<Begin Segment 3>

BF: So did you have much of a, what they called the, the identity, the Asian American identity, when you were growing up? Or were you one of those Nikkeis who said, "You know, I never really thought of myself as being Japanese"?

GU: I thought of myself as Japanese, because you know, every, everybody in high school except me and maybe three others, were, were white. There were some Hispanics. But my mother was one of those very diligent students, so she went to Japanese school during the summer and she was completely proficient in the language, the reading and the writing. There was Japanese food on the table every day. So that even if I went to school and regard, and would try to regard myself as something other than Japanese, my whole life at home, including the language spoken by my grandparents who lived with us, was Japanese.

BF: So did you speak very much Japanese when you were that age?

GU: I was, I was, I'm told that I was completely bilingual until I was six or seven, and then I lost it. I still understand very simple, kitchen Japanese. I can understand, for example, the chitchat behind, behind the sushi bar. But once it gets into, even a Japanese television quiz show, that level I'm out of it. I don't, I don't understand it.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.