His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans

Returning to Maui during baseball off-seasons to remind himself of the hard work required to succeed His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans Brought aggressive American style to Japanese baseball The privations of living in post-war Japan, 1952 Training for football by carrying 100-lb bags of grass over mountains Working in cane fields as teenager to supplement family income Working in cane fields as teenager, and how it helped in his athletic training (Japanese)

Transcripts available in the following languages:

My father was Okinawan and my mother Japanese, what they call Naichi. And those days, the Okinawans and the Japanese, they're not too keen about marrying like that. It's just like me, now, when I met my wife. My name is Yonamine, that's an Okinawan name, and my wife's name was Iwashita. And lot of times, my wife's parents wasn't too keen about me going with their daughter. My wife's parents used to get calls from the Okinawans says that Leave the Okinawan boy alone. Let your daughter marry the Japanese, the Okinawans marry the Okinawans.

Date: December 16, 2003
Location: Hawai'i, US
Interviewer: Art Hansen, John Esaki
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum.

discrimination family identity multi racial racism