TANAKA​,​ Kikue

I was born in 1900 in Kumamoto Prefecture and came to America in 1919. My husband started this restaurant business after we came. I didn’t know a thing about running a restaurant at first. I learned everything from the customers and then taught it to the waitresses. That’s why people say Suehiro has such good service. I’m against international marriages. Students fall in love and get married, and when they’re young, that’s fine. But as they grow older, you can feel the difference between them. As people age, they start remembering their own country, their parents and siblings, and that’s when so many divorces happen. Japanese should marry Japanese. My own son married a non-Japanese woman. I was very much against it, but at that time there weren’t many Japanese around. He was working for the Navy Department, and most of the people there were Japanese, so he ended up marrying the sister of a friend — she was the daughter of a lawyer. But we don’t really get along well. I don’t speak much English, and she doesn’t understand Japanese. She calls me “Mama,” but it’s not the same as having a Japanese daughter-in-law. We all get together once a year at Christmas, and in the spring we visit overnight to see the cherry blossoms. Back then, I never imagined there would be so many Japanese restaurants in America. It’s because of the war, really — the only good thing that came from it. The war helped white people understand Japan better — that Japan is a beautiful country, and that Japanese people are truly kind. In the old days, they called us “Japs.” Now, no one says that anymore. I’m truly proud to have been born Japanese. People tell me, “Come back to Japan,” but I tell them I’m too old now. I’m an American citizen, and if I get sick, I can’t travel. I don’t have the courage to go back, so I tell them, “Please, give up on me.” I don’t think I’ll ever go back. I have seven grandchildren. This portrait 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/