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AI: Well, now during this time, this period of working with Ryther and then up to and including this time of starting the alternative school, you're also raising your own child. And I was wondering how, what you chose to discuss with your daughter about her situation of being a biracial child at a time when there weren't as many biracial children as there are now and what you chose to pass onto her.

CN: Well, we, we talked about biracialness ever since she was very little because, of course, she was growing up in a family where both parents didn't look like each other. And so she was very much aware of that and that there would be -- just like our parents said to us -- "There will be people who will discriminate against you, and give you a bad time. But remember" -- I'm repeating myself -- "Remember what your family, where you come from, and what kind of family you come from. And you could hold your head up high and know that you're, you're just as good as anyone else." And so using the same kind of thing -- not the exact words, of course -- I tried to impress upon our daughter that it would be difficult, but just think how exciting it is to have two different kinds of cultures that you could mix together and, and grow up. And she identifies more with the Japanese part. Of course, it depends upon what she's doing, I think, or who she's with, maybe, but more of what she's involved in. That she is, I think, comfortable with both. And if you were to see her, you would say, some people, the Caucasian people, would say, well, she looks just like I do. She doesn't. And the, but the Niseis, the Japanese part, would say, well, she looks more Caucasian. But you, you can tell that she's a mix.

AI: And do you recall what kinds of questions she had for you as she was growing up, about... or if she had many questions about her identity, or about how other people treated her, or how she felt about herself?

CN: She went to school at, in a racially mixed group, so she was, I think, quite comfortable. I mean, she didn't feel different. I think when it came to dating, perhaps, that she felt a lot more different than otherwise. Though she dated Caucasian boys, and, but she seems very comfortable with, with men from both sides. And she also has some very good Afro American friends, too.

<End Segment 37> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.