Densho Digital Repository - Karen Yoshitomi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-527-13)

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BY: And so these are sort of some reflection questions. So how important is your Japanese identity to, your Japanese American identity to you, say on a scale of one to ten?

KY: It was probably around an eight, it was pretty high, but it's not the only...

BY: Okay. So talk about why you chose eight.

KY: Because I think that there are certain things about my Japanese heritage that are important in terms of some of the values and perspectives on life. But there's also this piece that needs to recognize how the "Japaneseness" fits into the global perspective, or even just if you bring it back to my own little area, to American way of life. And I have the luxury of picking and choosing. I can pick the good things that I like about being Japanese American, and I can utilize some of the negative things and figure out how to turn that into a positive. So it's important but it's not a hundred percent. [Laughs]

BY: Okay. You talked a little bit about the values. So what values did your parents instill in you?

KY: I think one is friendships in terms of tomodachi, and importance of not only having friends, but being a good friend. And I think that there was also this obligation or debt, and call it on. And it's this, you know, your life is not just your life, it's a culmination of a lot of other things, and so you have to conduct yourself in that way. So it's about how we treat other people, I think that that was an important value that Mom and Dad instilled. And then not just for my mom and dad, but from Mom's parents, Baachan and Jiichan, this sense of living in gratitude. Baachan and Jiichan said... okay, let's see. They used to do sutra chanting twice a day and three times on Sundays. It was the first thing they did in the morning and the very last thing that they did at night. And sutra chanting is sort of, it is basically showing your gratitude. In the morning you do it, "Thank you for waking up," and, "I'm alive today." And it's the last thing you go do before you go to bed, because it's thanking for another productive day. So without knowing it, and after I grew up with it for years and years, it just became commonplace. But I didn't understand what the ritual was until much later, but it's this, it's got to be gratitude. And if you live being thankful, live your life being thankful, then the hard times are not quite as hard.