<Begin Segment 30>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: We're just about out of time, and so I just wanted to follow up. We've done over four hours of interviewing, and something that really strikes me is how positive you are in terms of your outlook on life and even looking back on all these events. And yet, as I've gone through this interview, there are so many difficult times that you went through. And I was just curious, what is it that allows you to be so positive?

SA: I think it's (because "doors and windows" always opened up for me. Good experiences, and successful ones, help!) I think when you're young, you don't think ahead.

TI: No, but right now. You right now, looking back, you have such a positive outlook on life.

SA: Because I realize that had (the war not come along, and) had I stayed here, all of us (...) Niseis, we would have been blue collar workers sitting in our little ghettos. Actually, this war helped tremendously to disperse us into all fifty states. Plus, I went out as a fifteen year old maybe, going on sixteen, but I came back with a skill in nursing, which enabled me to make a life. And with the Bolton Act, my nursing was free, I was educated enough to be considered (skilled and had a profession). I didn't have to do housework. Had I stayed, I would have never gotten there. And I came back, I was able to earn a living, and my brother came through the GI Bill, and my sister already was established as a TA by that time in Pullman. So we all came back with a skill. And for the whole (Japanese American) community, with the GI Bill we were educated within that one generation, amazingly. We all went out into uncomfortable places, of course, but it matured us. We were now interacting with Caucasians. We wouldn't have a thing like this happen again, because we would have them backing us. It was our own fault we were in this ghetto, but of course it was the sign of the times. Everybody was staying within their own (minority group), the Chinese, too. And some still are. I mean, (we) came back, they're still there in Chinatown. But here we are, there's hardly any Nihonmachi left. And then again, in the intermarriages, you see this, and this is about (the war, too. Intermarriages started after the war and it) was about sixty percent about twenty years ago, it's about eighty, I think, now, eighty-two or more. So we have, again, as someone said, one of the teachers, in fact, in Minidoka at the time, I don't know which one it was, I kept thinking it's (Miss) Amerman, said, "The only way you people are ever going to assimilate is to marry outside your race." And she's darn right. 'Cause now we have (about) the fifth generation, and of course the cultural values are disappearing as you see, I think the Niseis carried it with us, but we owe it all to the legacy that the Isseis left us, and that was they really visualized far ahead, I think, for us. They did everything to their utmost (to educated us), and because they did it, that "go for broke" makes sense, 'cause the Niseis went out and did their utmost to try to prove our loyalty. And we did, that's the one thing we got done. I mean, the poor 442nd and 100th (battalions), they shed their blood to prove it, but the rest of us, and the Isseis really endured what was considered unendurable (through World War II). Through it all, because the Isseis maintained their dignity and their pride, we were able to stand up because we modeled after them. So we made it through the same way, and we tried to give it to our children, but of course, you know, the third generation, I think that was about the last that carried any of the (Japanese) culture. 'Cause now, what have they got? They've got the food, but they're thoroughly Americanized, to the extent that they're not making the honor rolls as much as -- it's true, isn't it? You look, and who is making it? The immigrants that have just come in. The Westinghouse Science (scholarship) group that they finally got (...). The students, they were all immigrants, they were Koreans, Cambodians or (...) Vietnamese. You don't find the Japanese (third, fourth, or fifth generations) out there, (striving so hard, like the Niseis).

TI: So it's almost, it's interesting, so you talk about this Japanese culture and values, Isseis, Niseis sort of dissipating, Sanseis, and then you talked about, earlier, about the assimilation, which you seemed to say that was good, too.

SA: Oh, yes.

TI: It's almost like, are they sort of countervailing forces? I mean, do they... I see one area where the Japanese culture is dissipating, and you see it as assimilation. How do you feel about all that?

SA: Well, I think that you have to accept the fact that generations do matter. I see very few Sanseis that speak Japanese. In fact, one particular (student) approached me to ask if I would speak with him in Japanese, and for myself, I'm not that great in it, I can't read or write it because I didn't finish Japanese school. I took three quarters under Professor Niwa at the University of Washington because we had to have a (language) for a master's at that time (...). And then I still have the audacity to go and teach Japanese. When they told me, "Do something for the gifted, anything," I said, "Anything? I get to pick anything? I'll take Japanese." And this is (for) elementary (school), so of course they know nothing. And I'm making up my own games and writing my own things like color by numbers, I put Japanese letters, and English I would (write) midori, and here I have (them color it), and they'd make it "green," so they absorbed some. And I'm writing little picture stories and putting down, like, "(Destry) went to get a book," I'm putting it in Japanese, so they had their own names in that, (so that) makes them do it. And then I'm throwing these (blocks), looked like dices, with "a-i-u-e-o," the letters, and then (have the students roll it or) throw it and then by fortune, if they throw something (like two blocks), two of 'em that come out with a word, sora, I'd say, "That's the sky. What's that word? What's the sky?" It's because I taught remedial, I'm really using everything I've (learned) to hit at the core of what's fun, (so they'll learn). Today it's even worse (to teach) because you have television you have to deal with. You've got to entertain the kids to make 'em learn.

TI: At this point we're out of time, and I could probably sit here and talk to you for hours more.

SA: I'm not that (interesting).

TI: This has been fascinating, Sharon, so thank you so much for your time, and just sharing these memories. It's been really...

SA: I just think that as you get my age, (we) appreciate (our Japanese ancestry). Took me to this time to appreciate the Isseis. But I look back and I think, wow, they never spoke much, and I see what they've gone through and I think, wow. Their legacy is the culture and themselves (as models. We owe them a lot!)

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.