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.
2014 – VIDEO: Korean Hapa Tour – Homelands, New Lands, Healing
In the Fall of 2014, a group of Mixed-Korean Amerasians, mostly adoptees from Mixed-race orphanages in Korea, went on a small tour organized by the tour group Me & Korea, back to Korea, to the orphanages, and to meet Insooni 김인순 — Black-Korean pop-star/diva, who was partially responsible for this event.
OUT NOW! New Book by Walter Hamilton!
Walter Hamilton has come out with his great book: Children of the Occupation: Japan’s Untold Story.
Music Video: Vintage Japanese Movie Song: Mongrel Marie 混血児マリー
Teresa Cabio was 14 years old at the time she was cast in the movie in 1971, singing the song that was somewhat of a popular hit, called Ainoko Mari 混血児マリー (Mongrel/Love Child Marie).
Article: Selling Mixed Race Babies: The Koreas Example
This article LINK from the Asia Times from July 17, 2002 by Aidan Foster-Carter entitled: Adopting, Adapting: Korean Orphans is an excellent beginning overview of how mixed-race bodies are used, especially in the context of orphanages.
Article: The Color of Fame in Asia – Mixed Race Entertainers in Thailand
Thailand mirrors many of the same phenomenon happening around much of Asia, related to US and European globalization/colonization histories in relation to colorism, Blackness and Whiteness.
ARTICLE: Vintage Japanese Movies about Mixed-Black Japanese
