Densho Digital Archive - Yukiko Miyake Interview (denshovh-myukiko-01-0010)

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SY: You talked about this feeling before and that often you identified yourself as an Issei more than a Nisei, and you talked about the feeling of a very big difference between Issei's way and Nisei's way of doing things. Can you tell me more about that?

YM: Maybe because I was raised by grandmother and she was so Japanese-y, I think I was really more Japanese-y than my friends were. My friends were more Americanized, more Americanized. They went to the movies more often than I did, and so if anything did happen that was detrimental to Japan, I would say, "Oh, no, no, Japan would never do things like that." But I think that was greatly influenced by my grandmother because she was so pro, but I think anybody would be at that time.

SY: Why is that?

YM: Pro-Japanese? Well, nowadays you don't feel it as much, but... there was discrimination. No one can tell me there was no discrimination. There is a discrimination. There was a discrimination. I don't know how it is now, but the thing is, they took so much for granted. They were never the first class citizen. They were the second class citizen, or I don't know what you would call them, but they didn't care.

SY: You mean the Japanese didn't care?

YM: The Japanese will say, "They are very insulting, aren't they? Oh, well, after all they are hakujin."

SY: What kinds of experiences of discrimination did you have?

YM: Well, what kind of discrimination did I have? I think I was always discriminated unless I went to the Buddhist church, then I was never discriminated because it was all Japanese. When I went to school like I said, they called me a heathen and I didn't know any better.

SY: A heathen?

YM: Uh-huh.

SY: And you didn't know any better? What do you mean?

YM: Because I didn't know what a heathen was. And I remember 4th of July. Yes, I remember one incident 4th of July. Some of the young people started throwing fire crackers, and they threw it at us, and we had to hide because it might hurt us. But it happened so often that if it didn't happen, I think we would be surprised.

SY: So every day something would happen.

YM: Yeah, something really small, but...

SY: And this is in elementary school?

YM: Oh, yeah.

SY: And that was Bailey Gatzert then?

YM: Bailey Gatzert.

SY: So were there a lot of Japanese in Bailey Gatzert?

YM: There were mostly Japanese at Bailey Gatzert and Chinese and few, very few, hakujins.

SY: But even there you felt discrimination.

YM: Oh. Well, yeah, I think so. I think so. We were never smart enough. Like, if we couldn't understand English, the teachers would get mad at us, but why should they get mad at us because they knew at home we spoke nothing but Japanese. And they said if you want to be a good citizen, you must learn to speak English, which is true. We should and we tried, but if we made a mistake, they would really get mad at us.

SY: Like what would they do?

YM: Oh, well, I remember one teacher used to take a ruler and she, well, never hit us girls, but hit boys with a ruler. And, in fact, I remember the teacher's name. Her name was Miss Lewis and she would hit so hard she would break the ruler, but they were always in the right. But nowadays you can't do that with children. You don't go around hitting them.

SY: Why would she hit the student?

YM: Because we didn't speak English and that's the part that was hard to take, I think. But on the other hand, we thought oh, well, we can't help it because at home we spoke Japanese. And I think I was very fortunate because when uncle came to stay with us, well, he taught me English, so, but that doesn't mean that I knew more English than the rest of them. I think, so I think the children nowadays are very fortunate because the teachers can't hit them.

SY: What else happened in school?

YM: They had a rubber strap, but I really don't know what happened. And the boys would come back and they said wow, and they wouldn't sit in a chair for a while, but I don't know whether they really got hit or they got scared. So I really can't say much about that, but they did have a rubber strap and the teachers... but there were some really good teachers, too. They were very kind teachers and they did everything for us, and they tried to help us out, but when you come from a Japanese community and learn nothing but Japanese and then go to school, it's kind of hard to learn to say -- maybe we could say "good morning" and "how are you," maybe, gradually. You can't go to school one day and say "good morning" or "how are you." We have to learn that. And some of the teachers forgot that we came from an entirely different kind of family.