My grandmother used to baby-sit me when I was a little kid and we’d spend the whole day together she’d speak to me in Japanese and I’d speak to her in English and neither one of us had any idea what the other was saying but somehow we talked all day long.
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Interviewee Bio
Johnnie James Morton, Jr. was born in Inglewood, CA in 1971, the son of an African American father and Japanese American mother. As a child, he attended Saturday Japanese school in Gardena for three years. Growing up in Torrance, California, he graduated from the University of Southern California after a distinguished career as a student athlete on the Trojan football team.
Morton is a twelve-year veteran in the National Football League and currently plays wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers. He has done some modeling and acting work, including an appearance playing himself in the film Jerry Maguire. (August 10, 2005)