Misaki Nakagawa

Sociology of Asian Pacific Americans

Professor Lee
September 15, 2014
Family Oral History
Kay Okamoto
My great great grandparents, Mosaburuo and Ritsu Okamoto, opened a dry
cleaning service store in Hawaii. My great grandfather, Sakae Okamoto, was born in
Hawaii, making him a citizen of the United States of America, as well as a citizen of
Japan because of his parents. When my great grandfather turned seven, they
returned to Japan and began to buy real estate. They were wealthy because of their
successful business in Hawaii, but began to lose money because of the lack of
medical insurance, leading to the death of four siblings for my great grandfather.
Many years later, my great grandfather met my great grandmother, Umeko
Okamoto. During the year of 1938, Sakae Okamoto moved to Shanghai, China
because the Japanese government believed that he was a spy due to him having a
dual citizenship. So for seven years, he remained in Shanghai, while my great
grandmother traveled from Shanghai to Japan to give birth to my great uncle, Tom
Okamoto, my grandmother, Yoshiko Nakagawa, and my other great uncle, Timmy
Okamoto. My great aunt, Kay Okamoto, was the only child that was born in Shanghai
because they were unable to travel during World War II in 1945. Although she was
born in China, the Chinese government did not declare her as a Chinese citizen. So,
my great great grandfather went to the Register Recorder in Japan, where they were
able to register Kay, making her a Japanese citizen. The family that had stayed in
Japan was not greatly affected by the war than most Japanese citizens. After the war

ended in 1945, my great grandparents and my great aunt moved back to Japan. My
great grandfather then moved to America in 1954 for economic opportunities and
the American Dream. My great grandmother and great uncle, Tom, left shortly after
in 1955, and finally in 1956, the rest of the four siblings, Yoshiko, Kay, Timmy, and
Margie, came to American in a Japanese cargo and passenger ship, which only
carried twelve passengers. The ship left Yokohama, Japan, stopped at San Francisco,
California, and finally arrived at Terminal Island in San Pedro, California. My great
grandfather worked at the grocery store as a clerk, while my great grandmother
worked as a seamstress to support the five children.
Kay Okamoto was only twelve years old when she came to the United States.
She went to junior high school at Four Shays Junior High, high school at Belmont
High School, and then graduated at Trade Tech Junior College. She learned English
quickly by going to school, as well as making friends with other children around the
neighborhood. She and her siblings became U.S. citizens through naturalization as a
second preference family member. This did not happen for five years because the
immigration law required individuals to be a permanent resident for five years
before being able to take the citizenship test. Kay does not remember them asking
many questions due to her age. After junior college, she worked for the Los Angeles
County Road Department as a clerk, then the Hall of Administration as an
accountant, then moved to USC Medical Center as an accountant, then to the
Department of Commerce, Travel Bureau, as the LAX interpreter with immigration
and customs. In 1987, she resigned from her job there and went to school in 1988 at
the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Jackson, Georgia. She

returned to California where she because the U.S. Immigration Officer under the
Department of Justice, and in 1992 became the Immigration Supervisor. After
September 11, 2001, the Department of Justice that she worked under because the
Homeland Security Custom and Border Protection. She finally retired in January of
2009
Kay did experience racism while living in the United States, but did not want
to elaborate on her experiences. She said that people do not say anything directly to
your face, but you can feel their constant judgment. She believes that racism does
exist, but she has learned to live with it, and believes it is a norm in American
culture. As an immigration officer, she had a wonderful experience working for all
races. She noted that to become a good immigration officer, one must know the
custom and cultures of others. She is a proud Japanese American, shown through
her involvement in the senior citizen center in Monterey Park, California, which is
majority Japanese American seniors. She also goes to other events such as the
Nikkei Festival in Downtown Los Angeles every summer. For her, being an Asian
American in the United States means having ancestry in an Asian country as well as
having American citizenship. The transition for her to blend in with the American
culture was very easy for her because she was only twelve when she arrived in the
United States, but for her older siblings, it was very hard, and still is hard. For
example, my grandmother, Yoshiko Nakagawa, who was sixteen years old at the
time, rarely speaks any English and only watches television in Japanese, with the
exception of sports related television. Compared to my grandmother, my great aunt
is much more Americanized in my view. She watches more American shows, speaks

in English frequently, and has pride of being an American. By being naturalized

earlier in her life, this has allowed her to blend into the American culture quicker.
She is both proud to be an American and to be Japanese.