Hey, do you want something to drink?
Uh, yeah -But is that alcohol...- I mean,
I'll take coffee with cream. But you have half and half, right?
Of course I have "half and half."
Thank you.
Let me just play some music and we'll get pumped up for this video.
Oh, right, sorry. I forgot I'm on the West coast, one second.
Is that better?
There we go!
Hey everybody! Max here again
And welcome to another Hapa Hour.
Shizuka is still in Tokyo but I'm in LA right now with the lovely, Katie. She's half Japanese, half American.
Hi! I'm Katie.
So today we just wanted to talk about being American halfies.
And I feel like we can relate on so many levels just being half Japanese
But actually, when I met Max, we realized that there were a lot of differences
between East Coast, and West Coast.
So we're going to talk about those differences today!
Cheers! Kanpai!
The very first thing we want to talk about -- I just want to hear once more about
your growing up on the West Coast. Because it seemed very different to me on the East Coast.
Yeah, first off, California -- the Pacific in general -- has quite a large population of Asian Americans.
And so being half -- just, being Asian -- wasn't that big of a deal.
I just know at NC State, where I went to school in North Carolina, it was like 5% Asian.
It's probably like, less than 1% Japanese.
Oh my gosh!
So when we saw like another Japanese or half Japanese person, it was a little bit like a
"Wait...really?"
Was it your own -- was it your sibling?
Yeah, I mean it's just like, there's so few that it felt like --
I didn't know that there were other people out there like me.
But hearing from you, it's like, there were a lot more half Japanese people around you.
Yeah, well, my cousins, who are older than me, so --
Being half wasn't something new. It was familiar.
Already within the family.
And my best friend growing up was half Japanese and my mom also put me into
Japanese programs, so I didn't feel alone!
You were in Japanese, like, school?
I did one class!
Yeah, me too! I did it too!
Yeah, but you didn't need it! You speak!
No no, I learned Japanese a little later, when I finally went to Tokyo.
But, that's funny -- like, okay -- We both did that I guess.
Well, I did one class, and I know one word. "Nihon Gakkou"
But I also went to Kumon. My mom put me in Kumon.
Were you in Kumon?
No, I was not.
Oh, so he's not good at math.
No, but she taught me like privately.
Oh! She DID??
Yeah, I was learning my multiplication tables at like, age 3 or something like that.
I think? 4?
Wh- Okay. That's next level. You win.
So obviously there are still a lot of things that we relate on being half Japanese
but there are differences as far as -- like -- being on the West Coast you were just around it a lot more.
And I thought, one of the big things that I was surprised at is,
You're "Yonsei". 4th generation.
Your mom was a 3rd generation Japanese, mine's 1st generation Japanese.
I guess you're family was more trying to assimilate into American culture?
Yeah, and that was because of the war, so my Japanese family was here.
They could have two choices, which was either to relocate, or, be in the camps.
And so my mom wasn't taught Japanese because my grandparents wanted their children to assimilate.
They were in California, right?
Yeah, they were in California. They were in Terminal island, which is -- it's very --
If you go to the Japanese-American museum here in LA, they talk a lot about...
See, it's just --
There's -- I have family in the museum!
Yeah, just thinking about like, there's a Japanese-American museum, like
in North Carolina, it was sooo rare
So, um, there were three of my family members that were put in the camps.
And the rest of them all relocated.
But they lost their homes, they lost everything.
So the government took it all, and then
When they went back to Terminal Island which is around Long Beach here,
everything thing was gone. So they bulldozed their homes, their schools, the communities -- the
The island was razed so there was nothing when they went back.
And they also were tuna fishermen, and when they went back their boats were gone.
They had nothing, so they had to start from scratch.
And see, that's so weird 'cause I had heard about the internment camps from my mom when I was like, 16?
It took that long.
You know, 'cause they don't teach it in schools. I think they kind of want to cover that part up.
But I still didn't really -- like, could really relate, I guess with that part
'cause, California didn't even seem real to me. Like, it didn't even seem like a real place.
I'm real. You can touch me, yeah.
I guess that's another thing I wanted to talk about.
I grew up in the South. I think since there's a lot less Japanese and Asian people in general
Being -- in my school most the time I was the only Asian or half Asian person
That's crazy.
Yeah, and then finally I go to college, and I've asked other full Asian people the same thing
But you start meeting all these other Asian people and Asian communities and people are like
"OH!" like,
"You're also Asian! Let's be friends! Let's be friends!"
And there's actually like a closeness because there's so few.
And I wonder like, in the West Coast, it's like
You get a lot more individual Asian...groups.
Yeah, and halfies especially I think are the ones that more reach out like,
"Oh, you're -- you're like my long lost brother!
You're my long lost sister! You look like..me."
But the Asian communities, we're not Asian enough to be in them because they are such a large population
so we're sort of our own entity.
You identified as "Hapa"?
Yeah, I identified as Hapa. I also had family in Hawaii.
So I knew about the term Hapa when I was young.
I didn't know about the term Hapa until I was like 22.
What!? That's crazy!
Like, I still kinda just consider myself half Japanese.
Or, because I lived in Japan, "Hafu", the Japanese term for being half.
Which, I just learned
I actually didn't know the term "Hafu" until I met you.
Ohhh, no way!
Yeah, yeah! I always, was a Hapa
or "Han", which is half, like "ChaHan"
But, even in Japan it's becoming a little more common to see other half Japanese people.
It wasn't so common I guess 20 years ago
but now it's common enough that they could actually make a movie about it
and did you see the photo of Miss Universe Japan?
I did!
She's half Japanese!
Half black, Half Japanese
Yeah, she's beautiful.
Yeah, it's, I think it's also super different growing up in Japan as a half Japanese person.
and almost like, tougher in some ways because Japan is so homogeneous.
Yeah and I think by her being in the place and the face of Miss Universe
is redefining identity and culture and nationality.
And is it, "What you look like" or is it "Because you live there."
and it's really interesting to see the discussion that's been happening since she is now the face, of Japan!
But you can definitely tell that there is a difference that being half Japanese still is not "main stream."
as like the West Coast.
Yeah, I think it's great. I celebrate her.
It's kind of like our Obama? You know, it's a change.
You have like a role model.
Yeah! And it's nice to see again somebody that you identify with.
I don't know if you -- well, you didn't play with Barbies.
I don't know you! But maybe you did.
I played with Power Rangers...
But yeah, there wasn't a Barbie that I could identify with.
There was one! Her name was tropical Miko.
She was the "exotic" one.
The "exotic" one.
I know, I hate -- I hate that term. It's like, I'm a bird.
So anyway guys, thanks again so much for watching this video.
Thanks again to Katie. She's an actress in LA and she actually has her own YouTube channel.
That's right it's called Almost Asian.
And it features my life, everyday life going through my ups and downs of being half Japanese.
And if it wasn't for Almost Asian, I wouldn't have met this guy!
So anyway thank you guys so much for watching this video if you wanna leave a comment about
your respective half, or you know you don't even have to be half Japanese to leave a comment.
But let's just start a discussion.
Thanks again so much for watching, and we'll see you guys in another video!