<Begin Segment 13>

VY: And do you remember when you first started becoming aware? Well, maybe you always were aware of being Japanese American, I'm not sure, because you grew up in this very close, almost small town kind of community. I'm wondering if there was a point in time that you remember where you kind of went out in the world a little bit and you realized, or something happened, or just, there was some kind of realization that maybe other people perceived you as different?

JF: I would say that happened in high school. Up through eighth grade, not at all, but in high school, because it could have happened everywhere, but again, very few Asians. In my class, there were probably only four. So I felt, I really felt it when it came time to, during the school year there were clubs that they formed. And actually, they were called sororities, even in high school. But Asians were not invited, it was strictly a white club. Asians were not invited to join. We were encouraged to become class officers, to participate in sports, to join different other clubs like, oh, maybe the Girls Association which was a sport club, sporting club. I remember I played softball for the GA. We were encouraged to join those kinds of clubs, but never invited to join the sororities as they were called at that time. And I felt, I understood that, I did. I can't say I resented it, but I just understood it. And maybe it's just my personality, my acceptance of life and things, but not to say that we as an Asian community in the schools, we excelled in other things. We were able to join the drama clubs and become active in the class structure as an officer or joined committees, things like that. We were given those opportunities.

VY: Were there any friends that stand out to you that you still remember or that you're still close to from high school?

JF: Well, during high school, even during the later years of our elementary, I joined, we formed a Girl Scout group. And so, through those years, those friends became... I became very close to those friends, and I was the only Japanese member of the group. And, you know, we would see each other on occasion, and if I saw them on the street, of course, we were friends. And yes, I didn't have other friends, non-Japanese, Caucasian friends growing up. And we had developed closeness. Many of them now, well, considering my age, many of them now are not in Alameda, or they're gone.

VY: I'm curious what it was like going to school... so we sort of left your neighborhood, which was, from what I understand, primarily Japanese, Japanese American, your community church and community, that's the community you came home to every day. But every day you would go to school, and it was kind of different. I'm just wondering if that's something that you remember processing it in any way? Like as you came home, I don't know if you were walking home or taking a bus or what, but sort of that transition of going out of your neighborhood, into another neighborhood, and then coming home again. If it felt more of a sense of security or safety in the area that you grew up in, and may be a little different as you're going out, I'm not sure.

JF: Yeah, that's a good question. I remember a really close friend that I had growing up in our school, grammar school, her name was Karen, Karen Snyder. And she lived, actually, she lived several miles away from my home. But we would go to each other's homes, we would get picked up by her mother at school and then go to her house, and she would bring them home You know, we shared a lot of time together. She loved to dance, she took dance lessons. And I remember twirling the baton, so we just shared a lot of different activities. She would come to our house and eat snacks with us and spend holidays and Halloweens together, those kinds of things. There were times, and there were folks who were not Japanese that I had close friendships with. But you're right. There's a security of knowing that you have your church friends, you have your family, you have the extended family again. So when you're not totally accepted, perhaps like I wasn't at Alameda High School, just during that sorority time, when I really felt like, "Okay, that's okay." I had that assurance that it's all right. I felt secure, I never felt insecure that I was left out, I was by myself.

VY: Yeah, I understand that. It's not so much that you... I mean, you accepted it because you had to, but it sounds like it's not so much that you felt that it was okay, but it was more that, well, you had this real strong sense of self and security in your own community to kind of fall back on.

JF: Yes, yes.

VY: Or that supported you.

JF: Right, absolutely. And it had to be, I think, because of our relationship with the churches, the Buddhist Temple as well. Because our friends were not just Christians, but they were from the Buddhist Temple. And so there was a group that we did things together. There was a group that we could call anytime we wanted to. It wasn't just a school friendship, but growing up within our big family, and there were lots of kids in the neighborhood. So we played with everyone. We played out in the streets, kick the can after dinner, the streets weren't so busy. We had developed crushes on other kids, and they weren't Japanese for me. We developed other close-knit friendships, but it was because we were a community. It wasn't... does that make sense, Virginia? We were just kids playing, we were just out there to have a good time.

VY: Can you give maybe, at least, one example of a joint activity that the two churches did together?

JF: There was one time, and I don't know why we did this, but the girls from our two churches got dressed up in our kimonos, and it had to be, maybe we were invited to do something as a group for an organization, but anyway, we all dressed up in our kimonos and we went to the Buddhist Temple, they have a beautiful garden there. And I remember... well, we've got photos of us lined up. And we were all the same age. I would say the difference in ages in that photo might have been two years, three years at the most. There were reasons to bring us together, and yet, there were social things, too, that brought us together. It was a nice time, it's a nice time.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.