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"A Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian
and the diversity of our country is actually one of our greatest strengths."
When I am asked if I am Japanese, I kind of feel weird.
I am Japanese and I'm also
Ainu, that's how I feel about myself.
I want people to introduce themselves naturally like,
I am Japanese but my grandpa was Ainu.
So I like Ainu language and culture.
And that's my roots.
My ideal society is that anyone can freely express their roots with pride
and can be accepted naturally.
I am from Biratori in Nibutani, Hokkaido.
In Biratori, about 70-80% of the population have Ainu roots.
So the Ainu culture strongly remains in this area.
I was raised surrounded by all the culture and traditional arts.
So they had to do like the Japanese did.
Ainu customs were gradually forbidden.
Tattoos were banned and hunting deer or fishing salmon were restricted.
Even though some Ainu weren't farmers, they were forced
to farm anyways, and were given poor quality land on top of that.
Ainu didn’t lose their power when Hokkaido became part of Japan.
By that time, they had lost it already.
They had been exploited for so long.
So not teaching the Ainu language, not teaching Ainu culture,
is what parents did.
It seems that parents often told their children
not to marry Ainu so that the Ainu blood would be
I don't like this expression, “diluted”.
In a history textbook you'll find about two pages discussing Ainu.
Textbooks only have big historical events and numbers.
Maybe it's the things they don't write about that are culture.
I would like you to learn what's not in the textbooks.
Today we all came to peel off the tree bark.
And this work has to be taught to the next generation,
but can only be done once a year.
It won't tear.
So like this, Ainu people and non-Ainu people are doing this together.
This is not a ritual that only Ainu can do,
or only Ainu should do,
because Ainu sees people as humans,
this should be the way it is,
so we gather here together, enjoying, being merry, full of happiness.
My parents are known and actively involved in the Ainu culture,
also my grandma and uncles
are proud of being Ainu and work as artisans.
They are known well enough to be easily found
on the internet or in many media.
So I was repeatedly asked by my parents
if I was ok to be on media
when in elementary school.
I've done Ainu speech contests when I was small.
I got the best speech award so I think people
may have thought I had potential to carry on Ainu culture.
So people seem to expect me to be better and I wanted
to respond to them but I couldn't always do so.
タント ウポポ ヘネ Today I'd like to sing while I'm sitting down
ウパｼ クマヘネ and talk about
クイｴ ルスイクス our ancestors' stories.
ヌ ワ エンコレヤンアニー So please listen and enjoy.
I think I wanted to leave everything to do with Ainu,
so I actually left Nibutani
to go to middle school in a different area.
After leaving my town,
I realized how important Ainu is to me.
And my parents learned how much I love Ainu culture.
Now I look back and think it was a great idea to leave my town.
But...
When I was in middle and high school, I was torn
whether to live as a regular Japanese or an Ainu.
There was a time I was thinking about that.
The Okinawa language is called Uchināguchi.
It’s called Uchināguchi and is also called Shimakutuba.
That's the everyday language.
The Japanese language came later.
And by the time the war was about to start,
they were forced to speak Japanese
in order to make them feel they're Japanese.
"I spoke my dialect."
If you did that, you'd have to wear a plaque.
The person standing with the plaque is the one
who’ll find the next student and tell the teacher.
Because no one wants to get punishment,
I asked what they did to avoid it.
Everyone tried not to speak.
When someone denies your own language,
I bet you it must feel so awful.
Like Japanese is correct, Shimakutuba is wrong...
It must have been really, really awful.
This island where I was born
Kind-hearted Okinawa
Bright like the sun
Cheerful people
Arigatou (thank you), on the main island of Okinawa, it’s
Nifedebiru, that's thank you.
On the island of Miyakojima, it's Tandigatandi.
On Ishigaki, it's Mifaiyu.
Haha, it's all the same arigatou, but the word is totally different.
In Okinawa,
the government makes commercials encouraging people to speak Shimakutuba.
Obaa-chan, are you ok?
I have back pain.
I want to walk but I can't.
What happened? Are you OK? (spoken in Shimakutuba)
When you know the language you can be kinder.
But it's not really catching on.
So Uchināguchi…
So do you.... understand it, do you know it, do you speak it?
Like, what's…
Ah... haha, I don't understand.
Not really.
Just a bit, phrases here and there.
I don't understand.
I don't really hear it.
They don't talk to me much.
Look at the blinking lights, look. Do you see it?
My obaa-chan's generation, they use the language.
But, when they talk with their grandkids, they use Japanese.
Ichariba chode.
Anybody who you meet once becomes your brother or sister.
I always have it in my heart.
My name is Kazuko Oshiro
I'm 85 years old.
I'm from the northern part of Okinawa.
The northern part of Okinawa, the very north.
I was a teacher for 35 years.
The work was really rewarding.
So if I die now, I can say with confidence
that I had an extremely great life.
But when I was 10, I experienced the war.
Through the mountains,
the very dark mountains,
my newly born sister on my back,
I was frantically running away.
Running through the mountains of Yambaru.
Then, my sister, when she was turning 3,
died of starvation.
My grandpa got malaria and died.
That's why I'm really sensitive about war.
Because I'm sensitive about war,
when I was working as a teacher,
I always had classes about war and peace.
During ethics class, I always strongly
emphasized war and peace.
Telling students we must have peace.
This is very important for all teachers in Okinawa
to pass on and ensure we never stop teaching.
No war, only peace.
Because the bases are connected to war,
we hate them, we don't like them.
When I was a kindergartener, by boat,
my mother took me to Tokyo for the first time.
The currency was still U.S. dollars,
so in Okinawa we exchanged it to Japanese yen.
At the port in Kagoshima, we went to a cafeteria, and ate curry rice.
It was like 300 yen, 300 yen.
And my mother,
because she didn't know yen,
she took her purse and
emptied all her money on the table.
She said, "Because I don't know the currency, take the money."
As I was a little kid, my mom
said, "I don't know, take the money."
And the Kagoshima oba-chan's surprised face...
I'll never forget.
There are some good American soldiers.
We Okinawans are not against Americans,
rather, we're against the military itself.
It's called 'Champuru' culture,
those many cultures are mixed together.
And we took the best parts.
And live happily together, that's what we do.
Of course I have the sense that I'm Japanese,
though I deeply feel more like I'm Okinawan.
That's naturally from the bottom of my heart,
as I was born and raised on the island. So I'm Okinawan.
At heart I'm Okinawan.
Okinawan.
I'm OK being Japanese, but...
"We Japanese citizens
and this country Japan
will be gone one day."
I am third generation Zainichi-Korean.
So my grandparents came to Japan during the war.
Because during that time, Japan and Korea were one country and they could come.
My grandparents came to Japan for work, and had kids here.
But when the war ended, my father's side went back
and found out that the living conditions were even worse in Korea.
It was a really poor country.
So they decided to come back to Japan.
But because it was already two separate countries by that time,
they had to secretly come by boat.
But the boat was really crappy.
And then they found out the boat had a hole and it started sinking.
And everyone was like, "Come on!" and scooping the water out.
My aunt saw this old man who was just sitting still, not helping.
And she said, "You too!
Help us!
What are you doing?"
But he just sat still.
The boat continued to sink,
but then a Japanese fishing boat came by.
And everyone was saying, "Help us! Help us!"
But the Japanese fisherman saw that and must have thought,
"A bunch of Koreans!”
But then the old man suddenly stood up
and pulled out a big bundle of money out of his pocket.
And the fisherman said, "OK, everyone get on."
And that was how I was born, my father was born, everyone survived.
The first time my parents told me I wasn't Japanese,
I was Korean,
was when my mother and I were taking a bath together.
My mother said,
"If you go to kindergarten, you'll meet a lot of Japanese kids.
You are not Japanese."
And I remember thinking, "What is Japanese?"
"I'm not them?
We're not the same?"
She said, "No."
She said, "They're Japanese.
You're not.
You're Korean."
I didn't understand,
because what's the difference between us.
We looked exactly the same.
I put up my finger like this and said, "Not this much?
Maybe this much I'm the same?"
And she said, "No, no you're not."
The first time I met so many Zainichi-Koreans like me
was when I was seventeen.
For summer vacation, my father sent me to this program
for Zainichi-Korean kids to visit Seoul for 10 days.
At the end of the trip one of the girls came up to me and said,
"Do you tell your friends that you're Korean?
And I'm like, "Yeah sure! I never hide.
I say it all the time."
And she's like, "Really?
And what do they say?"
She was really worried.
"I never tell anyone that I'm Korean,
and I'm so worried everyday that someone might find out.
So I want to change my nationality to Japanese,
but my parents won't let me.
So I'm waiting until I'm 20."
Because if you're 20, you can change your nationality by yourself.
But if you're under 20, you need your parents’ permission."
So she said, "When I'm 20, I'll become Japanese."
And I'm like, "Why?"
Because I never experienced any discrimination
in my life up until that point.
So I really didn't understand why
you have to keep it a secret.
Japanese-Brazilians get priority because they are the descendants
of Japanese immigrants and get Teijyusha (Long-term Resident) visas.
Some work in car factories or electronics factories.
Oizumi town in Ota city, Gunma where we are going to visit next
is where a lot of Brazilians live because there are electronics companies.
Japanese-Brazilians are here for Dekasegi.
They are here for some years to work and save and go back to Brazil.
Working in a factory, they live close to each other.
They don't really speak Japanese there.
They don't need to speak it in the community. So they work there.
I worked from 2016 until last year (2017).
I worked at a factory for like 12 hours a day.
But the work itself is not the hardest part.
It's like you're in a different culture.
Because even though I grew up with a Japanese father,
I grew up in a different environment.
So, you kind of think you're Japanese, until you get there.
Because, it's really strange.
Here in Brazil people used to call me, "Oh look, it's that Japanese guy."
And then in Japan we have this problem
because we Brazilians refer to the Japanese as Japanese.
Then who we are?
It's really strange.
In my first month in Japan,
I tried to find community Japanese language classes,
where Japanese volunteers, mostly seniors, would teach us Japanese.
And they were really kind towards me,
every time they would bring snacks,
Most of the time, Japanese were really kind towards me
and accepted me.
I don't know how they perceived me.
If I was like someone who can grow as a Japanese.
Or maybe just a Brazilian
who's really working hard to adapt to their culture.
If people came to me and spoke
like, "You're not Japanese."
I would say, "Yeah, I'm a half Brazilian, half Japanese,
I have both cultures so...
deal with it.
They marked it wrong.
I'm Naomi Iwazawa. I'm half Japanese and Czech.
I help people understand and appreciate diversity.
I want to eat sushi.
I realized I was Japanese
when I first went to Hungary when I was like 6 or 7.
I was living in Japan like any other Japanese child,
I was never told I was different.
So I'd never thought differences existed.
When I went to an international school in Hungary,
everyone said where they came from.
So everyone shared their own culture with each other there.
I said I was Japanese, but wait, my mother is Czech, so
I am also Czech.
That's how I started to think about myself.
After I came back to Japan,
my classmates said,
"You are not Japanese so go back to your country."
I thought I was Japanese,
but I found mud in my shoe locker.
I also found my gym clothes in a garbage bin,
some pulled my hair saying,
"You shouldn't have brown hair (it's against the rules)."
Some pulled my earrings.
I told them the reason why I had earrings and brown hair.
I don't know if they thought it's unfair,
they were jealous, or hostile;
but that's what I experienced.
My junior high was in Germany,
so I felt so much better getting out of that society.
I was in an international school, so it was a different atmosphere,
where I could say my identity freely.
There were guest students from Haiti, Israel, and Korea.
We all went to this elementary school
to learn about different cultures.
It must have been something like
they have never interacted with black people.
There was one child that ran away crying or some other things happened.
So we did a quiz game.
We never imagined this would have happened.
"Is that true that chopsticks are only used in Japan, yes or no? "
The children went to the person who had a board with 'Yes'.
We realised the board for 'No' was being held by the black student.
It seemed like the children were scared to go near the student.
Some students who thought the answer was no,
stayed in the 'No' area where it's almost in the 'Yes' area.
I was very curious about this.
We all knew the children didn't intend to dislike
or even discriminate against the black student.
Then that student was very good with kids.
So after an hour and a half,
the kids already became good friends with him
and some even climbed up on his back.
Some said your hair is nice and super curly
and enjoyed playing with him.
So this kind of experience,
if there are young children like grade 1, 2, or 3,
they can get over it soon even though they initially cried or ran away.
It can be accepted because they are still young children.
The more you have those experiences when young,
the less you feel fear of differences or different cultures.
I really learned from that event.
Meri-san?
I'm Meri.
- Hello! - Hello!
I'm Tetsuro.
I'm Meri.
- Nice to meet you! - Nice to meet you!
What do you think ‘a hāfu’ looks like?
I'm Atsugiri Jason!
I came to Japan from the U.S. 4 years ago.
Are you doing this on purpose?
Kanji are so hard!
My name is Joe Oliver.
My father is American.
He was in the military and my mother was Japanese.
I was raised in Japan for 37 years.
If I had to categorize myself,
I would be an earthling.
In Japan, no one thinks I am Japanese.
Other people, especially Western people,
think I'm Japanese.
So others determine who I am,
so I can only say I am an earthling.
So you go ahead and decide who I am.
I say I am an earthling.
By the time I was born, they were separated.
So I was raised by my mother since I was young.
I was happy until I went to elementary school.
I went to a Japanese daycare where there was no discrimination.
So happiness until 6 years old.
Hell started from age 7 until grade 12.
That very long 12 years.
From grade 1 to grade 3,
I was intermittently abused quite badly by some random adults.
They punched me, even peed on me.
I had a very rough time then.
Not only me but my mother was hurt by others.
She was almost physically abused.
They told her, "You like black penis?"
or something much worse than that.
Even elementary school kids said, "Your mom likes black guys."
When I was in grade 2, grade 6 kids attacked me in public.
Someone put his arms around me
and held my back while a few people punched me.
They peed on me, spilt milk on me.
Some coloured me with chalk all over my body.
I wonder if the teachers really understood
mixed raced kids like me back then.
I kind of doubt they did.
I actually went to talk to the police with my mother.
Then what they told us was that,
you are a child of an American guy, so live with it.
You gave birth to a child of an American guy.
We were only helped by American soldiers.
Only them.
When I was being punched by adults
and those soldiers happened to be passing by,
they were just there by chance but they rescued me.
They were sometimes caucasian or black soldiers.
Some caucasian soldiers cried for me.
It was only soldiers who helped me.
If I was living in Tokyo where there were lots of foreigners,
I may not have experienced the racism I did in Yokosuka.
I think I would have had a different life here.
The reason why I think that, is I have been working here since I was 17.
I have never experienced any racism at all in Tokyo.
I have told my story to people from other prefectures.
Everyone said they couldn't believe it.
I was relieved when I heard it.
What I have been through was very rare I'd say.
Every Japanese who heard it said it’s crazy.
So I was extremely unlucky.
So for model shots,
do you always have to be serious?
Or do you like...
I don't think so.
Haha, okay.
I'm Minoru Kiuchi.
I'm a Japanese Diet Member,
and currently the Deputy Chairperson of the Diet Affairs Committee.
This record was made in the 1930s.
Oh!
In Japan.
Really?
Before World War II.
Did you know that at that time
many Japanese people loved
American movies and jazz.
Western style.
This is my friend who's a jazz pianist.
Hi, I am Yamato Saito. Call me Bobby.
I was born in Japan, raised in the U.S., and am living in Japan.
In Japan, people who don't fit the framework for being Japanese,
even though you've been living as Japanese,
can be a target of discrimination.
Second generation Japanese can be considered weird Japanese.
Returnees can also be a target.
So, people who aren't in the framework,
as well as people who are in but have something else,
can be targeted in Japan.
People say, "They're a bit weird!"
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
There is often this hate speech like there are no more pure Ainu.
I am extremely tired of hearing it.
There are no such things as pure people.
So at which point were they 100% pure?
Are there any pure Wajin?
Can you prove it?
Nice to meet you, I’m Eimy.
I'm from Mexico.
When they complimented my Japanese, I really appreciated it at first.
But when I understood the reason behind it.
Like it's not necessarily because they like or respect me.
It's more like "For a half, your Japanese is good.
For a foreigner, your Japanese is good."
"After studying for one year in Hiroshima,
students prayed at the atomic bomb memorial
in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park."
Okinawan namari (accent).
All persons of Japanese descent were required to register.
The army provided fleets of vans to transport household belongings.
And buses to move the people to assembly centers.
Behind them they left shops and homes
they had occupied for many years.
We're setting a standard for the rest of the world
in the treatment of people who may have
loyalties to an enemy nation.
We are protecting ourselves
without violating the principles of Christian decency.
Evacuation.
More than a hundred thousand men, women, and children,
all of Japanese ancestry,
removed from their homes in the Pacific coast states,
to wartime communities
established in out of the way places.
Two thirds of the evacuees are American citizens by right of birth.
The rest are their Japanese born parents and grandparents.
These people are not under suspicion,
they are not prisoners,
they are not internees.
They're merely dislocated people.
The unwounded casualties of war.
While they have many things in common with ordinary American communities,
in the really important things,
relocation centers are not normal
and probably never can be.
Homelife is disrupted,
eating, living, and working conditions are abnormal,
training of children is difficult.
Americanism,
taught in the schools and churches and on the playgrounds,
loses much of its meaning in the confines of a relocation center.
I'm Japanese.
"You don't look Japanese though?"
Is what people usually tell me.
So,
Actually, my dad is American, my mom is Japanese,
so I'm hāfu.
I always need to say that kind of self-introduction.
"Oh Max, you're good at using chopsticks!"
"Oh, you like natto? Wow, you're like a Japanese!"
When I was a high school student,
I worked at a sushi restaurant.
But I wasn’t asked to make sushi rolls there.
Apparently, the reason was my appearance wasn't appropriate
for a sushi maker as the customers could see it.
A customer said, “Did you come to study in Japan? That’s good.”
”You must like Japanese culture as you’re working in a sushi restaurant.”
Because of how I look, they tend to make up stories like that.
People like me who do something to do with Japanese things,
they tend to think, "Oh, this person loves Japan
and came all the way from home just to learn our culture!"
That's how I felt they were thinking about me.
Okay then, If something happens, just call 110.
Okay, we will. Thank you.
I always get stopped like this when filming!
I don't know the reason why.
I'm often stopped by the police.
But I never get physically abused.
I've probably been stopped more than 300 times in my life so far.
But when I'm wearing a suit I don't get stopped.
I never, ever, get stopped!
When I'm in a sweatshirt, or wearing a hoodie, then of course I get stopped.
I’m Shankai.
I'm a born-in-Japan Burmese that lives in Japan.
But I don't have citizenship of any country.
When I was in elementary school,
I never thought of myself as a foreigner.
I wrote my name in katakana for the 6 years of my elementary school.
When other classmates wrote theirs in Chinese characters.
I felt it a bit funny but no big deal.
I never thought I was Burmese back then.
When I went to middle school, I was bullied.
I came to understand that I wasn't Japanese
when I was being bullied.
I also thought I couldn't ever become Japanese then.
So I thought I should be positive about it and accept that I'm Burmese.
When I applied for university,
studying abroad was a must at the faculty I wanted to enter.
I also wanted to go see foreign countries.
When I had to write the entrance application,
my parents told me how I was stateless.
I had no passport and it's actually risky to leave the country.
Then I realized I'm neither Burmese nor Japanese when I was about 17.
Right now, honestly,
if I continue without citizenship,
I won't be able to go abroad easily,
or I won't even be able to get married.
There are many problems about this issue.
I can naturalize.
But then my problem is, do I want to
obtain a Burmese citizenship,
or a Japanese citizenship?
I'm still torn over this.
Japanese citizenship has a wider range of
benefits and is more useful,
so at this moment I am thinking to apply for the Japanese citizenship.
How do you pronounce your name again
when you introduce yourself in Japanese?
Gurizudeiru Bari Jyoshua
Are you not nervous about this?
It's only been a few hours since I've arrived in Tottori,
but I've been super impressed.
Everyone's really kind-hearted and
also they explained the "i-support" system to me...
How does it feel to be Japanese?
- If you slipped here, it would be really bad! - Definitely!
When you have both an American and a Japanese family,
and you're asked to choose one family,
no one can choose.
Because you love both...
Because Japan's a country, where from the beginning,
people from various countries and cultures have mixed,
let different people live in Japan.
And if they succeed,
they could save Japan's future.
But you're also Nihonjin (Japanese) as well, are you not?
Yeah!
People choose my identity without asking me.
I think if the person thinks they're Japanese,
then they're Japanese.