<Begin Segment 2>

EK: Just a question of my own, actually, because you said that you didn't really have... I wouldn't say association, but you didn't think too much about your Japanese American identity. And just wondering if that moment where your teacher was like, hey, what was incarceration like for your family, was that kind of a moment where you were like, oh, I am a Japanese American? Or was it... was there a different part in your -- moment in your life where you're like, yeah, I want to know more about my Japanese American heritage and stuff like that.

TB: Yeah, totally. That's such a good question, Elaine. It's hard to pinpoint a first experience. Certainly, there was a time when I was in public school and parents would come by for me to be... I don't want to say show and tell, that's kind of mean to parents, like "come and show and tell my parent." But my mom would come into class along with other folks and she would do origami lessons for the class. And I remember that, and being kind of proud of that, that that's my Japanese mom showing Japanese things. But, for her, she's born in Japan and has always identified as Japanese first and American second. I think on paper, she might acknowledge that she's JA, but she really sees, at her core, she's a Japanese person living in this country. And so that's kind of a bit of how I saw myself. And then when I got into middle school, high school, of course, I kind of bought into the whole, got to assimilate, fit in, I'm an American, I don't see race. So I bought into the whole concept that if I kind of fit in, I won't be called out like that. And so when I was called out like that in middle school, that was pretty shocking. I don't think it made me want to identify more as JA, honestly, Elaine, I think that moment probably made me want to hide in my shell a bit. So, wasn't well done on the teacher's part, not to dis them, because they probably had a good intention, but it was just like, what? [Laughs]

EK: Right. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Seattle, and I went to Roosevelt High School, which is the least diverse high school in Seattle. And so just like thinking about -- I don't really think I thought about my Korean American identity for a while until, I mean, also, I went to a Catholic middle school and elementary school where I was the only person of color in my class, too. So, I mean, it's always that gut feeling where it's like, oh, I know that I'm definitely not the majority, but I feel like I have a job in making sure that I fit into that majority. But so yeah, I was just wondering because I think I'm still trying to come to like an understanding of my own identity. So just an interesting one.

TB: Totally. And I really empathize that. We're like, I think we can live our whole lives without really addressing what it is.

EK: Well, thank you so much for getting a little more personal on that level.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2021 Seattle Chapter JACL. All Rights Reserved.