Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Julie Otsuka Interview
Narrator: Julie Otsuka
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: May 2, 2005
Densho ID: denshovh-ojulie-01-0007

<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Let's talk a little bit more about you now. So as a child growing up, was this in Palo Alto?

JO: It's in Palo Alto for nine years and then when I was nine, we moved to Palos Verdes, which is in Southern California.

TI: While growing up, what kind of student were you?

JO: I was very, I was a typical Japanese American student. I was very diligent, I was, I always did my homework and I was a perfectionist. And I was just sort of a, I guess a pretty, like, quiet, nerdy kid.

TI: How about hobbies or activities?

JO: I was interested in reptiles. I had turtles from a pretty young age, I loved to read, I did some drawing but not very seriously. Well, I went through the typical girl horse phase and so I would just draw horses over and over and over until I got it down, got the horse down and could draw a good horse. But that's just sort of robotic, I mean, it wasn't really creative. I also remember drawing Charlie Brown over and over and over again, so those are the two things that I fixated on. But I liked to read a lot. What kind of hobbies? I don't think I was really obsessed with any one thing. I think I liked to make things. I know that... we didn't have a TV 'til I was five, so my brother and I would, we'd make up stories a lot, so storytelling, and we shared a room, I think, until I was thirteen. And so there was a lot that went on after dark. We'd just, we were, I was in the top bunk and he was in the bottom and we'd make up stories. I hadn't thought about this, actually, I haven't thought about this for, you know, for a long time, and we would, we would make up stories for each other and, or if he was being read a story at school he'd come home and tell me about it. And we'd sometimes make puppets for each other and put on shows. So I guess, actually, story was part of our childhood, but I never thought of myself as being a kid storyteller, and I wasn't, certainly wasn't an aspiring writer when I was young. I just, to me, it just seems like I had a pretty normal childhood.

TI: Now, was your mother working during this time?

JO: No, no, she stopped when she, yeah, I guess when she started having children, she stopped.

TI: Now, growing up, did you participate in very many Japanese American activities, either in Palo Alto or later on?

JO: No, my, my parents tried to send me one, one year to Japanese school on Saturdays, and I guess the only way I could do, they could get me to do it was if they, they sent -- my, my best friend, the boy I grew up with, was Tommy Yoder, who lived next, in the house next door, and he was this kid with blond, curly hair. And so his mother let him come with me, so we went to Japanese school together. But I, I think I was very bored. I just, I really didn't like it which was also, I guess, a very typical response, so my parents didn't force me to, to go on. I think one year was enough. So I wasn't exposed to a lot of Japanese culture, they weren't involved with any churches or anything. My father's an Episcopal, so there wasn't a lot of contact with...

TI: So you guys, did you ever go down to, like, the San Jose Nihonmachi for, to eat or anything like that?

JO: No, no. We would sometimes go to Chinatown in San Francisco, but I actually don't remember eating a lot of Japanese food except for on New Year's Day we would have a huge feast. Mostly because my grandmother was a, she knew how to make all the Japanese dishes, so we'd spend all day just chopping vegetables. But I don't think we ate... no, no.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.