(Japanese) I used to work on the fifth floor of the broadcasting station, and his office was on the sixth. Even at that, we’d always arrange to meet somewhere else. We were barely able to meet, though—and only at places where nobody would see us. I didn’t want to be like everyone else. There were a lot of Japanese women walking together with foreigners at that time, hanging off their hands and whatnot. I’ve never done that. When we walked through the streets of Tokyo, we walked apart, so that others wouldn’t find us out.
I didn’t want people to think that I was with him because I wanted things. But apparently, when I was working at the broadcasting station, my co-workers had a vague sense that I was together with a foreigner. At that time, we only met a tiny little bit, but everyone asked me, “What do you think about international marriages?” So, I told them. I said, “Personally, I am completely against it.” “Oh, really?” they asked back. Then, I said, “International marriages are for the most part dangerous, and now isn’t the time for it. I’m personally completely against it.” That’s what I told them then. Marriage might have been on my mind more and more at the time, though… The one thing I didn’t say to my co-workers was this: “But my case is different.” I wanted to tell them that, but I didn’t.
Date: January 26, 2012
Location: California, US
Interviewer: John Esaki, Yoko Nishimura
Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Journal feed
