Beginning At The Beginning With The Daughter Of A Japanese War Bride

Konnichi-wa, Hip Hapa Homeez.

my cousin at the sakura-blooming Imperial Palace

Your Hip Hapa recently returned from a fact-finding mission in sakura-blooming Nippon. Even though I stayed in a major international city like Tokyo, I felt more like a minority there than, say, in Los Angeles. Among 13 million mostly ethnic Japanese, I saw less than 100 foreigners over a two-week span. When I say ‘foreigner’, I mean those not of Asian ancestry. Obviously, I couldn’t identify any non-Japanese who may have been of another East Asian heritage, so there may have been more ‘foreigners’ than I recognized--such as the large contingents of ethnic Chinese spotted in the lobby of my hotel because of the banners they were holding. But just based on physical appearances, I would say I was one of approximately 100 non-Japanese-looking among millions.

Mom, bottom row, 3rd from left

Strangely enough, I was spoken to in Japanese all the time, but that may be due more to Japanese' reluctance to use English even if they knew it. I could be wrong. Perhaps they thought I looked close enough to the ‘real deal’ to be spoken to in their native tongue. After all, my relatives marveled at how much I resembled my ‘pure’ Japanese mother. Or maybe, they--as should rightly be expected--felt that anyone visiting their country would at least know how to communicate with them in their own language. Sadly, my nihongo is at an elementary school level. You know the sort of dialogue that goes: ‘Hello. How are you? My name is Yayoi. How do I get to Shinagawa-ku?’

me and Mom, back in the day

Even though my self-made journey included mostly visiting shrines and temples in ancient parts of the city, I don’t want to focus on writing a culture-crossing travelogue here. Instead, I want to concentrate on why I went to Japan in the first place.

my cousin with the doctor's daughter

Because I’m filming a documentary about Japanese war brides like my mother, I wanted to find out where she and I started our lives together. When I told my cousin who lives in the U.S. that I wanted to visit the clinic where I was born, she diligently tracked it down through an equally diligent city employee. Although the clinic had moved to a different address, the two were able to locate it. In Japan, my cousin’s oldest sister guided us to Machida-shi, the city where my mother gave birth to me. There, we found the clinic and spoke with the daughter of the late doctor who delivered me. Even though my father was an American soldier at the time, my parents weren’t legally married so I came into the world at a Japanese clinic presided over by a Japanese doctor. Over the years, my mother told me many stories about my birth and how she regretted never taking me back to meet the doctor who helped me arrive on planet Earth. Thanks to the hard work of my two cousins and the city official, I found closure about my beginning in life. What a homecoming!

On another day, my Associate Producer, Ray Tabata, his friend from Hilo, and I visited the Kaigai Iju Shiryokan, or The Japanese Overseas Migration Museum (managed by JICA), in Yokohama. As we walked towards the venue, I looked over at the Bay and realized my mother and I had departed for America from those very waters. Suddenly, a ship’s horn sounded and it took me back to that day we left Japan, even though I was only two years-old then and couldn't possibly remember it. Still, I could imagine it.

The visit with museum staff was amazing and saturated with information. If you can, you should take a tour of the exhibit that highlights Japanese who left Japan to live abroad. By now, most people know that Brazil has the second largest population of Japanese in the world, but how many know that 61% of great grandchildren of Japanese Brazilians are marrying into other ethnic groups?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilians

The museum staff was really excited that our party was visiting from Hawai’i as they had a huge display of Japanese sugar cane workers that arrived at plantations on the islands. Besides providing us with tremendous resources for our War Brides of Japan documentary, they also happily talked stories with us--in English.

http://www.jomm.jp/

Towards the end of my Japan voyage, my cousins and I visited the family cemetery, and I was able to formally say good-bye to my grandmother.

And when I retuned home, I was surprised to learn that Ray Tabata had located the daughter of a Japanese war bride living near us. The real surprise came when I saw her name, Marlene Blackwell, and recognized it as belonging to someone our family knew decades ago at an Army base in Washington State. When I spoke with Marlene, she sent me the picture, below, of her and my sister performing at a PTA meeting. She determined it had to be my sister after I told her that she had an unusual mark on her cheek because she had fallen off her bike the day of the show and my mother covered it with rouge, a bright red circle that resembled a Japanese flag on her face.

Marlene Blackwell, 2nd from left; my sister to her left

my sister practicing for the performance

Dear Hip Hapa Homeez, please follow us as we begin fundraising and filming War Brides of Japan. Right now, Your Hip Hapa is editing over 4 hours of footage to create a trailer so that you can get a better sense of our filmmaking goals. Meanwhile, here are links to slideshows, including one that placed among the top three entries in the New Media Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2012.

War Brides of Japan v.2 on YouTube

War Brides of Japan on YouTube

War Brides of Japan on Facebook

We also have our feature narrative, Watermelon Sushi, to complete so please support our pages.

Watermelon Sushi film

Watermelon Sushi on Facebook

Watermelon Sushi World Networked Blogs on Facebook

Hapa*Teez on YouTube

Hapa*Teez on Facebook

Hapa*Teez on Café Press

Yayoi Lena Winfrey fan page on Facebook (sorry, but Your Hip Hapa can’t add any more friends to her regular profile page)

Twitter

You can also join our Hip Hapa Homeez group on Facebook and post articles about being transracially adopted, a blended family, an interracial couple or an ethnically mixed child, and more.

Until next bi-month, please stay tuned for more info about War Brides of Japan!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Hafus: Japanese Hapas

Yo, Hip Hapa Homeez! Big ups and mad love to all you blendies, mixies, and multi-culti mortals here in our Watermelon Sushi World.

Our featured Hip Hapa Homee this week is Megumi Nishikura, director and producer of Hafu, a film about the experiences of mixed-race people living in Japan. To learn more about Megumi’s documentary project, visit the link here: http://www.hafufilm.com

The flyer for the film appears below followed by photos taken at a fundraising party for Hafu. Megumi is in the red dress.

Q: What's a nice hafu girl like you doing making a film about multiethnic Japanese people?

A: Hafu feels like the film I was destined to make. I’ve been exploring my own dual identity for a number of years through personal films. However, when I realized how little mainstream media coverage there was of this subject in Japan, I felt called forth to share the experiences of people who identify as hafus with a greater audience. Hafu is the Japanese term for "half" and signifies that one is half-Japanese and half something else. At the moment, we are using this as the title of the film as it is the most recognizable term to call people who are mixed-Japanese, but this may change later.

Q: Who are your parents and how did you grow up?

A: My mother is Irish-American and my father is Japanese. My mother came to Japan to teach English in the mid-1970s and met my dad at a party. He's a bit on the stocky side, so she remembered him by thinking, "Ooh, here's a fat Japanese!"…and the rest was history. I was born a few years later in Tokyo.

I feel very blessed to have had the upbringing I did. My father's work as a journalist took us to the Philippines, China and to the U.S. I went to high school in Hawai’i and then to film school in New York. I was raised to appreciate other cultures and languages as well as have a good understanding of my own. As a result, I consider myself to be citizen of the world, more than a citizen of any one country.

Tokyo was our home base, and about 1/3 of my life has been in Japan. As a hafu child growing up here, I was stared at, teased, and called a "foreigner" or "half human." Somehow, I had the awareness that this was just childhood antics and laughed it off--never letting it penetrate too deeply. Luckily, through family friends and attending international schools, I was never far from the company of other hafus. When I left Japan for high school and university in the U.S., I noticed how people approached me differently than they had in Japan. People would ask out of curiosity, "What are you?" They seemed far more open-minded and sincerely interested in my diverse make-up.

Even today, I am treated as a foreigner on a daily basis here in Tokyo because of my external appearance. However, since coming back to Tokyo nearly four years ago, the more time I spend here, the more that I feel that this is my home and these Tokyoites are my people.

Q: How much do you know about Japanese culture?

A: I've lived in Japan for about 10 years. I speak the language proficiently enough to do a job here, but I still struggle when it comes to reading and writing. Japanese culture has always been a matter of fact for me, i.e., we eat seaweed-wrapped rice balls, have super efficient fast trains and toilets, and wear kimono on special occasions. I've never had more or less interest in it than my American side.

Q: What inspired you to make this film?

A: In 2006, when I returned to Japan to attend graduate school, I was confronted as an adult to reexamine what it means to be Japanese and hafu. With a "look" that is not even perceived as the "hafu-look" by Japanese, I am often complimented on the level of my Japanese language ability. When Japanese people meet me for the first time, it is often to their disbelief that someone with my name—a fully Japanese one—could look so foreign to them. They sometimes ask, "Is your husband Japanese?"

Last June, I came across a photo/research project called the Hafu Japanese Project (http://www.hafujapanese.org) started by Marcia Yumi Lise and Natalie Maya Willer. I got in touch with them, offered my skills as a filmmaker, and we began by interviewing people on the streets of Tokyo about their perceptions of hafus. From this collaboration, the seeds of this feature documentary film was born. I also met my filmmaking partner Lara Perez Takagi through their project.

My intention with this film is to contribute to a dialogue about the changing face in Japan. According to the 2008 findings of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, one in thirty babies born in Japan today are born to a couple where at least one of the parents is not Japanese. That's a lot of people who will grow up with bi-cultural identities in a country that once proudly proclaimed itself to be homogeneous.

I believe that the definition of what it means to be Japanese needs to change and change in a way that includes people like myself and the participants in this film. Most of all, I want to create something that will open up people's perceptions to what the hafu experience is like and to remind them of our common humanity. 

Q: Why does it seem like the Japanese refer to hafu as someone who is half European and not of other mixes.

A: Most likely the reason is because of how hafus are portrayed in the media. Hafus are often considered kawaii (cute) or kakkoi (cool) because what people see on television are models, singers, sports players and other performers. Most of these hafus are Eurasian or half-North American. There is very little coverage of other hafus and what their everyday lives are like in Japan. In this film, we are hoping to reflect the tremendous diversity within the hafu community.

Our first participant is David Yano (pictured above) who is Ghanaian and Japanese. David was raised in an orphanage here in Japan when his parents divorced due to cultural differences. Yet, despite this, when he traveled back to Ghana in his early twenties, he realized how blessed he was to have grown up in Japan. Now, he is using his talents as a musician/performer to raise funds to build schools in Ghana. He's set the goal of raising approximately $30,000 by September. 

Our other confirmed story is the Mexican-Japanese Oi family. Gaby and Testuya, the parents, met when they were studying in the U.S. After returning to Japan, they started a family and had Alex in 2000 and Sarah two years later. It is through their story that we hope to show the challenges and joys in raising a multicultural and multilingual family. Alex has experienced ijime (teasing) at school, and now his parents are making the difficult decision whether or not to send their children to the public Japanese school or the more expensive international school system.

We are also hoping to tell the story of an Asian-mixed hafu and, of course, the Eurasian hafu to give a more complete picture of the diversity of hafus within Japan.

Q: What's the status of the film?

A: We began production at the beginning of the year and, thus far, have completed initial interviews with David and the Oi family. We have started talking with an initial third participant for the film and, once we do our first interview with him, we will publicly reveal who he is and his unique story of growing up hafu in Japan.

As mentioned before, we are looking to film an Asian-mixed hafu. We consider Asian-mixed hafus to be the "invisible hafus" because from external appearances they may look no different than the average Japanese person, but because of their bi-cultural upbringing they themselves identify as hafu.

We also recognize that there is a greater diaspora of hafus who have little or no experience of Japan. We are hoping to find someone who is about to arrive in Japan to experience their Japanese side and follow them over the course of several months to see what their expectations are of Japan and whether their time here will live up to them.

If you know anyone who fits this description please get in touch with us at info@hafufilm.com

Also, as this is an independent film, we are fundraising in order to help us continue our production. This includes applying for grants and approaching sponsors, but we are also hoping to build a community of committed fans who will help us to see this project through to the end. If you are interested in contributing, you can find out how to do that on our website (http://www.hafufilm.com) or by attending our sneak preview event on June 12.

Q: Tell us about that event.

A: We will be showing a sneak preview of the film as a way to fund raise for the film. The reason we selected June 12 is because in the U.S. it is Loving Day--the day that interracial marriage was legalized in 1967. While Japan never had anti-miscegenation laws, I feel that any significant movement towards civil rights and liberties should be honored and celebrated. Also, as I am part American, this day resonates deeply with me and, last year, I worked with the Loving Day team to help them produce a video about their flagship celebration in New York City.

We thought that June 12 would be the perfect opportunity for us to celebrate the growing diversity within Japan. The celebration will be taking place in Aoyama, Tokyo and we will have performances from a hafu comedic duo, who will crack jokes about being hafu in Japan, and a Korean-Japanese belly dancer. And, we will be presenting our film idea and about 15 minutes of footage.

We had a small kick-off party at my apartment in mid-May (picture above). Not only did we have a great turn out, but the response to our first six-minute clip was tremendous! We're currently busy editing away our second story to show on June 12. For anyone in Tokyo, I hope you can come out and support this important film!

Domo arrigato gozaimashita, Megumi-san. Much good fortune on your film project. Your Hip Hapa is very familiar with what it takes to make a movie and would like to remind you Hip Hapa Homeez that we’re still selling Hapa*Teez t-shirts to support our feature dramadey Watermelon Sushi. You can also show us love by joining our Watermelon Sushi Fan page on Facebook and, while you’re there, sign up on our Hip Hapa Homeez Group page. That’s where we post mixed-race and transracial adoptee stories, while we update you on the film at the Watermelon Sushi Fan page.

Normally, we post requests like the following on the Hip Hapa Homeez Group page, but for Alana Young's unusual need--the more exposure, the better. She’s looking for a quote from a person of mixed heritage, preferably more than two races. The quote will be used for a short speech at a symposium to share with new incoming university students to empower them about who they are as a person and their cultural background.

You can send your suggestions to alanayoung2001@yahoo.com or friend Alana Young on Facebook.

Finally, filmmaker Tim Nagae who was profiled here on August 26 of last year has won a Hometown Video Competition prize for his documentary about legendary Detroit African American artist Charles McGee. Tim, who is Japanese, says the film Charles McGee – Nature has been broadcast on local PBS TV stations and film festivals, too. Check out the prize at: http://www.alliancecm.org/hometownwinners (go to item #38).

And, don't forget Teri LaFlesh's amazing book, Curly Like Me, which you can purchase here.

Until we meet again, I am

Your Hip Hapa

Yayoi

Valentine's Day Hearts To Midnight Velvet

Aloha!

I don't know if you celebrate Valentine's Day, but if you do I hope the day will be all you want it to be, with the one you want it to be with--regardless of race.

Last week, a catalogue called Midnight Velvet arrived at my home. Now, I'm not one to order stuff through the mail, but after thumbing through it I took a closer look because I noticed its pages contained mostly upscale clothing for sale. (I did once aspire to a fashion career, after all.) Imagine my surprise when I discovered on page 14 (how significant is that number?) a photo of an interracial couple modeling formal outfits. She, clearly a bright-skinned sistah, is dressed in a gold two-piece dress while her white male companion is wearing a beige linen suit. Hold up! I hear you saying, what makes you think they're a couple just because they're on the same page together? Well, besides flipping it by presenting the male as the white partner, the art director of the photo layout is clearly letting us know this couple is romantically linked because they are holding hands. Wow. I almost felt like buying something from Midnight Velvet just because they had the courage to display such a pairing. Alas, their merchandise isn't really my style. But here's their website if you'd like to compliment them about forwarding the mixed-race agenda on our behalf: http://www.MidnightVelvet.com

Speaking of love, the taiga series Atsuhime just gets sadder and sadder. The week before last, Shogun Iemochi died leaving Kazunomiya a young widow and Atsuhime a young grieving step-mother. But the saddest part is that it appears we've arrived at the end of the series. Of all the taiga I've watched, Atsuhime has been my favorite. Obviously, because she's a girl. But what a girl! Did she invent feminism, or what?

I don't know if you caught the controversy around teen star Miley Cyrus recently, but it seems so yesterday that any kid her age would make fun of Asian folks by pulling their eyes up in a slant with their fingers. I mean, come on, now. I remember all that "Chinese, Japanese, American Knees" b.s. from way back in the day. But what excuse do people Miley's age have? They are the most educated in terms of having access to instant information. They have been exposed to other cultures and ethnicities in ways nobody of any other generation has. Further, with her fortune and fame, one would assume Miley has the best tutors and teachers money can buy. Are they not teaching her awareness, manners, or what?

Well, things just keep moving on with the movie, Watermelon Sushi. While reels and headshots from talented actors continue to tumble in, we've also been reorganizing our production staff. Besides our producers in Tokyo and Nashville, it looks as if we may soon add another in New York. Stay tuned for more info.

btw, my interview with Janice Malone last Saturday, February 7, was a lot of fun. You can listen to it here: http://www.filmfestivalradio.com

And, I'll let you know as soon as my interview with AAPEX is posted.

Please don't forget about the Hapa*Teez t-shirts and your rear crawl credit. See http://www.cafepress.com/hapateez for more info.

And, remember to check us out at the Hip Hapa Homeez group page on Facebook. Sign up to join us. After all, what other organization can you belong to that has the famous old school rapper Kool Mo Dee as its Veep of Music Production?

Hollah!

Here's to a HAPA Val's Day if you do that sort of thing. My dad and my friend Brian Parker obviously do. I'm holding cards they sent me last year in the photo above.

Until next time, I send love from...

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Hip Hapa Homeez' Work Goes On And On

Aloha blendies, mixies, and multis everywhere!

This morning, our new Watermelon Sushi associate producer in Tokyo sent me the following link and promptly ruined my day. Seriously, this is a sad story so have a box of tissues handy while you read it. Mahalo nui loa, Derrick.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080910f2.html

Amazing, isn't it? How humankind divvies itself into groups based on ethnicity? I know that among wildlife there is sometimes a self-enforced thinning of the herd, but don't humans actually have the ability to reason--to analyze and to rationalize? Or, are we just animals walking upright?

If you haven't read the article above yet, you won't know that I'm talking about mixed-race babies in Japan that were abandoned by their American military fathers and Japanese mothers. Often, the mothers came from poor families made even worse off by post-war shortages and economic despair. What this article doesn't cover, however, is the number of babies born out of wedlock to pure-blooded Japanese parents and given away. I'm sure it was nowhere near the numbers for the hapa kids though. I'm just thankful that my father honored his duty, married my mother and brought us to America. What my fate would have been as a half-black child in Tokyo....I can't even imagine. No disrespect to other women under similar circumstances, but one thing I know for certain, my Moms would've never given me up for nothin'. She's just that kinda lady.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Teri LaFlesh in the flesh! I've been wanting to say that ever since I bumped into Teri in cyberspace. This sistah with a Caucasian father and African American mother has written the most fascinating book called Biracial Hair. Check out Teri's website and her blog to see for yourself:

www.BiracialHair.info

www.FromerMushroomHairedChild.blogspot.com

And, today, I heard from Allison who calls herself a CHEW. She's Chinese and Jewish, and creative as all get out. I've listed the link to her blog, so go for it:

http://manushkin.wordpress.com/

Besides building the new Watermelon Sushi website, I've been busy with so much Hip Hapa Homeez work that I didn't realize the latest taiga was on NHK. As much as I loved the Shinsengumi and Yoshitsune series, I am really digging this one starring a GIRL! Atsuhime (hime means princess) is fetched to the Shogun's court to convince him to pick a certain successor. It's all castle intrigue with servants weighing in with guarded opinions. In one hilarious scene, the Shogun is tossing beanbags and throws one at the head one of his advisors because he doesn't like what he's saying. Pure Japanese humor, but I love it! There's just something about feudal era drama that sucks me in like a whirlpool.

The pix this week are from left: my Moms about age 20 in Tokyo wearing a handmade (no pattern, no sewing machine) outfit she created; me in Jamaica with my Jah-fro waaay back in the day; and, Teri LaFlesh and me with my new straight tresses yesterday (thank you, Teri!).

Until next time, I remain...

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

HAPA Birthday, Silvia B--War Bride Baby!

Silvia B (left in the photo) was my best friend in high school. We drew together because we were both considered weirdos among our so-called peers which only made us rebel more.

Although Silvia was very attractive with long silky black hair, green eyes and a husky voice, some of the athletes in our school (you know who you are Mr. Famous Football Player Who Married An Actress) would hiss and call her names whenever she walked down the hall. To this day, I still can't figure out why. Silvia didn't date anyone at our school so maybe they were just mad that she wouldn't give them a chance. After all, rejection is painful.

Besides, Silvia and I were both into older men anyway, especially musicians. Not that we went out with them either, but we did have our fantasies and they didn't include pimply-faced boys with crewcuts wearing lettermen jackets. I, in particular, would have never been able to date most of the boys in my school anyway, since I was "half Negro" and just about everyone else out of 1,500 students was white.

But Silvia was white, too--sort of. Like my mother, Silvia's mom was a war bride so maybe that took her down a notch in the eyes of the more "American" kids. Unlike my mother, Silvia's was a stay-at-home mom who raised a lot of kids--seven, if I remember correctly. A photo of Mrs. B sat in the living room, and whenever I was visiting I would stare at it in wonderment. Mrs. B was from Vienna and her picture showed a young woman with wavy auburn hair and a secret Mona Lisa smile similar to Silvia's. She spoke with a German/Austrian accent and smoked a lot of Tareyton 100's while drinking black instant coffee all day. Whenever she was in the mood, Mrs. B would tell us about her life during the war rattling off a litany of insults against Russian soldiers who, she claimed, would urinate in the sink and wash their hands in the toilet so uncouth were they. She hated Germans, too. Scar tissue from the war, I'm sure. Even though Mrs. B had lived in Austria, her parents were Czech and Yugoslavian and she considered herself a slav all the way. If I stayed for dinner, we might have eaten German potato salad made with oil and vinegar, or red cabbage cooked with wine.

I found it as fascinating listening to Mrs. B discuss the war in Europe as I did hearing my own mother talk about dodging bombs in Tokyo. That was a deep cultural connection that Silvia and I shared, but, at the time, I don't believe we even realized the impact of having war bride mothers. We just knew we didn't belong, and it made us do crazy things like when Silvia refused the advances of Jimmy Paige of Led Zeppelin backstage at a concert. Why should she have gone out with him anyway when her fantasy man was oh-so much more?

Silvia and I also hung out in Seattle's University District with our hippie friends, both of us with long, dangling hair, huge hoop earrings, and colorful satin skirts. Soon, the others began calling us The Gypsies.

Eventually, Silvia and I drove her '59 Chevy all the way to Pacific Grove California where we ended up living for six months among all the Timothy Leary drop-outs. It was an exhilarating time, but our middle-class upbringing didn't help us learn to survive hippiedom. So, we ended up back in the Northwest working at a television station, unbelievably, for the most controversial right-wing talk show host at the time.

Years passed, and eventually Silvia had a boyfriend, and then a son. I kept moving back to Cali and points beyond, but I would attempt to always stay in touch. After awhile, Silvia and I drifted so far apart that we couldn't reconnect. A few years ago, though, I found her and talked her into going to our high school reunion with me and my sister (who, for some reason, always goes to mine and not her own). As much as I hated my high school years, there's something intriguing about attending reunions and seeing all the people I hated as teenagers become adults.

Wherever you are Silvia B, know that you were a perfect friend at a time when I really needed someone like you. I salute you, and wish you a most HAPA birthday! (Although now that I've finished writing this, it's March 4 and no longer your day.) Hopefully, you don't mind me posting this snapshot of us taken at our 1998 reunion. Oh, yes. And, that's the gorgeous Maria Carter, the bellydancer, on the right. I didn't find out until that night that she is biracial, too--half Filipina and half Caucasian.

Namaste.

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

P.S. Don't forget the t-shirts at http://www.cafepress.com/hapateez

More About War Brides

Because of an earlier blog outlining my mother's adventures as a "war bride", I received an email from Michele who is Vice President of the World War II War Brides Association. Here's her website, which is devoted to war brides of every nationality:

http://www.geocities.com/us_warbrides/

Michele is a "war baby" from Belgium.

I also received an email from Erin who handles membership for the World War II War Brides Association. Erin is a "war baby" from Australia.

I'm so thrilled these two women reached out to me because I've been thinking a lot lately about war brides. As much as I like telling the stories of biracial and bicultural children, I also realize that we wouldn't be here if our mothers hadn't taken that huge leap of faith.

For Japanese women like my mother who spoke very little English, the prospect of moving overseas with a man she'd known only a few years must have seemed monumental. That my Moms coped with Southern racism and all the wild elements of Texas (snakes, tarantulas, cockroaches, red bugs, etc.) makes her all the more courageous in my eyes. And, she did it with me as a toddler and my sister as an infant, too. Now, that's what I call strength. While it's true that dodging bombs in Tokyo may have been a little more challenging for her, living in a segregated Texas town without her own family or friends--or anyone who even spoke her language, for that matter--must've been a waking nightmare. My mother used to tell us that she cried every day during her first, horrific year in America.

If any of you out there have some good tales about your own war bride mother, please drop me a line. I'd like to share them with my readers.

And, that's my mother as a young, idealistic woman BT (before Texas) in the photo above.

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

War! What Is It Good For? Absolutely, Uh, Something!

Earlier, I wrote about the tensions between Japanese in Nippon v. the J/A's (Japanese Americans) in the U.S. Even though I slammed Mr. Sulu for his snide remarks about how I pronounced my name, I didn't mean to make light of the issue of Nipponese v. J/A's. Certainly, there is much to be said about the suffering on both sides.

J/A's languished behind the barbed wire of interment camps and were separated from family and friends, lost careers, property, and--most important of all in Asian culture--face. The Japanese in Nippon, also lost face along with millions of innocent lives in Hiroshima and Nagasaki which were destroyed by American atomic bombs. My own mother, living in Tokyo at the time, often found herself racing towards a bomb shelter to avoid the constant rain of B52 bombs dropped by Americans. One day, she arrived at work only to find her office in shambles; completely demolished by bombing.

No one ever really wins a war. The devastation comes not only in the loss of lives, but also in the deeply psychological pain that often lingers following the trauma of war.

But if there's any kind of light at the end of the tunnel to be celebrated, it's the births of thousands of mixed-race babies who would've never been born had it not been for a war somewhere. So, war can be a kind of cultural bridge, too.

Who would've ever thought that an African American man from the South, whose ancestors were brought in chains from a place he has no recollection of, would end up marrying a Japanese woman whose own sad personal history made her eligible to move to America? And, who would've ever thought that a spirited and artistic Japanese woman would marry a man who should've been considered a representative of the enemy of her people?

But it happened. And, it happened to many others like my parents. It happened to Germans and Italians, too. One of my best friends in high school had a French mother and Swedish American soldier father who had met his bride while he was stationed in Europe. Another had an Austrian mother and Caucasian American father. War brides are what they called these women, but they were so much more. They were brave souls who struggled to recover from the devastation of war and, if that meant marrying a stranger from a strange land, whether or not love fit into the equation, so be it. I'm sure most of those women loved the men they ended up with, but who among us can say how we would behave romantically after losing our families, friends, countries, and even our hope.

About 3/4's of the kids I knew while our family lived at Ft. Lewis were either Japanese and black or Japanese and Caucasian, and German and black or German and Caucasian. Quite frankly, if it hadn't been for a war, I wouldn't be me.

Still, it's too bad that it takes a war to bring some folks together. Perhaps in the future, people will make an effort to not segregate into tribes and, in the words of Bob Marley, "Spread out! Spread out!"

Cool runnin's, ya'll.

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

P.S. That's me and Moms, above, with her bike in Tokyo many moons ago.