<Begin Segment 27>

TL: During the trip, did you find that you appreciated or thought of your Japanese American identity differently?

YB: I think, well, you, you can, I would put it that where I could find even more respect than I was taught to have. To see what the background of our parents really had been, or was, or is at that time. And the students that we met and many girls among them going to college, university, which was maybe not as prominent then. And the cordial welcome, the warm welcome they gave us, whether they were nobility or just ordinary people -- they greeted us very warmly and very kindly. The only thing was if we went up into the country sightseeing, making tours where there maybe groups of students that were on trips also along with us. They would all follow us and look at us, wanted to see from America, they wanted to know if there was anything different about us. And they could practically stare a hole through you and we would let them. And they would talk to us and we would talk to them, and they would, "Oh, they can speak Japanese..." they'd be surprised. Then they wanted to listen to us speak English, so (we) would speak English, "Can you understand our English, what is your name?" And then they say, "What did she say anyway," in Japanese. So I'd translate it for them and they'd, "Oh..." But that's how much, what can I say, they weren't quite used to seeing people from America or other countries yet at that time. So they would follow you around, wondering what you might do different. Of course it's different now. But we were wined and dined by nobility and different organizations, YMCA, YWCA, women's group and large organizations that it was very, very interesting their reaction to our... and we had one girl who could speak very fluent Japanese, so she would speak in Japanese. So we had something. And then the girl who was a very fast typist and they were learning typing also, but no one that could type as fast as she could. And they would demonstrate the abacus, those little counting mach, boards, they could go fast on that, that we could never do. So they would demonstrate that for us. And it was really interesting. And then students that would follow you around and around... for days, wondering what you might do different that they didn't know about. [Laughs] Or if we're on a university trip we had once, and so the boys, there is only two boys in our group, so they said Yone, I understand you got a letter. And I said, "What kind of a letter?" I said, "I can get letters all the time." "Well you got one special one that we know of and we want to know what's in it." [Laughs] From one of the students... college students, I guess, that wanted us to write, correspond with him. And I did for awhile, until I got married and I think they eventually got married too. But it's interesting, they wrote beautiful English letters, I was embarrassed because I might have had mistakes in some of mine. But they would always check their own to make sure theirs were perfect. And I also corresponded with some of the girls, women.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.