Intermarriage

Since the internment and subsequent dispersal of the JC community greatly served to weaken cultural and language bonds, and integrate JCs into the larger, English-speaking Caucasian population, it’s no surprise that there is such a high out-marriage rate among JCs. When I was growing up, there were hardly any other JCs in my high school, we spoke only English at home and almost all of my friends were Caucasian. My father and his five siblings all married JCs but two of my mother’s four siblings married Caucasians. Although my parents never expressed any opinion about the desired ethnicity of a potential spouse, I think my father would have been secretly just a little pleased if I had married a JC man.  My mother passed away years before I met my husband who is Chinese-Canadian. He doesn’t speak Cantonese and our two kids speak only English. We were about to leave for what would have been the first trip to Japan for my husband and kids when the pandemic forced us to cancel. I hope that once my kids have had a taste of Japan that they might be motivated to learn a little bit more about the culture.  Otherwise, I foresee that what few vestiges of the Japanese language and culture that exist in my own family will be completely forgotten by the time my kids are adults.

 

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