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

Interest in Japanese migration studies (Japanese)

(Japanese) Back then, in Japan, when we learned about America—for instance, when we learned about issues concerning black Americans, what I remember most is that we learned it in a way that assumed that white Americans were responsible for the tough circumstances faced by black American communities. But after coming to America, you find out that there are, in fact, some African Americans who are drinking alcohol in the middle of the day and not working at all. I sometimes pass by and see groups of these people hanging around together, and from this point of view, it makes me think that they’re a part of the problem as well.

Well, I was a student in the Fulbright Program (the US government's flagship program in international educational exchange), so everybody treated me well. But looking around me, there was this competitive immigration from Japan—the immigration right around the ‘60s—and they were settling around where I was. Well, I lived in the east so there were very few of them. But anyway, when I looked at them, even from the perspective of a student, I could see that it was a very difficult thing to be able to settle down in the States, to compete—compete against the American people, and to make their way into the center of American society. So yeah, I’m over here, really having it easy, while I felt that those who left their homes behind and took a risk to come here were having a pretty rough time.

So at that moment, I kind of felt that—and this relates to what I mentioned earlier about the black Americans—when you think about those who immigrated from Japan, or from any other country, I wondered whether we can truly call this country a “country for immigrants,” or a “country of equality,” or a “free country.” You’ve really got to see things from both sides. What I was learning [about America] when I was in Japan wasn’t completely true, and even after coming to America, even though I’m a Japanese immigrant as well, the experiences that I’ve had might be totally different from the experiences of another Japanese immigrant. Looking at all of these differences from many different angles was something that definitely triggered my interest.

culture discrimination immigration interpersonal relations migration racially mixed people

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)