<Begin Segment 11>

MA: What about moving from L.A.? What are some things that you noticed about the Denver Japanese American community as a whole that was, impressions that you noticed --

CT: Very different. [Laughs]

MA: What were some of the things that --

CT: Growing up in Los Angeles was really different and then there were a lot of other people who were my agemates who were Sansei. When I moved to Colorado, or just specifically Denver, most of my agemates were Niseis. And so then that was very different. So for me personally, my family all spoke English. And so then I didn't grow up really speaking Japanese. In fact, I had to take it as a college course, as a foreign language, which it really was. But there were a lot of different things. The social way that teenagers acted here were very different from Los Angeles. So, I guess, technically for me, it was kind of a culture shock to come in from one Japanese community, and they were really upwardly trying to build the community up and become more integrated and more upwardly mobile within that Los Angeles community. And then in Denver, maybe it was because people didn't go to camp. They just went ahead and continued with their lives and things, and so that during that period of time when you had an influx of people coming from the different camps, then you get a variety of ways that people live and their styles of interacting. But then after a period of time, then everybody left. So by the time I came back the second time, then you didn't have a lot of people that had camp experience as their background.

MA: So going back to the, growing up as a Sansei and coming to Denver and being with a lot of Niseis, you mentioned the language, not having Japanese language. What are some other, I guess, cultural, maybe just, or generational differences that you noticed with the Niseis?

CT: Well, I guess I didn't act like the typical nice Nisei girl. [Laughs] I was much more outspoken. And coming from a family where my father went to Berkeley, all the more so. We discussed political issues and religious issues and world affairs and things like that. And so, I think I was probably a little bit too outspoken for this community. And I think I still am. [Laughs]

MA: Well, I was curious about your parents then as being Niseis, if they, if you ever noticed if they had a similar experience to you being that their peers were probably Isseis.

CT: There were still a lot of Niseis that they were friends with. So I don't remember that they had that many Issei friends. I mean, they played cards with a lot of other Niseis, the older Niseis. But then those... and those Niseis didn't have children that were my age. They were younger. I don't remember -- I do know that they played a lot of cards, and they got together for social things.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.