<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So thinking about... in Chicago many Japanese Americans came and many of them returned to the West Coast. And I'm curious in terms of one, your perceptions of the differences between the Japanese Americans who chose to stay in Chicago and then the Japanese Americans who went back to West Coast. Are there any differences between the two groups, generally, I realize individually sure there's these differences but as a group are there ways of characterizing or generalizing between the two?

KY: Well, I sort of feel like that those of us who stayed in Chicago as I mentioned, we're, all of this is very new but when you look at the West Coast things are established and there are some things there that I think prejudices and discrimination. And also maybe even on the part of the Japanese American, hesitancy to maybe undertake some things which they would like to. But I sort of feel like those of us who remained here, that we are not... although we live in a world of discrimination, racial injustice, but I don't think that, weren't not carrying, there's a lot more freedom. If we wanted to do some things, I think we would just go ahead and do it. It's freeing us from our past so that we are venturing into some new territory that has a lot of potential and possibility. I don't know if that's correct but I feel a more freedom and less restrictions maybe.

TI: That's interesting, it strikes me as something earlier you said. How when you first went to Tanforan you recognized that there were some maybe unspoken rules or norms that existed in the community. And it sounds like in the same way, Japanese Americans who went back to the West Coast although there was some kind of sense of maybe safety or something familiar I guess maybe on the West Coast. There were also those same rules and norms that perhaps were a little more constraining in terms of that they were doing, so that's interesting.

KY: I think that... I don't know, you would probably have a better idea but I think some of us feel somewhat free to pursue something maybe we wouldn't, we might be inhibited to do so if we lived in a community on the West Coast, I don't know.

TI: And I'm just curious, it's not like what you're saying is... I'm asking as a paper, as an academic paper like that, I'm just curious how people think. But in terms of just now recovering from the war experience, maybe you can't say one's better than the other but it sounds like what you're saying in Chicago and people who didn't go back, it was perhaps maybe easier, more freeing to be here than going back to the West Coast, to recover from what happened during the war.

KY: I don't know, that's kind of hard to say because depending on the circumstances... I don't know.

TI: Now when you think of the JSC, so you have programs for the aging, how would you... what's your sense in terms of the aging population? So these were individuals who had gone through the war years, many of them had gone through the camps, how well they've coped with that traumatic experience during the war years.

KY: My feeling is that on a whole they have done well. But you know, my perception is that although we live in this community, many of the Japanese have not integrated themselves, the Niseis particularly have not really integrated themselves as much into the community, that they still maintain their old ways and they're always on the margin rather than being a part of the community. Now the second, the third generation, because their children are going to school in the community, they have integrated themselves more, but I feel that many of the Niseis have really not integrated as much.

TI: And so they tend to, it's kind of interesting, when I have asked other Midwesterners, what you just said would be something that they would say about the West Coast Japanese. That by going back to the coast to a place like Los Angeles or San Francisco, they were able to stay more in their, be a little more clannish, a little more cliquish, but that they were forced by being in Chicago to be more integrated vis a vis the West Coast Japanese Americans. But what you're saying is even in Chicago they still kind of stay kind of in their own groups.

KY: Oh, yes. I think so, that you would think living in the environment that they are, that they would be more but many of the Niseis don't. They just belong to their church groups, but within, but they are less likely to have membership in the community organizations, that kind of thing, more support.

TI: Is it because in places like Chicago there are... is it a perception or are there actual external forces that perhaps make Japanese Americans feel less invited or wanted in these organizations?

KY: I think that my feeling is that the Japanese, the Niseis we're talking mainly, that they just don't feel... I guess the best way to describe it would be the mentality of a second class citizen. That they don't really feel that "this is my community." For instance, I live on the north side of Chicago, and for me, I like to feel I'm a member of that community and I'm interested in what's going on and will support different things. But I don't think that's the type of perception or thinking many of the Niseis have but they will just stick to the Japanese organizations.

TI: Fascinating, interesting. Yeah, this is all interesting as I go to different communities. I just try to get a flavor of each community and how they've coped especially after the war.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.