Interviews

1. Visiting Japan to study kendo

2. Japanese wife with American citizenship

3. Appreciation of Japanese food

4. Not wanting to stand out as a foreigner

5. Japan vs. Tulsa Oklahoma

Peter Mizuki

Sansei Japanese American living in Japan and Kendo practioner

Japanese wife with American citizenship

My wife actually has American citizenship. She was born in Boston. My father-in-law was teaching in Boston at the time. Studying and teaching on a Fulbright, I think. I can’t quite remember. And she happened to be born there. So she automatically…American citizenship. But then they returned to Japan immediately about a year later. But when she was in primary school they went back to America for a year. He was teaching at Stanford, I think. And she went to grade school for one year and she always felt that since she had US citizenship, she should study English. So she used to study English at a neighborhood church or something. They had a conversation class. So she always maintained her…that aspect of her life

citizenship Finding Home (film) languages

Date: November 11, 2003

Location: Kyoto, Japan

Interviewer: Art Nomura

Contributed by: Art Nomura, Finding Home.

Interviewee Bio

Peter Mizuki, a Sansei, was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. As a child he helped in his family’s lumber business and was involved with the Japanese martial art of kendo. Later, while a student at the University of Washington, he was one of the founding members of the Kendo Club. As his interest in Japanese culture developed, he traveled to Japan on a cultural visa to learn Japanese and continue his study of kendo. There, he met his wife in Kyoto. He now has two sons, is a permanent resident of Japan, and continues to practice kendo and teach English part-time at universities. In his interview, Peter shares his experiences of being a Japanese American in Japan and the struggles he’s endured to be accepted by Japanese society. (2005)

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