Who are you?
Me at 5 years old.
I’m still trying to figure it out and I hope you’ll be my partner on this journey as I find out. What I can tell you is that:
Ethnically, I am Japanese, however my cultural heritage is heavily Polynesian Hawaiian - which is an enormous melting pot of many ethnicities and cultures: native Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Filipino, and now, lots more. I’m naming these specific ethnicities and cultures because they are the ones which were prevalent during my parents generation on the island.
My maternal great-grandma Ellen (aka Shizuyo) and her husband moved from Japan to the Big Island as laborers in the sugarcane fields on Kona. They had four kids, one of them being my maternal grandpa Clarence (aka Kazumi, issei or 1st generation).
Fast forward a few decades and now the family is on the island of O’ahu. Grandpa meets my grandma Violet (aka Misako) and they have four children together, one of them being my mom (nisei or 2nd generation).
Jumping a few decades ahead to the 1970’s and my Grandma owns a coffee shop (what we call a diner these days) in El Segundo, CA. Apparently, my Grandma owned several okazuyas (restaurants) in Hawaii (a woman ahead of her time!). My mom worked there and that’s where my parents met - my dad was a customer and she was the waitress. Lo and behold (as my mom likes to say), he was a Hawaii-boy too (8 years older than my mom) and knew her older siblings!
During this time, Grandma had the opportunity to purchase a coffee shop in Las Vegas. My mom believes that Grandma was one of the first to bring Hawaii style plate lunches to Vegas. Oh, and the coffee shop was located within walking distance of the famous Las Vegas Strip!
Personally, I believe this is epic. My Grandma was a Japanese woman with no formal education who owned her own business. Even more badass, she did this in a city that was predominantly white, very racist, and a complete contrast to all she grew up with in Hawaii.
Now, it’s 1975 in Fabulous Las Vegas and I am a six pound newborn baby girl. I’m the first person on both my mom’s side and dad’s side of the family to be born on the mainland of the United States and it is an honor I hold deeply and cherish.
I am yonsei, the 4th generation. Wait, how can you be yonsei? you ask. What happened to the 3rd generation? Well, my dad was the third generation or sansei of his family to be born in Hawaii. And since generational identity (at least in my family) is patriarchal, that makes me yonsei.
Growing up, I was confused about my cultural identity for a long time (many decades, really), so I would just tell people I was 3rd/4th generation Japanese. Then to add to the confusion, my dad’s sister told us that we were actually Japanese-Russian, possibly with some German ancestry too, and then my dad countered that we are Mongolian. Hmmmmm…
So these days, I tell people that I’m 4th generation Japanese-American by way of Hawaii. This way, people don’t automatically assume that I’m from Japan and speak very good English - almost like I lived in America for a long time (yes, I have heard that all of my life). People often ask me how come I don’t look Hawaiian and then I have to explain that Hawaiians are native to the Hawaiian Islands. I don’t have Hawaiian blood, but my family came to Hawaii from Japan. I’m the 1st generation to be born on the US mainland - that’s why I’m Japanese-American by way of Hawaii.
It’s all about cultural understanding and educating people, right? Even when they still compliment me that my English is so good (eye roll).