Interviews
Feeling closer to Japan as a Japanese American
I think because of the fact that I could speak Japanese, I could read Japanese and write Japanese, when I was in Japan I felt somewhat closer to them than to the Americans. We had American partners, and belonged to the Tokyo American club, and there we associated with only Americans. But while associating and working with the Japanese and speaking Japanese with them, I felt very close and part of Japan. Not that I was Japanese but I felt fortunate that I was an American. That I was able to deal with the Japanese in their own term, which is their language. That was something that I felt very strongly because not knowing the language of a foreign country, the country you’re in, is a great, great disadvantage. That’s why the American partners in our firm were not that effective in Japan.
Date: May 29, 2006
Location: Hawai`i, US
Interviewer: Akemi Kikumura Yano
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Explore More Videos
The Power of Language: Japanese Identity Constructed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (Spanish)
(1958-2014) Former Bolivian Ambassador to Japan
Learning Japanese with the MIS
(1916 - 2013) Member of the U.S. Military Intelligence Service
Grandfather raised in the hotel business
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Trip to Japan as a Boy Scout
(b. 1938) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Grandfather's interrogations during World War II
(b. 1952) Former banking executive, born in Hawaii
Respecting the will of a five-year-old daughter (Japanese)
(b. 1925) War bride
Learning Japanese to speak to relatives in Japan
(b. 1924) Hairdresser. Incarcerated at Poston, Arizona.
His family Traveled to Japan in 1940
(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor
Adjustment to American life
(b. 1938) Japanese American. Hiroshima atomic bomb survivor
Immersed in Japanese culture and language
(b. 1936) Japanese Peruvian incarcerated in Crystal City
Moving to and living in Japan
Japanese American Creative designer living in Japan
Devastation in Tokyo after World War II
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i
Acculturation
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Japanese are more accustomed to foreigners
(b.1964) California-born business woman in Japan. A successor of her late grandmother, who started a beauty business in Japan.
Teaching at the military language school during World War II
(b. 1924) Political scientist, educator, and administrator from Hawai`i