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BY: I want to ask you a few questions about your Japanese American identity. So do you remember when you first became aware of your Japanese American identity?

SS: No, I don't. I mean, I feel like it's always been a part of my life, because I grew up in a Japanese church and Japanese family.

BY: Was there ever a time when you suddenly became aware that you were different from the other people who were around you in some way? In other words, when you were not with your Japanese American community or friends.

SS: Well, I would say I felt fairly, very comfortable with my identity and who I was until I went to Stanford. So my first year at Stanford, I was in a freshman dorm with about ninety people. There were three floors, so two floors of guys and the middle floor was women. And out of the ninety people, I think there were, oh, probably about ten or twelve people of color, about half of them were Asian and two of them were international students from Hong Kong and Malaysia. So that's the first time that I had been in a situation where like eighty percent or more of the people around me were white. And also it was a class thing, too, because they were generally all pretty well-to-do white folks. And I just didn't really feel comfortable. So that first quarter we were right next to the Chicano theme house, Zapata House. So I remember I would, like of like on the playfield and stuff, I would go hang out with the Zapata House folks. Because they were like thirty percent Chicano in that dorm and that felt more like home. So it was probably at least the second quarter before I started feeling more comfortable.

BY: So at the time when you were at Stanford, did the Asian American theme house exist, and did you spend any time there?

SS: Yeah. So there was an Asian American theme house. When I was there, it was at Junipero House. Later they moved it one house over and renamed the building as Okada House, but I think that happened the year after I graduated. So my senior year, I decided to live in Junipero House, the Asian American theme house.

BY: So was there ever a time that you felt that you were treated differently or discriminated against by anyone in either a positive or negative way? And if you can think of an incident, a time that that happened, if you can describe it?

SS: I don't really remember. In high school, the only time I can remember someone referencing my ethnic heritage was my class was running a dunking booth at the county fair. You know, one of those things where someone sits on a little thing and you throw balls, and if you hit the target, then they drop in the water. So we were unloading the big tank, and I was standing on one end, and then something slipped so then the other end dropped. And it was like a catapult, so I just went shooting over. I didn't get hurt, but I was literally up in the air and rolling around. So one of my high school football friends said, "Oh, there's a little nip in the air." And everyone laughed, including me. And I realized at the time that it was a reference to me being Japanese, but I also knew that it wasn't meant in a discriminatory way, or it wasn't meant as a put-down, so that's it. I think there were some teachers who didn't say it out loud, but the feeling I got is, well, "You should do well because you're Japanese American, and all my Japanese American kids do well in class."

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.