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

Not wanting to stand out as a foreigner

I always had this dream of living abroad in a foreign country since I was in junior high school. And then when I was…originally, I wanted to live in Europe. Then I went to Europe when I was 19. I went for a summer. But I originally intended to go for 3 months. I ended up staying for 6 months. I had a one-year open ticket. I met some people in Germany. They were working for the military and I got a job as a janitor, just running wild – drinking…and they were…one guy was Canadian, two guys from America and I just kind of slept wherever – on the floor in their apartment. I didn’t have a room. I was kind of a bum. That was fun. I had a great time.

But living in Europe for a short time, I realized I didn’t want to live…I wasn’t comfortable in Europe because you stand out. I didn’t like being…like being in America. I don’t like standing out, being targeted with racial epithets and things. So I don’t need that in my life. So living in Japan was much more comfortable when I first came here. It’s that whole point of not standing out, I think, which makes my life comfortable here.

Finding Home (film) identity migration

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)