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JG: Going back, one of the things that's intriguing to me is the, thinking about Nisei Week in particular, something that you enjoy being part of, you're involved with, you're actively involved with. What would you say, given that the, the Japanese American community has certainly evolved, you know the Nisei, Nisei Week started, I guess, in the 1930s. It was a way to bring Nisei back to the community. The Issei decided that this would be a good thing, bring people back by in the community. I mean, what do you say to those, if someone were to say to you, why do we need to keep having Nisei Week? What is, what are the merits of this? Here we are, it's 2010, the community has really evolved and we're more or less integrated into mainstream American society now. What is the value of something like Nisei Week for the contemporary Japanese American community?

GF: That, that's a bone of contention for everyone. What is the value and why do we do it? And it's to always be there, and so that we can remember our heritage and we can teach our, our children, our next generation what their heritage is, and that we are still a vibrant community. It's very difficult because I've seen the change a lot, and it's our own fault. You look at Little Tokyo. Little Tokyo, the face of Little Tokyo's changed a hundred percent. You go there in the evening, you go there during the day, majority of people you see there are not Japanese. A lot of the businesses now are not owned by Japanese. They may be Japanese names, but they're not owned by Japanese. And we have ourselves to blame for that because the Japanese are the most assimilated of all the minorities. Sixty percent of all Japanese are marrying non-Japanese. I look at my own family. I look at my sisters, I look at my cousins, and you have Hispanic, Indonesian, Caucasian. It's just a mixture of all different races. And so obviously you get these family members that are like that and they say, "Well, I don't care about the Japanese community." But it's still their heritage. No matter what else, still be their heritage. Even their children, even if they're half Japanese, it's still part of their heritage. But that's really hard because it's just like with the mortuary. You get a Japanese spouse who's married to a non-Japanese and let's say she passes away, that spouse says, "Okay, why do we have to use the Japanese mortuary? I'll just use Forest Lawn." And so same thing with the community, "Why should I go to, to Little Tokyo for Nisei Week when we're not even, we don't even celebrate any Japanese culture?" I don't know. I think things are changing. I do notice, too, because the Japanese have assimilated so much that they spread out a lot, too. So you have your Japanese that live in San Fernando, South Bay, West L.A., Orange County, South Orange County, and so some of those may say, "Well, I'm not gonna go all the way into Little Tokyo to see a festival. I'll just go to OCBC's. I'll go to San Fernando's. I'll go to West L.A.'s Obon, and not go there." But we still want to continue it because we still feel that people should be aware of their heritage no matter what percent Japanese they are. But like I said, it has changed. The face of Little Tokyo has changed, where a lot of times we find a lot of people who are attending the events are all Caucasian. They want to learn more about it than some of the Japanese. But then I think over the past five, ten years, I do see more and more Japanese coming back. When JACCC puts on the, say, their Children's Day event, you do see more Japanese families, younger families, getting involved, wanting to, to participate, and I think that's good.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.