<Begin Segment 7>

EG: Let's talk about some things, ideas, and things that are important to you. Let me start with something that is important to me, that you know a lot about. What do you think is the future of Japanese Americans in the United States?

FS: The United States includes Hawaii.

EG: Uh-huh.

FS: And 30 or 40 percent of the people in Hawaii are Japanese. (Daniel Inouye), their senator, lost an arm in Italy. The mayor of Honolulu, I think he's Japanese -- was when I was there, Japanese. But they're not going to dominate, they're not gonna take over the country.

EG: Let me tell you something that I think is happening, and you tell me what you think about that. You know that a majority of the young Japanese people are marrying out of the group. Some of your own grandchildren, I guess. Well, your own daughter, of course. But I think that's going on, and in not too many generations, I don't think there're going to be people that think of themselves as Japanese any more. What do you think?

FS: Well, not only the Japanese, but every other non-American, including the American Indians, tends to dilute the American heritage, American blood. So that most of us are native-born Americans, but few of us are 100 percent American.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.