Discover Nikkei Logo

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/323/

His parents' experience with Japanese resistance toward intermarriage with Okinawans

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.


discrimination families identity interpersonal relations racially mixed people racism

Date: December 16, 2003

Location: Hawai'i, US

Interviewer: Art Hansen, John Esaki

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

Interviewee Bio

Wally Kaname Yonamine was born on Maui in Hawaii in 1925. He first gained public acclaim as an athlete in 1944 after moving to Oahu and leading Farrington High School to its first Honolulu city football championship. After World War II, he was signed to a professional football contract as a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, the first player of Asian ancestry to attain this milestone. An injury prompted a switch from football to baseball.

While with the Pacific Coast League’s San Francisco Seals, its manager urged him to consider a professional baseball career in Japan. After joining the Yomiuri Giants in 1951 as the first American to play in postwar Japan, he hit over .300. Considered the greatest leadoff batter in Japanese baseball history, he won three batting championships and, in 1957, was named the Central League’s Most Valuable Player.

Upon retiring as a player, he finished his thirty-eight-year career in Japan as a successful coach, scout, and manager. Credited with introducing to Japanese baseball such American practices as hard sliding, running out bunts and infield grounders, and diving for fly balls, Yonamine was initially the target of fan abuse. He later achieved great popularity, however, and in 1990 was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. (December 16, 2003)

Yuri Kochiyama
en
ja
es
pt
Yuri Kochiyama

Rounding up Issei and Nikkei

(1922–2014) Political and civil rights activist.

en
ja
es
pt
Ann K. Nakamura
en
ja
es
pt
Ann K. Nakamura

Image of Americans

Sansei from Hawaii living in Japan. Teacher and businesswoman.

en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki
en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki

Japanese influence growing up

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

en
ja
es
pt
Margaret Kuroiwa
en
ja
es
pt
Margaret Kuroiwa

About her father

Daughter of an Issei doctor.

en
ja
es
pt
PJ Hirabayashi
en
ja
es
pt
PJ Hirabayashi

Diverse membership in San Jose Taiko

Co-founder and creative director of San Jose Taiko

en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki
en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki

Looking at your country from the outside

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki
en
ja
es
pt
Robert (Bob) Kiyoshi Okasaki

Wife's family in Japan

(b.1942) Japanese American ceramist, who has lived in Japan for over 30 years.

en
ja
es
pt
Yukio Takeshita
en
ja
es
pt
Yukio Takeshita

Lack of notion of citizenship in Japan

(b.1935) American born Japanese. Retired businessman.

en
ja
es
pt
Byron Glaser
en
ja
es
pt
Byron Glaser

Growing up in a Japanese American community

Illustrator and designer

en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano
en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano

Lack of language skills

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano
en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano

Preserving traditional Japanese culture

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano
en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano

Having patience in Japan, being both

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

en
ja
es
pt
Byron Glaser
en
ja
es
pt
Byron Glaser

Supporting art because it's essential

Illustrator and designer

en
ja
es
pt
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
en
ja
es
pt
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Impact of Pearl Harbor on her family

(1934 -2024) Writer

en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano
en
ja
es
pt
Jane Aiko Yamano

New Year's food

(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.

en
ja
es
pt

Discover Nikkei Updates

SUPPORT THE PROJECT
Discover Nikkei’s 20 for 20 campaign celebrates our first 20 years and jumpstarts our next 20. Learn more and donate!
CREATIVE WRITING CONTEST
Submit a short story set in Little Tokyo to the 12th annual Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest! Stories due February 28.
PROJECT UPDATES
New Site Design
See exciting new changes to Discover Nikkei. Find out what’s new and what’s coming soon!