YAMAZAKI​,​ Suzue

The Nisei in New York are all good children. They listen to their parents. There was not a single child who disobeyed their parents and whom we could send out into the world without worry. I suppose that was hard on the children themselves. As for the Sansei, the Nisei no longer teach them Japanese. They do not live together, either, so the Sansei probably do not try to listen to or learn the language. On the West Coast, however, they take the children directly from their regular school to Japanese-language school. Now those Sansei are proving extremely useful because they can speak Japanese. In New York, the Nisei learned only the limited Japanese that was taught at home, and most of them do not understand very much. The Sansei use English all the time, so they speak only English. When I visit my son’s home, I make an effort to use Japanese, even if it is only broken Japanese, but it does not work with the Sansei. Operated Yamazaki Shokai. Three children and four grandchildren. This interview is part of the DMHJNY's new exhibit Issei: Portraits Of The First-Generation Japanese New Yorkers which is on view here: https://www.historyofjapaneseinny.org/issei/