Interview Process
The interview was conducted in person at my parents’ home in Springfield,VA. I asked my mother, Yukie, about 2 weeks in advance if she would do the interview, and she gladly accepted. The interview was done at the kitchen table, and was recorded through the voice memos app on the iPhone 7. We ran into a few problems throughout the interview. First, my mom’s first language is Japanese, so getting her to answer questions in English, caused her to provide shorter and less detailed answers to the questions, as her English isn’t the greatest. The other problem was the lack of time to actually do the interview my mother. Over spring break she was very busy, and so was I, so our schedules were a problem as I didn’t really see her much, and our time together was limited.
Biography
Yukie Foreman was born on December 8th, 1969 in a suburban part of Japan. She grew up in a small household in Mitskuyo, Japan with her parents and her sister. She lived in Japan all of her life until 1995, when she and my father moved to Hawaii. They moved back to Japan when I was born, and came back to the US in 2010, and have been here since then. She is a extremely hard worker, and is dedicated to her work and family. After she met my father, she worked on her English, and living in Hawaii for some time helped her work on it because of there is a good amount of Japanese culture in Hawaii. She now currently works as a personal trainer, and a masseuse.
Background Information
After World War II, Japan began to adapt some of America’s culture, because of General MacArthur’s orders to reconstruct and rehabilitate Japan. He enacted political, military, economic, and social reforms. Japan moved to a more capitalist system, and a more parliamentary system of government. Though there were many changes following the war, the role of women, and the equality of man and women did not change. Women were only seen as housewives, as they were not expected to have jobs outside of working in the house, and taking care of their kids. This was the norm of Japan for decades, but recently there have been attempts to reform this tradition, and give women in Japan more power. Within the past 10 years or so the number of women partaking in politics, and business has been increasing, and women are given more opportunity. There has also been in Increase in the number of women in management roles. Despite these attempts Japan still ranks at the bottom in gender equality.
Downey, Tom. “How Japan Copied American Culture and Made It Better.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Apr. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-japan-copied-american-culture-and-made-it-better-180950189/?page=2.
Aizawa, Yuko. “Gender Equality in Japan Remains Bottom – NHK NEWSLINE – News.” NHK WORLD, NHK WORLD, www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/nhknewsline/backstories/gendergap/.
U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/japan-reconstruction.
Transcription
Ryan Foreman (RF) – Inteviewer
Yukie Foreman .(YF) – Interviewee
RF- Hi, I’m Ryan foreman and I’m interviewing Yukie Foreman today. Do you mind at this audio is made public?
YF- No.
RF- All right, so I’m pretty much just gonna ask you a couple of questions and I just want you to answer them.
YF- Okay.
RF- And so the first question is, can you describe your experiences with obtaining a green card, like the process that you went through?
YF- Your dad was in the military and we got married in Hawaii. So we have to get the fiance visa to get into the country. We applied for the green card after we got married in Hawaii. So we had to interview a couple times over there.
RF- And the next question, how is Japan social culture different from the US?
YF- Recently is more Americanized the people. Is more casual but in the back in old time, it’s like more polite way to socialize and especially to the different age people (elders) that you had to be really polite. And yeah, we don’t have we don’t really hug each other. That’s a big difference in this country.
RF- Can you go through decision of moving to the US or why did you move to the US?
YF- Because your dad is military. So he retired in Japan. So after that we moved to States.
RF- And was that for like job opportunities?
YF- Yeah. So the way he can find the better job over here.
RF- Okay, and what was it like leaving your home country?
YF- Of course, it’s sad but to me, it’s like moving to a new country is more excited. So like so sad and excited at the same time that mixed feeling.
RF- Alright, and how have you adapted to the culture here in the US?
YF- It’s it’s not that hard. It’s well, you have to adapt the some, you know some culture. You have to get used to it, but it’s not really hard to get adapted like daily life. I like this way. It’s better. It’s more casual.
RF- Yeah, when you’re talking to people and stuff, like communicating to people.
YF- Yeah, that’s true.
RF- All right. So what cultural like practices how you brought from Japan and still practice today?
YF- Basically the basic Japanese manners in the house. You know that we have we have to take off your shoes where you get into the house or you know when people leave the house to the work or school, you have to say “itekimasu” (I’m leaving) or some greeting word when they come home, there’s greeting words too. And then also before you eat foods there’s some way that you’d like “itadakimasu” (Thank you for the food) – it’s like the greeting with a thank you to the food and when you finish the food that eating also the other greeting.
RF- We use chopsticks
YF- Yeah ,use chopstick. We you use chopstick. Yes, and then brought the rice cooker all the stuff.
RF- And you still speak Japanese casually?
YF- Yeah, to you yeah, of course.
RF- Alright next question. Can you describe your experiences with gender roles during your childhood in Japan?
YF- To be a women in Japan is really behind from this country that men is more dominate than the women even still now, but yeah, it’s hard to be a woman over there. They expect like women to have kids right after you get married and then stay home take your kids and family , cook the food. You know, that’s be all the style, like yeah traditional way.
RF- So have you seen any changes with Society on how they view gender over your lifetime?
YF- Yeah, I think so. It’s getting better. It’s women can get more that better job than before and people accepting the women too, you know. To get a job, even if you have kids, but still it’s really hard to work if you have a kids. So there’s a lot of women give up to have kids.
RF- Yeah, what are the differences between Japan and America when it comes to the views on gender or is it similar do you notice?
YF- Oh, yeah women it’s this country to women has more like like it’s more what I think it’s not easy, but, there l opportunity to be equal to the man. Yeah, I think it’s more what easy to do just for opportunities and your opportunity to live and then having a job and you know, there’s more independence. Yeah and different difference from men and women in this country.
RF- Well great. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. You had some great answers and thanks for being part of my project.
YF- You’re welcome.
The interview wasn’t nearly as long as I wanted it to be, but I still think there was good information and knowledge to be gained from it. My mother wasn’t really as talkative as she usually is, and it’s most likely because we did the interview in English, but she still did well. If i were to redo the project I would give my mother more time to prepare, send her the questions way earlier, and possibly get her to answer the question in Japanese then translate it afterwards. Another thing I should have done is ask either more questions, or ones that would provoke more detailed, and more insightful answers.