Mizuko 水子 – “Water Children”
The title of my book: Dream of the Water Children: Memory and Mourning in the Black Pacific, contains terms that are in the in-between space between language, history, and worldviews. In this post, and the next post, I will focus on the term: water children. What is this? In my own use of the term for my book, what does this mean?
VIDEO: Eric Robinson of Black Tokyo – Race & Identity in Japan
I am featured, along with Black-Okinawan thinker Mitzi-Uehara Carter, in the latest edition of Black Tokyo‘s Vlog at Youtube.
This edition features issues whiteness, blackness and Japanese-ness in relation to Race and Identity in Japan.
Reflecting on the election of Ariana Miyamoto as Miss Universe Japan in 2015, Eric points to various critiques, insights, and conditions that construct the definitions of social change, Japan and Japanese-ness, and the roles of mixed-race-ness in Japanese society, whether influencing Japan or not.
Also: Visit Eric Robinson’s BLACK TOKYO blog here: http://www.blacktokyo.com
Aoyama Michi Music Video: My First Black-Japanese Amerasian Entertainment
Growing up in Japan in the 1950s and 60s, there were a handful of mixed-Japanese (haafu– as we are called nowadays) shown on television. Even more rare were Black-Japanese. I, as you know, use the term “Amerasian” to refer to most of us (not all) mixed-Japanese in the postwar period, as our identities were directly linked with war, the U.S. and Allied Occupation of Japan, and the globalized nation-making period where race played an integral part. Issues of ‘haafu’ differ today, as Japan has been thoroughly divested of a direct relationship to war and occupation–although it is profoundly linked with the present-day idea and life of Japanese-ness. For us mixed-Japanese Black Amerasians, the appearance and sounds of Black-Japanese entertainers was both an incredible surprise and joy, but also a reminder of the disdain people had for mixed-Japanese during that time. Of course there were some Japanese who thought it nice and normal, or good. But the majority turned away with a disgusting look upon seeing us. Sometimes even our own mothers.
And. . . . . . .
Join ‘Japan’s War Brides and Their Legacies – 2018 Symposium’
Japan’s War Brides and Their Legacies: 2018 Symposium — a symposium on the legacies and effects of the lives of women who married non-Japanese between 1945 to 1965, will be coming at USC (University of Southern California) in 2018.
I will be one of the organizers and looking forward to building this into a solid first-time program.
My hope is that healing, learning, connection, and impacts are made, linking the individual and diverse post-war Japanese women’s experiences with the lives of their children and what and how this links with other stories that create spaces for thinking for social change and social justice, and to honor the lives of the Japanese war-brides, which are often mired in controversy and various forms of invisiblizing.
Our intention is to bring Japanese war brides, their children, and the scholars, artists, filmmakers, and the general community together for a series of events for sharing, thinking, healing, and inspiration.
If you are a child of a Japanese post-WWII marriage, or are yourself, and would like to join in bringing this symposium together, please join our facebook page:
My Early Puzzling racial questions……..
When I run into and get to know mixed-race American-Japanese people in the U.S., most of the time, they mention histories of being confused about who they were, their identity. Although, let’s say out of fifty persons I knew, seven or eight of them did not tell me that they questioned their identity, about confusion, the others did. I am one who never had any questions of who I was. But I also began noticing that those who questioned their identity, were mostly born in the United States, or left Japan as a child, before they could form too many sentences. Since American-ness is a place of individuals disconnected from communities, where people must craft their intimacies and friendships and relations, it began to dawn on me that this was not a surprise.
Equally so, was that I was quite sure of who I was and never questioned who I was or what I was.
Mixed-Race Identity: Celebration?
Let me be clear from the start: I am critiquing, not criticizing. Criticizing judges, has a moral hierarchy, is more “truth oriented.” I come from an intellectual background that struggles to critique–to point out crevices, junctures, and points of diversion that may open to new possibilities that present multiple locations from a single space (as opposed to criticism which tends to negate and/or annihilate whatever it points to). What is “multiracial” and “bi-racial” for? Who does it serve? What does it do or not do? Why?
HAPA JAPAN FESTIVAL 2017 – February 22-26 & Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference – February 24-26
This Year, University of Southern California (USC) is hosting a concurrent mixed festival and conference: the biannual Hapa Japan Festival (mixed-Japanese heritage studies and celebration) and the annual Critical Mixed Race Studies (CMRS) Conference.
Here is the program for the Hapa Japan Fest: http://dornsife.usc.edu/cjrc/hapa-japan-festival-2017/
Here is the program for the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference: https://criticalmixedracestudies.wordpress.com/cmrs2017-program/
Black, Yellow, White in Japan and Asia
My need to think about Blackness in Asia goes far beyond the fact of my father being an African-American soldier stationed in Japan during the Korean War. It goes beyond anti-Black attitudes among Asians that I have experienced, and the anti-Asian attitude I have experienced among African-Americans today. I knew that a superficial and very American notion of anti-black racism in the United States would not do to understand my own place in history and the languages I would use to uncover and do my part to undo its power in the world.
My BOOK will be RELEASED next year: November 2017
The book is taking longer but it will be better when it comes out! Thanks for your patience.
