Interviews

1. Concentration camp from a Japanese mother’s point of view (Japanese)

2. Why I got my American citizenship (Japanese)

3. The reactions of others when I got my American citizenship (Japanese)

4. My changing identity depending on circumstances (Japanese)

5. Americanized values (Japanese)

6. Traditional Japanese events for Japanese Americans (Japanese)

7. Leaving for the States without telling my parents (Japanese)

Yumi Matsubara

Shin-Issei from Gifu. Recently received U.S. citizenship

Concentration camp from a Japanese mother’s point of view (Japanese)

(Japanese) I didn’t know anything at all (about Japanese Americans before I came to the States). But my mother had experienced the war, and she was the one who first told me that the Japanese Americans had been sent to concentration camps before World War II began. Here’s another interesting story about my mother: I don’t know whether my mother read the book (about Japanese American experiences during the World War II). The Gifu prefecture had been bombed by an air-strike, and upon returning from evacuation, she found that her house had burned down into ashes. I remember her telling me, “Maybe the Japanese Americans were more fortunate than us.” Their houses didn’t burn down, they were given food, and they at least had some sense of security. My mother has mentioned before that our parents and grandparents had a much tougher time, surviving with much less food. So even though it was tragic that the Japanese Americans were sent to camp, maybe in a way it was a fortunate thing. This is something that I’ve heard my mother say.

imprisonment incarceration World War II

Date: March 1, 2007

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Yoko Nishimura

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

Interviewee Bio

Yumi Matsubara was born and grew up in Gifu prefecture in Japan. Growing up in a conservative family in Japan, she didn’t tell her parents that she was moving to Los Angeles, California, to improve her English. She first attended an English language school for a couple of months before studying fashion at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles. After she graduated from FIDM in 1994, she started working in the fashion industry.

Around this time, her desire to make a permanent home in the United States was growing. Her company agreed to support her green card (permanent residency), so she started the green card process. In 1999, however, the financial situation of her company deteriorated and she left the company before she received her U.S. permanent residency. She decided to marry an American citizen in November 1999 after just two weeks of dating. She received her green card in May 2001 and her American citizenship in December 2006. Currently, she works in the fashion industry in Los Angeles where she serves as a grader* and spec writer. (March 1, 2007)

* Grader: a person who produces scaled versions of an original pattern to produce clothes across a range of sizes and fits.