<Begin Segment 5>

FC: Will Japanese America survive?

KK: Numerically I don't know, as such. There's a lot of outmarriage and I think which is fine. I mean, it's natural.

PT: We're in transition. We're a very small marginalized group within this larger society with outmarriage amongst our children, but there are, I believe that it will survive because there are values inherent in Japanese culture and Japanese American culture that are very, very valuable to the larger community. Values that bring something to the table that we might be a multi-cultural society and not a melting pot.

FC: What are these values? What, if Japanese America seems, I see it, it seems to be fading fast, disappearing, and maybe it's true you can marry anybody you want and still maintain your cultural identity. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Seems to depend on the individual. But what are these values if they're this valuable, and can you show me that these values are still being carried by the young? Are these values valuable to the young Japanese Americans? Will they survive in the young no matter who they marry?

PT: Well, I look to the very interesting group, the Jews have survived for four thousand years without a country until recently and it's very interesting that, that civilizations in which the Jews survive are long gone, the Greek civilization, other civilizations. In Japanese American society, I think, there are cultural values that have to do with endurance, the value of community, the value of ethnicity, the value of the individual within the group, although there's a sense that Japanese society smothers the individual, yet there's a larger sense in which the individual is valuable within the ethnic group. And I think that we have come to understand that the melting pot theory in America, basically a racist concept, and that what we really need to work towards is a multi-cultural society where each individual is valued for what he or she is, whether as a Japanese American or a mixed-parentage person. It's when we come to understand that within this society, this very unique kind of society that is so different from other societies in Europe and the Far East where the individual is valued, but within a multi-cultural setting that we're a test tube for what the globe might look like within the next millennium. And it's here in Southern California that we'll either make it come true or we will see it die.

FC: What do you think, Kats?

KK: Well, when I try to think what are the traits that make Japanese Americans Japanese Americans, or what I would like to see the traits, and did I pass it on to my kids, the answer is no. What I'd like to think of as Japanese American is a, first of all there is the what the Japanese call kenson, which puts yourself last, you know, "after you my dear Watson," type of thing. And that is an attitude that's not going to get you anywhere in the United States, and so there are assertive training classes and all that. But it is that type of courtesy that is fast disappearing from this Earth, I think, which is so valuable. And if we had that type of respect for each other, it would be so nice. And the other is finding something to do that is worthwhile to yourself and work hard at it. That we really must find a way of educating our children so that they find this something to do that is worthwhile to them, instead of just making them go through certain set pattern, it seems.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1995, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.