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BY: All right. So let's talk a little bit about your own sense of who you were, your identity. So do you remember when you first became aware of your Japanese American identity, like maybe how old you were, if there was something in particular that happened?
KY: I think I was young, like maybe elementary school. Probably would have been maybe fourth, fifth grade. I used to dread December 7th. And the date would come around and I just knew that there was going to be even more, sort of, poking at me. But there were always taunts on the playground or kids being kids. But I realized that being Japanese was something that sometimes I was not very proud of and I wanted to, sort of, hide my identity, which was impossible to do.
BY: And it sounds like you went to schools that were majority white, or at least not Asian, so you couldn't hide very well, you'd stick out a little.
KY: No.
[Interruption]
BY: So the next question, which is sort of related to what you were just talking about, did you ever feel like you were ever treated differently by anyone, either in a positive or negative way because you were Japanese American?
KY: I believe that I was treated differently, and it worked both ways. If I think about it, we talked about a little bit of "model minority" myth. I was not the good math student, and the expectation was, is that you do well. So I remember one Sunday my father was so disappointed that I couldn't do my multiplication tables, and so I had to make my own flash cards. And it was pointed out to me that you're supposed to be good at certain things, and you're supposed to be obedient, and you're supposed to be this or that, because that was part of the "model minority." And I couldn't quite fit in either way, whether it was positive or negative.
BY: So how did that make you feel? Do you recall your feelings?
KY: Somewhat "less than." Maybe kind of like my dad, like a second class citizen, that it's never going to be enough.
<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.