Interviews
We’re Still Japanese
And immediately when that happened, I thought, God, what's going to happen to us? We didn't think about being thrown into camps, certainly, but we still -- we had the, "We are Japanese." We're not, we're not Japanese Americans, we were still a Japanese kind of thing. Although we danced jitterbug and listened to swing music, we're still Japanese. And yet we couldn't relate to the Japanese in Japan, so there was really a conflict there. Who are we?
Again, identity was a big problem for me. And I didn't want to be a part of that stuff at all. And yet, golly, I look in the mirror, and I'm Japanese. So this was a major identity problem. And so there was a feeling of guilt, too, being Japanese. Japanese name. Eating gohan. And yet I didn't feel a part of that scene over there because I had not been to Japan at that time, no contact with any of my relatives over there. So internally, it was a terrible time. On the other hand, in the community still, I was not part of the mainstream community. I was still in the Japanese community. And all my friends were Niseis. So we were all somewhat confused, yeah.
Date: February 18, 2002
Location: Washington, US
Interviewer: Alice Ito, John Pai
Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.
Explore More Videos
Defining the term Nikkei
(1923-2011) Lawyer, MIS veteran, founder of Francis and Sarah Sogi Foundation
Japanese Americans are more aware of their Hapa identity
(b. 1965) filmmaker and artist
Reaction of Japanese American community toward draft resistance stance
(b. 1925) Draft resister
The role of the media in influencing people's opinions
(b. 1925) Draft resister
Reaction to a 1942 speech by Mike Masaoka, Japanese American Citizen League's National Secretary
(1915 - 2011) Nisei florist who resettled in New York City after WW II. Active in Japanese American civil rights movement
Deciding whether to answer "yes-yes" on the loyalty questionnaire in order to leave camp
(b. 1925) Draft resister