<Begin Segment 45>

DG: What about the fact that you married a Chinese, as far as your own family was concerned?

RI: Well, at first my father said, "Are you sure that he doesn't have a wife in China?" And he told her, told him, "No," and he had to take his word for it because there was no way he could communicate with them. But, maybe I might have been one of the few intermarriages at that time. But they didn't say too much. Maybe they felt it, but they didn't express it, and I didn't hear too much negative things.

DG: There were several Japanese families that disowned their children, almost, because they married a Chinese.

RI: Uh-huh.

DG: At that time.

RI: But you know, my husband died two years ago. But at his funeral, his Chinese relatives that are, who are here, got up and said something like, "When Uncle Evan was going to marry a Japanese girl, his relatives in China thought, 'Wow, going to marry a Japanese girl.'" Here China and Japan were at war, that Mongolian War, and so the Chinese people had prejudice against the Japanese. But see, we didn't know that. In fact, it was the opposite here. But they were worried about his marrying a Japanese, but I didn't know that until his relatives told me that. But, it could be.

AI: Yes, because the times were different there.

RI: Uh-huh.

AI: And so some people's attitudes were different, kind of.

RI: Oh yeah. Since then there's been a lotta intermarriages. In fact, my two, two kids are married to Caucasians now, so there's no problem like that. I think my mother is very liberal, was very liberal, and she, she used to advise some of her friends who were objecting to their kids intermarrying and she'd tell them, "Well, don't, just, don't be so old-fashioned. They're okay." And she used to advise them. So I think it was okay.

AI: I'm wondering, when your kids were younger, did they ever ask you or your husband about what were they, if they were Japanese, they were Chinese, they were American, did they ever ask questions like that?

RI: I don't think they questioned it, but they used to tell their friends that, "My mother's Japanese, my father's Chinese, but I'm both," or something like that. Well, they'd make something, "My mother, my father's Chinese, my mother's Japanese, and I'm all over," or something like that. They used to make some kind of funny thing like that. I don't know, maybe I got it turned around, but something. I don't think that they were ashamed or anything like that. It just, it was a fact of life and they assumed it, but, no problem that way.

<End Segment 45> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.