Title: "Chinese Girl, Taken for Jap, Embarrassed," Seattle Times, 1/1/1945, (ddr-densho-56-1091)
Densho ID: ddr-densho-56-1091

Chinese Girl, Taken for Jap, Embarrassed

Concern with "any possible untoward incidents because of mistaken identity," in connection with the return of Japanese to the Pacific Northwest, was expressed last night by Dr. Kiang Yi-seng, Chinese consul, after a report that a Chinese girl has been embarrassed on a suburban bus by being mistaken for a Japanese.

The girl, Valeen Pon, University of Washington co-ed, reported that twice in the past week she had been asked by bus drivers to show proof of her identity when boarding a bus to ride from Orting to Puyallup.

On one occasion, when she and her roommate, Phyllis Aust, with whose parents she spent the holidays in Orting, boarded the bus, she heard shipyard workers murmur:

"I'd rather lose a day's pay than ride on the same bus with a Jap."

Then four or five men stalked off the bus, and she realized it was she they had been talking about.

The bus driver, she said, asked that she take the next bus, then asked for identification. Embarrassed, the two girls left the bus, they reported.

"I found the excitement interesting," she said, "but I was just a little concerned about anything of that sort growing, so I reported it to the Chinese consul."

The co-ed's parents were born in China and now are British subjects at Wainwright, Alta. She was born in Canada.

"We are no more happy when we are mistaken for Japanese than American people should be when they are mistaken for Nazi Germans," the consul added.