conformity and competitiveness in Gardena, California
(b. 1946) Lawyer
How he got into politics
(b. 1931) U.S. Former Secretary of Transportation
Japanese American railroad workers are fired following the bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1923) Chick sexer
A racist encounter at a movie theater following the bombing of Pearl Harbor
(b. 1923) Chick sexer