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CC: I think Virginia is going to finish up with some final questions?

VY: Yeah. Just a few more questions, kind of wrap up and kind of reflect on what we talked about today. And I was kind of wondering, I don't know if this question is very easy to answer, actually, but I was wondering if you remember when you first became aware of your Japanese American identity.

MM: I actually don't know. Actually, I never thought about race and that sort of thing very seriously until recently, I mean, when it became a national issue with the Blacks and all that. I mean, it's not like I wasn't aware of it, it's just I never thought about it very much. I was too involved in my work and playing music and all that, I just didn't even think about it too much. Only when... it only became an issue when I would have problems, like with that principal that I was telling you about when I was working, and that was more racism than anything, and I was thinking of it as a racist comment, and when certain incidences would come up. But I would just brush them off, except for that principal thing. That really affected me and it made me think about, well, I always thought it was because of his age. I mean, he retired the year after that incident. I kept thinking he should have retired two years before. [Laughs] I think it was, he's a product of his age, we all are. So you're more aware, you guys are more aware of the racial things that are going on. I should have been more aware, but I wasn't. I was involved in music and raising a child and all that, not too much about the racial things.

VY: Well, but what you're saying is very interesting because it sort of shows that a lot of times we don't think about these things until people tell us we're different.

MM: Right.

VY: And the fact that he used that slur and other people in your life used that slur, that's when all of a sudden things kind of stop for a second.

MM: Right. But the thing for me is that because I've been treated pretty well in the entire community, I don't very often think about it. But I can see that if you're always given that kind of feedback like that principal, it would become a major thing in your life. But that hasn't been the case for me. I mean, it's just incidences here and there, and maybe others, there have been others, but I might have just been unaware. I can say I was just unaware that it was a racist comment, and it just kind of went over my head. Because I wasn't really very sensitive to it. And it's only been since I became more... well, I had this friend, this Black friend, who, I've been friends with her a long time, but it wasn't until after I retired that I really got to know her because we would walk the mall all the time. And we got to talking, and I didn't even realize that Seattle was really racist for a long time. I mean, because I didn't experience any of that. But she was telling me about all the things she's experienced, and I'm going, "What? What? Really?" Kind of like that. It's just such an eye-opener when you talk to somebody who's experienced all this. Then you realize, oh my gosh, I've been living in a fool's paradise. So that might be true with a lot of people, actually, who don't mean to be racist, but they're not aware, kind of like me, that it's going on for a lot of people, the negative things that go on.

VY: Yeah... go ahead.

MM: No, that's all right.

VY: I was going to ask you, how important is your Japanese American identity to you?

MM: I don't think of it as an important... well, I don't know. I never thought about it, actually. But I'm glad to be Japanese American. I don't even say I'm Japanese American, I just say I'm Japanese, because that's what they ask you on the forms. And so I just say Japanese and I'm very proud of it. I mean, but I'm American as well. But the thing is, my parents always made me feel like, that Japanese culture was important, I mean, that there was nothing wrong with the culture. I think they always said I should be proud to be Japanese. And I don't know, I always just took it at their word and I never felt especially inflated or deflated by it. I just accepted it and, in fact, if anybody said anything negative, it would just make me mad, it wouldn't make me cringe into myself. That's what I mean, I don't want it... it doesn't make me feel any less of a person, I think, but I don't know. Because psychologically, you don't know how things affect you over the long haul. So I'm not really sure, to tell you the truth. But I haven't been ashamed to be a Japanese American or Japanese even, I mean, just without the American part of it. I'm just me. I think of me as just being me, and I've got a Japanese heritage, and I'm glad for it.

Because I see that part of the problem with the Blacks is that their heritage has been the slavery part and that's hard to, I think, come to a realization that your ancestors were slaves. I mean, I don't know, but I think it would be, because I know that my parents come from really good stock, but what's that mean? I mean, I don't really know what that means. But I would think that, like say if my parents were criminals or something, I would be maybe ashamed, but it would really reflect on me unless I were the same kind of thing, I mean, the same kind of person. So it's kind of like, yeah, that was way long time ago, the slavery. But they still have this background and people are always saying things to remind you of that. And there's a part of me -- and this may not be very politically correct -- but I think there are a lot of Blacks that really quite impressive, and I wish they would emphasize that more instead of the ones that are not doing so well. So that the younger people can see, the younger Blacks can see that there are all these really important people that you can look up to, and that we need to see that it has not so much to do with race, it has more to do with how you conduct your life and what you do. I mean, because I think there are a lot of amazing Black people in this world, right? Not to set them off as a racial thing, but including all the different races, I mean, we all have different people that we can look up to. But when it's all in their face all the time about people that are committing this or committing that crime or something, it doesn't help the younger people, I don't think, to see that. So that's sort of a political statement on my part.

<End Segment 40> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.