Densho Digital Repository
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Clara S. Hattori Interview I
Narrator: Clara S. Hattori
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: December 8, 2014
Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-426-15

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TI: And just hearing about your father, he seemed pretty gregarious and out there, he could speak English, he had American, Caucasian friends. How did he, what did he say or think about America or living in America? Did he ever talk about that?

CH: Well, all I know is that since, after being in America and establishing himself like that, I mean, this is where he wanted to raise, his kids were born in America, and he wanted to raise his kids to be, to be American and stay in America and not go to Japan. A lot of the families were sending their kids to Japan to get some education and then come back. They were called Kibeis. A lot of them stayed, and a lot of them came back, they could read and write and they were not too Americanized. You could tell who they... I remember when we were evacuated, they had, the Kibeis, when I call them Kibeis, they're the ones that were educated in Japan. A lot of the men decided they wanted to go back to Japan, they didn't want to stay in America. And they were shipped back with the diplomats. In Tule Lake they had all the Kibeis gathered up, and they put 'em on the bus and shipped them over to Idaho somewhere. And then I think they were shipped back to New York and put on a boat.

TI: Now where you grew up, were there very many Kibei that you knew?

CH: I didn't know any, I didn't know. I didn't associate too much with them. I don't think there were any Kibeis in our church that were, wanted to go back to Japan. I don't remember anyone.

TI: Well, so as you were growing up, did you think of yourself more as American or Japanese?

CH: More American. Because you know, Roseville High School, there weren't any Japanese type crowd, or there wasn't any... you know, unless I went to church, and then there were some young people's doings, but I was more or less away from that kind of stuff. So I don't remember any.

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