Interviews with Japanese in Utah: Grace Oshita

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Grace Oshita 2-20-85 s6:29 GO That•s true. It isn't. The job comes first. If something comes up or a customer must be entertained, well, he would stay out. L I'm sort of curious. When you think back to your self as a child. What kind of child were you. What was your personality like? How do you remember yourself. GO I think the Nisei had very different experiences depending on the individual families. Some families living out in the country did not have any experience in the Japanese ways of the culture. They were quote unquote Americanized very early in life. And felt uncomfortable among Japanese, groups of Japanese. In my case, becuase I was raised in a Japanese community, went to Japanese church, I think - and then by an older person, my grandmother - that I was probably raised more like a Japanese family than an American family. Many of thewstoms that we know now weren't followed: Valentines. Only when we made things in school. As we went to school, we learned these things but! don't think I knew American lullabys for instance~ nursery rhymes. Ah, from even tbat point on, it was more Japanese children songs. Even the music that I learned was strictly Japanese It was classical Japanese. So even if I didn't understand the poetry, the songs that went with it - the mannerisms of the teacher, the way we had to go in and sit on thefioor and bow - I mean, that was Japanese. Because the instrument was playedan thefloor. We didn't sit on the chair and play, like a guitar. We sat on the floor. L Didyou have to dress differently when you were playing it. GO Yes, at a recital, yes. L Did you wear traditional Japanese clothing. GO Yes.