<Begin Segment 23>

SY: So how do you see the Japanese American community in terms of the future? What do you predict in terms of how it's going?

HK: That's a good question, that's a very good question. We're one of the Asian groups that have been here longer, Chinese certainly and Japanese. Japanese have assimilated very strongly, acculturated into the larger society, professionally and a lot of other ways. So what's happening is that this is a reflection of concern for Little Tokyo, a future Little Tokyo and other Japantowns like in San Jose and San Francisco, Seattle to some degree. The future of our ethnic communities, so I have a concern for that and I'm concerned about Little Tokyo right here, about its future existence. It's a very important part of our culture, it's the heart of our culture in many ways. But to see it diminish and talking about no longer what it is today or what it was before for that matter. To see that kind of disintegrating and changing is very disturbing to me but it's a reflection of all our assimilation, our acculturation. We went to the suburbs and became acculturated and that's fine too, and I understand how that happens. So I guess that's going to be, we have discussions now about what is the future of the Japanese American community? Are we even going to be still a community? Well, I don't know, that's a good question because there's more interracial marriages. One of my sons, Reed, our younger one is married to an Irish girl, an Irish American, their two kids are hapas and the hapa population is growing obviously in particular in California. So what is the future of the Japanese American community? That's a good question again. I don't think we're going to fight... we're going to have to fight to keep it still a viable community, but I think eventually we're going to probably, years down the road, we may not be... I'm sure we won't be what it is today. So I see that acculturation, assimilation taking place.

SY: So would you like to see us being able to preserve certain things in our culture?

HK: Yes, I think that there is a lot of beauty to our culture and a lot of plusses that I think we'd like to maintain, and it's hard to do that. Because young people now, they're not coming to Little Tokyo, they're not going to the festivals or whatever. Some are, which is good, we need to continue doing that, but again with the acculturation and interracial marriages going on, I think way down the road we're not going to be... we're going to be a much smaller community.

SY: Do you think that your own children have maintained a connection?

HK: To some degree. To some degree but not nearly as much as we would like, but they live their own lives and their own styles of life. To some degree because we have contact with them and we talk about this a lot, but when we're gone and a lot of other Nisei, Sansei are gone, this whole acculturation thing is going to play out and it'll be the dilution of our community. And I guess maybe that's inevitable, probably is, probably inevitable. So it's just a matter of time.

SY: I know that the JACL is talking about this same issue.

HK: Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SY: Have you had any input or any discussions?

HK: Well, not input per se, but I observe what's going on and their JACL is trying to continue to exist but their members are down, their income is down, they've had to cut back, they've had to lay people off. So the same things are going on there as well as people acculturate or assimilate, they just don't see the great need for JACL or other Asian American groups for that matter. So as I said, maybe that's inevitable and that maybe we would not be the same community obviously as the years go by.

SY: But you do have this Greater Pasadena JACL that still does things from time to time?

HK: Yeah, as issues do come up, we kind of rally the troops and make phone calls, write letters, whatever.

SY: But it's not an ongoing by any stretch?

HK: No, it's not. The issues have changed and that's just the stuff of life, but we have to change too but we still know that we still have a ways to go, so we keep working at it.

SY: And education is a part of your life.

HK: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely true. That's certainly one powerful vehicle we can use to bring about a better understanding about the diversity, multiplicity of our country, and I hope that we can perpetuate that for the better good, the common good.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.