Interview with Tracy Amato, HIST 150 Spring 2024, Conducted by Morgan Amato, March 11 2024.

Overview to Interview 

Staying in another country for a prolonged period of time can teach you an immense amount about other cultures, traditions, and customs. The United States’ relationship with Japan has fluctuated constantly since the beginning of the 1900s, and the 1980s was no exception. Their relationship was in a relatively good place in the 1980s, but no matter where you go, people feel like outsiders in another country. However, it can change your perspective and open your worldview to something you have never seen before. 

Tracy Amato grew up traveling and moving different places constantly for her father’s job. Her senior year of high school, he was transferred to Japan, and although she did not want to, she and her family moved there to support him. She got thrown in to experience the life of an American not knowing the language or culture of another country. It was hard at times for her to adjust, and she felt like she did not belong as a woman who looked different entering what felt like a new world where she did not know anyone. As a man, her brother’s experience was different from hers in many aspects. The struggles she faced aside, she encountered traditions and aspects of Japanese culture many people are not aware of since they have not seen it firsthand. Living in another country for an extended period of time is an experience like no other, and although she was reluctant at first, it ended up being a memory she will cherish for the rest of her life. 

Biography 

Tracy Amato was born on January 16, 1970. Growing up, she moved to places all around the east coast such as Pennsylvania and New York since her father worked for IBM, and every time he was offered a promotion they would have to move. When she was a junior in high school, her family had to move to Tokyo for her father’s job, so her, her mother and older brother spent their Christmases and summers there. This interview discusses the themes of cultural change and family structure. This is an interview of Tracy Amato’s account of being a young American woman living in Tokyo, conducted by her daughter, Morgan Amato.

Transcript

Morgan Amato 00:00
Okay, today I’m going to be interviewing my mom Tracy Amato about what it was like to live in Tokyo as a teenager when she was younger. Okay, so can you describe a little bit about how you grew up and why you were in Tokyo?

Tracy Amato 00:14
Sure. So my dad worked for IBM. He was a personnel manager all when I was growing up, so the only way that you could really like, grow in IBM is that if you accepted every promotion, which was usually moving your family, so every two to three years, we would move. So the longest I ever lived in one place is Hyde Park, New York, because I lived there the longest, I lived there for six years. Other than that, lived up the East Coast and moved usually every three years, but sometimes it was less than three.

Morgan Amato 00:56
Okay, and when were you in Tokyo around what year?

Tracy Amato 00:59
So my junior year in high school, my father got transferred to Tokyo, was shocked because he had moved, like in the United States, but never thought he would get transferred overseas, or to Tokyo. So I was a junior, he left and moved over there and wanted me to finish my senior year in Tokyo. I did not want to. So my mom and I stayed in our house as he moved over there. And we did Christmas, and summers in Tokyo.

Morgan Amato 01:39
Okay, wow. And when your mother was in Tokyo, what did she do? And what was that like for her?

Tracy Amato 01:44
Well, my dad traveled a lot, because he actually ran Asia. So he would be one week in China one week in Tokyo one week, he’d go to Australia, Singapore, so she was alone quite a bit. But there was a Tokyo American Club, where a lot of the women would go, and they would have clubs, and she did like a lot of crafts and made origami, and really got into and tried to embrace, like the Japanese culture. And they would try to do any kind of dancing things, you know, they liked to go watch the geishas dance to take in anything that they could for culture.

Morgan Amato 02:33
Okay, that’s interesting. And would you say that your brother’s experience was different from yours? And how would you say that it was different?

Tracy Amato 02:41
It was absolutely different. First of all, because in Tokyo, men were looked upon with more respect than women were, it goes, you know, elderly, and men, and an American woman didn’t rank much respect. And, you know, I looked very different, because all of the Japanese women had this beautiful long black hair. And here, I would come with this curly, you know, it was the 80s. So it was like really teased. And you know, I had blonde highlights, and I would get very dirty looks from a lot of people. But my brother’s 6’4. So, you know, most of the people in Tokyo, you know, are not super tall, so they would all point at him. And they would say, Oh, my God, and they would call them Godzilla. And they would ask for pictures with him. Because he was just, you know, there towered over everybody being 6’4, he thought it was the greatest thing ever. I didn’t, you know, really embrace it as much as he did, because I felt always so uncomfortable. And, like, I didn’t fit in, where he was like, you know, this, you know, thing that everybody was amazed with, like, Oh my god.[laughter]

Morgan Amato 02:45
Okay, that kind of segues into my next question, which is, what were some of the challenges you faced arriving in a new country?

Tracy Amato 04:13
What did I face?

Morgan Amato 04:14
Yeah.

Tracy Amato 04:14
Well, it was very intimidating that I didn’t know the language. And so you couldn’t read signs, you know I didn’t have any friends, I came from like, you know, high school where I hung out with a group of 12 girls, I go to Tokyo, I have nobody but my brother. And you know, there’s no TV, you know, back then we didn’t have cell phones.

Morgan Amato 04:34
Yeah.

Tracy Amato 04:35
So, you know, we first got there, I was scared, I felt uncomfortable, and it was boring. But then after a couple weeks, they did try to embrace it and got to see a little bit more of Tokyo and IBM did send you to classes, because a taxi wouldn’t take you unless you could speak Japanese. So they would teach you classes so that at least I could get around a little bit and I wasn’t as scared.

Morgan Amato 05:03
Yeah. And you learned a little bit of Japanese in these classes?

Tracy Amato 05:06
Yes, they would teach you like, you know how to say like, good afternoon, good morning and good evening, how to answer the phone, how to give directions to the cabs. So that, you know, I also teach you the rules that you know, because you definitely had some set rules in Tokyo of etiquette.

Morgan Amato 05:27
Okay, and my next question is, how is everyday life observably different from people living in the US?

Tracy Amato 05:33
Well, it was amazing to me at the time, that seriously, every Japanese woman in Tokyo City had this long, beautiful black hair. Like they all wore bright colors, and they all and you know, coming from the States, I wore black a lot and had this big hair. And, you know, wore sneakers, and they always had like, high heels on even like the Japanese girls that we became friends with they always, going out had heels and these beautiful dresses. And it’s just wasn’t like that because I wore big sweatshirts and leggings.

Morgan Amato 06:18
Yeah. Okay, but so can you describe some of the cultural differences between Japan and the US like some traditions you observed?

Tracy Amato 06:27
Yes. So that was one of the things that IBM did in our classes, especially the bus, like when you go on a bus in Tokyo, the elderly, always get the front. And that’s it. And if you are sitting in the front, and an elderly person gets on the bus, you have to move to the back. Well, before we had done all of our classes, my brother and I were on the bus. And we were sitting near the front, and this older Japanese woman got on the bus, and we didn’t know what we were doing and she actually spit on him. Well, I’m like, Oh, Jack, I think we’re supposed to move to the back. He’s like, Oh, I think you’re right. I think you’re right. So they were and also the same thing, like I said, with the taxis. So if you didn’t, if they asked you where you lived, and you didn’t say like in Japanese, and like where you have to go, they would not take you. But culturally, like I said, the elderly people are definitely, it’s beautiful, how well respected and how they’re put on a pedestal over there, where I think we appreciate our elderly is but I or other people in the States, but I don’t think we take care of them or like, you know, put them on such a high pedestal as they do there.

Morgan Amato 07:44
So in addition to that, would you say that there are any other traditions that you would like to see the US adapt to?

Tracy Amato 07:50
Um, I do like that, you know, they really honor their elderly. It’s so extremely clean there. They’re very, very, like, you know, Tokyo city was very, you could eat off the ground, like they’re pristine, with their, you know, you go to our cities around here. And they’re gross.

Morgan Amato 08:12
Yeah.

Tracy Amato 08:12
But in Tokyo, they’re, like, polished and they’re clean, and everyone takes care of it. I would love to see, like, go to New York City and see it as clean as Tokyo.

Morgan Amato 08:20
Yeah. So what were the most fascinating or your favorite aspects of your experience there?

Tracy Amato 08:28
I have to say like, seeing everything, like firsthand, like, you can see things on TV, and it looks really cool. But like to see a geisha girl in front of you was breathtaking. You know, and then when they would do the dances that was I would get goosebumps watching them do all that and like just the tourist places like Mount Fuji was amazing to actually like, see it and go up the mountain. And, you know, after hearing about it for so many years to actually be there was magnificent.

Morgan Amato 09:02
Okay, and my last question, what elements of your time abroad stay with you? And like, in what ways did that alter your perspective coming back to the US?

Tracy Amato 09:11
I think it made me appreciate, you know, having my friends back home, because I really didn’t have many friends in Tokyo. And like I said, I was lonely. I did have one girlfriend that like that I would talk to all the time other than that it was just like people you would see out socially. So it made me definitely appreciate the relationships that I had back in the United States. It also made me realize with my parents, although it took me a while to, I respected my dad for what he did, although I was angry that he took the transfer at first.  I realized what a wonderful opportunity it was to be there and to take in the culture and to experience these things that I probably would never experience if my father didn’t get transferred there, so I definitely take home those memories of all the fascinating things I saw how much coming back to the States without my parents how much I cherish my parents. And another great thing was that I got super close to my brother because he was my best friend over there. You know, we spent that every single day together. And you know,  both of us were kind of like, oh, I don’t know, this is you know, I don’t know what we can do, what are we going to do? Where are we going? We would just hang out together. So, but I definitely, as much as I didn’t want to go to Tokyo. I’m really glad I had that opportunity because it really was an amazing experience.

Morgan Amato 10:44
Okay. Well, thank you so much for letting me interview you. And that’s it.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Research

The reason Tracy was in Japan was her father’s job for IBM. Legal culture was very different in the United States and Japan in the 80s. Japan was focused on harmony inside the group, while the U.S. was mostly focused on the rights of the individual. Bridging the vast gap between the two countries in this postwar period was difficult, and had a major impact on the business world in which IBM is based upon. Japan and the U.S. have the two most powerful and successful IBM companies, so it is to both of their benefit that they work together. Cooperation and communication between the two segments and the executives from each, such as Tracy’s father, are the keys to their success. Understanding and bridging the gap between American and Japanese culture was something that was strived for at the time Tracy lived in Japan, even in the business world with the efforts of her father. His traveling was essential for new groundbreaking achievements in the 1980s, as IBM could be an example for global relations in the business world, and Japan’s economy was at a peak.

Throughout the time that Tracy Amato was in Japan in the 1980s, the country’s relationship with the United States was constantly fluctuating. Politically, although Japan and the United States cooperated, tensions were high, which may have contributed to hostilities she experienced. The U.S. led over Japan, which was weaker, and had military bases placed in Japan. However, both countries in this time realized that an alliance was mutually beneficial, and progress was made in the relationship during the Reagan administration. By 1987 it was confirmed that Japan was a “Western Ally”.

In the 1980s, Japan was in an economic and technological boom. Their economy was second only to the United States. Japan was flourishing, leading to the globalization of companies such as IBM, contributing to their collaboration with the United States. Japanese vehicles, popular culture, and television sets were becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. The powerful standings of the United States and Japan altered their relationship into something that started to flourish with their mutual success and trading. Americans started to have increasing admiration for Japanese culture. Japan was prospering in the 80s, especially from an economic and employment aspect.

Bibliography

Shiina, Takeo. How IBM Succeeded in Japan, www.jef.or.jp/journal/pdf/sp1_8401.pdf. Accessed 10 Apr. 2024.

Vogel, Steven K. U.S. – Japan Relations in a Changing World. Brookings Institution Press, 2002.

McKevitt, Andrew C. Consuming Japan: Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America. The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

Interview and Technology Process

This interview was recorded on a computer in person using Voice Memos. It was transcribed using otter.ai and was edited manually.

Reflection/Follow-Up

Transcript was approved by Tracy Amato on April 14th, 2024. I thought about the interview a lot after my talk with my mom, because the conversation generated a lot more intersections between different kinds of social change than I initially thought. I interviewed her with just family dynamics and culture in mind, however, gender norms also became an important topic after I talked to her about how her brother’s experience was different from hers, as well as her mother versus her father during the 1980s.