Jenny (1973)

well I don't think I'm different from anybody else we do the same things play the same games we don't do anything special that's Julie trying to hit me with the pillow when we were pillow fighting she doesn't like me to hit her hit me sometimes she's nice sometimes I don't like her if feel like throwing around the window my father he's fun he acts like a monster and we chase him and he chases us that's my father telling my mother a joke and she started cracking up she and I we do different things than she would do with Julet she'll spend time with me and talk with me I like her that's my grandmother and I doing cat's cradle and I think we got into some trouble there and we're laughing when I go to my grandmother's house she shows me how to do flower ranging it seems a little bit hard and it has to be like a triangle because the top is heaven and there Earth and then there's man this is me rehearsing for the church Christmas Pageant I was the angel Gabriel and I'm telling Mary that she's going to have his baby and he's going to be the Son of God my name is Jenny I'm 8 years old I live in New York City and I'm a Japanese ameran [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] well although I don't make a conscious effort to pass along the Japanese culture to Jenny or Julie I do tell her tell Jenny you know stories of my childhood and how it was for me as a Japanese American to grow up in California uh and also being put into those camps during World War II and I think in an indirect way she guesses my attitude toward being Japanese American right after the war there there was such a high degree of of negativism towards being Japanese that I I just sort of wished I was invisible I guess at times you know that I I hated you know being called and names like that so it was not very good to be Japanese but now that I've I've gotten older and and the War years are so far gone um people have forgotten too their business bitterness towards the Japanese and um it just doesn't seem to be a bad thing at all it seems to be a very good thing um like I remind Jenny that we're Japanese by having special Celebrations by having girls day or going to the Bono and I want her to always feel proud of being Japanese and not having to endure that you know bad feeling my father told me he said uh you know we're going to leave camp in another several couple of months and he said and we are uh we left Arizona and moved to Cleveland Ohio which was a new place for us because we originally you know we're we're from California and my father told me he said uh you know we are Japanese and there's nothing we can do to change it and there are people out there who will be hostile you know and especially in school he warned me that the boys might pick on me and give me problems but he said uh he had monish me and I I still remember to this day he said you know don't do anything that will bring shame to this family or to the Japanese race which is a very heavy Japanese cultural burden to bear and uh but I I think I I tried because it was one of the few times that my father really talked that seriously to me and they really made an impression uh but I think that uh the feeling of prejudice or being aware of I think depends on where you uh you know where you live and in the places that I've lived which are includes Cleveland Ohio and Denver Colorado and New York that um I've been fortunate in that I have never been aware of that you know overt kind of prejudice and uh so I've never really had to confront it uh I I really think one of the reasons why I like living here is that I know that our children will be accepted wherever they go that nobody at all thinks it's strange to be you know [Music] Asian I think it's very important for them to be known as an individual living with her peers has a lot to do with it because it's very important that they're uh in with their um own group you know that they're not an outsider but I hope that she will keep much that is good of of the Japanese culture because I think as she grows older she can understand and appreciate it more no oh that's not making a fan grandma is not making a fan she's rolling it up that's not the way you did it right did you know did you know that Grandma learned how to make origami from her mother when she was about about your age Jenny and then I Tau your mother when she was about your age I wanted to teach Auntie Nana Auntie nana I don't think she learned at all because we were in Camp we didn't have any papers like this to work with you know so when Mommy was older she was right when Mommy we had paper when Mommy was older we had paper and then even in New York they didn't have paper just right away where did they have it we used to keep wrapping papers and work with that until they start to uh send them from Japan and then now Jenny now that Grandma's teaching school she's teaching to the children in the class what do you teach them I taught them how to make the sudu or the crane and then also we made boxes and uh we did a fish once oh I like I like the fish they're nice and they're nice too they're the big Fantail fish so now when you grow up you can teach it to your children too nice oh Julie you did it very well this time can you fan yourself with that good f yourself like this you feel the nice Cool Breeze that's nice don't do it too close would you like to do a hat this time what would you like to do a hat this time do you remember how you did a hat uhhuh can I give you a um blue sheet of paper [Applause] you folded it in half first Grandma I'm sort of embarrassed to say that my mother really has done more to teach Jenny about being Japanese than I am like she's the one that taught her how to use chopsticks um she seems to enjoy teaching Jenny as if it's a special relationship that they have I think part of it is being a grandmother all of that white comes out now tilt your pan this way and try not to lose the rice it's very important you don't lose the rice because you know my mother used to tell me that rice is very precious and that you have to be very careful and not lose any of it while you're washing why is it so precious well because rice was very very scarce in to since land is so scarce that they did not have must plan to plant the rice and rice also you know in the olden days was a commodity for money easy how many you have to was it all the white it's gone put the water right up to there right on top of the rice like this is it about to there no Lord we give thanks for this day for our friends we give thanks for the food on this table food is good right right families are good right right friends are good right right everything is okay let's [Music] see want the fish no jny you want some fish little pour some of that salsa on want you get the fish on okay Mom thank you do you want to go home M please well when the my children visit me I try to keep it um a little more japanesey like I would try to cook more Japanese food and then I try to introduce one or two Japanese words at a time like we would always say before we would eat and then when they are through saying go meaning thank you very much I am filled now could you teach her how to hold the chop she wants to try it you're really getting it Julie very good just come closer to the dish now I'm now I'm good at it yeah how old was Jenny when she learned how to use chopsticks about three she she learned really early well every time she came over to eat we um ate Japanese food so she used Chopsticks and I poke it into the food gradually she uh I think it's important to keep my Japanese culture to a degree but in terms of making very obvious you know efforts to expose Jenny to and my endly to the Japanese culture for me is I think it's important but I I really don't do that much you know in obvious ways I think Joyce and and Joyce's mother do a lot more in very you know practical things in terms of Japanese traditional uh eating you know habits and customs and uh and their celebration of you know Japanese holidays girls day is like a day for girls we have a party and my mom shows our dolls to my friends it's two little children that are leaning over something that's keeping them warm and the thing inside is called a KATU and inside there's a charcoal burn which gives heat off and it keeps warm well it when the blanket Burns they put it the blanket no no no cuz it's not fire it's just they have fireplaces I know why they don't have fireplaces cuz they need grownups to to help them right may you and the next doll is very very teeny tiny so I'll hold it up to you what does it look like they're doing like they're eating like they're eating a table they're at a table looks like they're in a bathtub look like they're in a bathtub yeah see the blue that's supposed to be the water and this is an oldfashioned Japanese bathtub what's the little round thing oh this yeah so oh that's a bucket what's the golden thing oh the golden thing that's just a decoration too this a towel so these two children are taking a bath it's called a ofo no ofuro say itur oh now you're gonna really like this St this is an [Music] old oh but what is she saying attention with that thing right that's her kimono and that's her sensor how come her back is kind of bumpy cuz that's her old underneath a traditional Bridal dog Obi and Obi means a bow you know like those big bows that we wore in the B like that and the last do does that remind you of anything the right reminds me of the turn it around there's a fan what is that called that's iwa right this fan is called an iwa and that one is called a senu some Christian families might think it's not so I don't know what You' say so Christian to participate in the B because it's definitely a Buddhist um right but I I regard it more as just a a Japanese cultural event and it's one other way that that Jenny is learning about being Japanese by singing Japanese folk songs and dancing the main thing is that it is a Japanese custom and uh in Japan before anybody was Christian they were Buddhists usually or shintu or some other you know native religion so that uh for us it is a more of a cultural you know celebration uh once a year during the um month of uh July is called oong and uh the dead are supposed to return to their Earthly homes and the the their loved ones and relatives make a great uh feast and uh to and light the way so that they'll not be walking home in the dark or getting lost and various Villages did their different folk dances called odori [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] when I grow up I probably teach my children about the Japanese things and I teach them how to use chopsticks and cook Japanese Foods things like that I'm proud of being Japanese it's nice I just like [Music] [Music] it fore speee spee [Music] [Music] y y [Music]