Deepa Iyer
Yuri Kochiyama
:15 My name is Yuri Kochiyama, but when I was young, I just used Mary and my maiden name was Nakahara.
:34 I was born in San Pedro, California. I just want to say that my mother told me that every single Japanese child that was born in the harbor area. That one Japanese issei woman brought us all into the world because no Blacks, Mexicans, or Asians could have a baby in a hospital. I mean there was a lot of racism that we didn’t even know about.
RACISM. DESCRIBE LIFE BEFORE THE WAR. DID YOU FEEL AMERICAN
2:04 I think I did back then. They didn’t have the words Asian American. But our town was very much an immigrant town. Majority were Slavonian and Italian. Everybody was very nice and friendly to everyone. Helpful. I just went to a reunion and the people were still as warm and kind. I think I was lucky to grow up in San Pedro.