<Begin Segment 11>

LG: We you always aware of your Japanese American identity?

DM: You know what? When you're a kid, you just think of yourself as a person. You don't think of yourself as a color. So no, at some point, and I think it was actually when I moved to Seabrook and I met people of different colors, I realized I was different. And then I realized, as I grew up, the animosity towards specifically Japanese Americans because of the Second World War. But when you see the Chinese that had to wear signs, "I am Chinese," so they wouldn't be abused or they didn't have to meet the... at night, you couldn't stay out after curfew, so they had to wear signs. You want to hear something silly? When I went to Japan with a group of friends, went on a tour, there was this other Asian couple on the tour with us. Stupid me goes up to them and says, "Were you incarcerated?" because they looked to be about our age. And he said, "No." I said, "Why?" he says, "We're Chinese." I was so embarrassed. But for some reason I thought, "Why would Chinese tour Japan when the Japanese were so mean to them? So I never -- and that's a flaw in my personality -- thinking a Chinese person would not tour Japan. In this day and age, that was ignorance on my part, and I'm truly embarrassed by it. I will never do that again. They have every right to tour Japan, but I didn't think they would.

LG: Was that your first trip to Japan?

DM: Yes, first and only.

LG: When was that?

DM: Two thousand and four. I had to wait until I retired from my school job, because back then, I could only go during the summer. Well, they say Japan is not the place to go in the summer, so I think we went in October.

LG: What was it like going to Japan?

DM: It was an eye-opener. I could see the pride in the Japanese people, not a piece of litter anywhere. Don't ever even think of dropping a cigarette butt on the sidewalk. They are the neatest people. I've been to Italy, but I haven't been traveling extensively except in the United States, we're a bunch of pigs. You eat at McDonald's? Throw it out the window, the wrapper out the window. Soda can? Out the window. You don't do that in Japan. They are so neat. And how can you fault neatness? You can't. But it also shows a certain... it shows pride, and pride can be good. Sometimes pride can be damaging, but that's the one thing I noticed. And they catered to the Caucasians. Because when we were on the tour, we were never approached as a group, but they would always gravitate to the Caucasians. The schoolchildren would ask the Caucasians to talk to them in English. And maybe that was because they probably thought we didn't speak English, I don't know. But it's a marvelous country and I admire the Japanese people a lot. They have a lot of good qualities. And I think things are getting better, things are getting better. Because I think... and I heard this on TV one day, they were interviewing this Japanese girl. And you know how that "one child" thing started in China, and you're allowed to have one male child, and you heard stories about female children being thrown out to the wolves and left in forests and things. Well, in Japan, number one son is so valuable. Well, this girl was saying, "Couples don't want number one son now, anymore," because number one son was supposed to take care of the family, the parents when they got old. Number one sons, because the number one daughter-in-law doesn't want to do that anymore, so many families are saying they want one number one daughter now, because number one daughter will take care of you. It's a funny thing, but I grew up number one son. My brother was ichiban. Middle child? Nothing. Older daughter, everything, but number one son got even more than everything.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.