Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Kornhauser Interview (denshovh-kmichiko

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SG: What kind of idea did you have about the United States before you came and then what was different? What did you, your vision before you came and then your experience or your thoughts after you arrived here and see what it was really like?

MK: Well, America is so large, contained so many different people with so many different ideas and manners and attitudes. There are good people and the bad people just like Japan. And then before I came, because of the experience with the shoe boxes from Wisconsin, the magnanimity of Americans, I felt, I found like my host families, Japanese Americans as well as Caucasians, they are always good to me. Some people took me to Maui, island of Maui, island of Kauai. I didn't have to pay anything, and then it's just amazing, the attitude. And then so America didn't disappoint me. But when I, soon after I went back to Japan, I remember I had a chance to give a talk on America, my experience in America, and then I told the truth about America, what I saw, because the request came: what I saw in America, would you explain it? So naturally, I talked about my Jewish friends not being able to go into, in a sorority house and all these things as well as what happened to black people. Even in New York, in the Chinatown when I wanted to, when I was having meal and then on Manhattan Island, couple black people came, sat down, all the waiters and waitresses disappeared. And the next time a woman came by herself, the waiter came out, head waiter came out, and, "You, out." I couldn't believe.

And then when I was in Atlanta, Georgia, my host family mother was ex-WAC, and then she was very skillful at driving. She said, "You live in a nice place, northwest, northeast, very nice residential area, medical doctors, but there is South Atlanta that you ought to know that exists." So one evening, well, one afternoon, she drove me to the ghetto area. The moment we entered, it was my fault I had camera, began to take pictures around from the car, somebody shouted, and pretty soon we're being chased after by black youths with sticks and whatnot they had. Fortunately, the driver, my host mother, was very skillful at driving. We'd meander this way and that way. But three cars full of blacks just all shouting, kill, kill, kill, and they came after us. And then she came to one street, and then she saw the cars parked alongside the street. She said, "Michiko, get under the dashboard," so I just got under the dashboard, and she went into the open space and then parked the car. She, herself, just came over my body and just stopped the engine. But I was so curious. I just peeped. And then all these black people in the car, three cars full, yelling with the sticks and whatnot, and they passed by us. And we waited there for a long time and then finally came back safely. But things like that I spoke at the Roppongi International House when I was invited.

And then also I talked about what happened when I was at the East-West Center. East-West Center students became like kind of a goldfish in a fishbowl. That's something new. And then sailors in Pearl Harbor thought that East-West Center was someplace that provided girls to the sailors. So one time I got a call from the German and then said, "Michiko, you have an invitation. Why don't you wear kimono and then go out?" and so I said, "Okay." And then this man came in a red sports car and then scoop me up and then put me in the car and then took me to a bar, and then he hoist me right on the kind of a grand piano. "Sing a song," he said. I didn't know what to do. And then he wanted me to have a drink, and I can't drink any alcohol. And then obviously, he pretty soon realized that it was the wrong girl, just like I didn't know how to dance.

And then another time, the Thanksgiving Day came, and one family, one woman invited us, invited three girls, two Americans and then myself, and then we went. And during the dinner, throughout the dinner, drinks and so on, she, four sailors are invited from Pearl Harbor as well. I kept noticing that these people kept going back to their car, and I didn't know what was happening. No drinks were served at the dinner. And then finally at the end, the host mother, the lady who invited us said, "I'm very busy trying to clean the place. I can't take you girls back to the East-West Center dormitory." And then one of the sailors said, "Well, we can take the girls back." And then we got in the car. I sat right behind the driver, and then I noticed whiskey bottle empty at my feet, and I knew what was happening. And then my friend got in next to the driver, and the other friend got, American friend sat next to me. And then the moment the car began to move, the driver said, "I don't know where East-West Center is." So my friend from New York said that, "Oh, you go straight ahead. I'll tell you how to get there." And the driver said, "I don't like the way you speak." The car began to go at high speed. I didn't know what to do, and then I was shaking. And at one point, the driver tried to make u-turn. Fortunately, driver's side was this side. It's particularly still, right? Now I was very light at the time, 95 pounds or 97 pounds, and then had been riding horses. So exactly at that point, I had three-inch high heels, the Chinese very tight Hong Kong made Chinese dress, but when I was desperate, I guess, some kind of courage comes up inside me and I opened the door and then put my, the high heels out. And then just using the momentum, I was able to turn myself, body out and jump out of the car, running car. [Laughs] And when that happened, the driver, everybody was ooh. The driver stopped the car, and I just rushed into the other side and then stopped the oncoming car and then jumped into the car and just screamed, I remember. Then two other girls followed me, and then we were taken to the, back to the East-West Center. Fortunately, the blind date, the American, Japanese American young people were driving, and then they took us back to the East-West Center. And later on, I was told that those sailors got thrown into stockade or something.

[Interruption]

The accumulated experiences I had that I thought that there were something that I could talk about at the Roppongi International House that when I was, requested to give a talk about America. So I honestly talked about what I saw. Well, the big hall was full of people, very close to American Embassy. Embassy people are there as well. And after I talked, one man got up, obviously from the South, and he shouted and then said, "Don't you know that we love niggers? They hate us. You are not telling the truth, and then you're just trying to cause problem. You are trying to make Japanese people hate Americans." I was really shocked. I realized that I can't even talk about the truth about this country. That's what I found out.