Interviews

1. Impressions from interviews with Issei women (Japanese)

2. The differences between Japanese women who emigrated from Japan and those who did not (Japanese)

3. Feeling conflicted as a Japanese scholar studying Nikkei (Japanese)

4. Interest in Japanese migration studies (Japanese)

5. The Japanese society reacts to Nikkei living in Japan (Japanese)

6. What is Nikkei? (Japanese)

7. The identity of Nikkei Canadians seen in the Buddhist Church (Japanese)

8. Learning from Nikkei (Japanese)

Masako Iino

Tsuda College President, researcher of Nikkei history

The differences between Japanese women who emigrated from Japan and those who did not (Japanese)

(Japanese) Around that time (1970s-80s), I was asked by newspapers, like Asahi Shimbun, to write about my impressions of the people whom I interviewed. So I wrote that these Issei women are, as they often say in Japan, “women who are soaring”—you know, women with independence. That’s the kind of women that I said—that I wrote—that they are. But then, I immediately received a reply in the mail from a person majoring in economics, telling me that my thoughts “are too naïve.” It said that “You need to think more about the economy of Japan, about how extremely difficult the circumstances were, and how it was forcing people to emigrate… there’s not enough focus on these aspects in your article.” So I replied that “I do understand,” that the extreme economic circumstances were indeed one of the reasons for emigration. But if you ask me about the difference between the women who emigrated from Japan and those who didn’t—even during this extreme economic slump—I would still say that the ones who emigrated were the ones with a strong sense of independence. They are the ones who made their own decisions, chose their own path, and decided to raise their children over here.

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Date: October 7, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Ann Kaneko

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Masako Iino majored in American Studies at Tsuda College where upon graduating, went abroad to study at Syracuse University as a Fulbright scholar. She furthered her studies there in American history. From the richness of diversity in the American people and culture, Ms. Iino saw that a significant amount of American history was due to immigration from which she furthered her studies. This is where she began to study more extensively immigration from Japan to the United States. At that time when research interests were shifting from political history to social history, Iino’s research was fully supported by her advisor.

When Ms. Iino returned to Japan, she taught American history and immigration courses at her alma mater and continued her research on Japanese Americans. During the 1980s and 1990s, she went back to the United States and interviewed Issei and Nisei in California. Later, she expanded her research arena to Canadian Nikkei and compared the histories and the processes of how society accepted Nikkei in Canada and the United States.

Ms. Iino is currently researching how Nikkei people connect to Japan by examining LARA (Licensed Agency for Relief of Asia). Her major recent publications are “Mou hitotsu no nichibei kankei-shi: Funso to kyocho no naka no Nikkei Amerikajin (History of another Japan – U.S. relations: Japanese American in conflicts and coordination)” (Yuhikaku, 2000), “Hikisakareta chuseishin (Loyalty Torn Apart)” (Minerva Shobo, 1994) (co-editor), and “Nikkei Canadajin no rekishi (History of Japanese Canadians)” (University of Tokyo Press, 1997), which was received the Canadian Prime Minister's Awards for Publishing. Currently she is an active scholar and continues to serve as the President of Tsuda College. (October 6, 2006)