Yoshikawa

        “I can't speak Chinese,” the guy at the counter at Cracker Barrel suddenly said to me. I said, just in my mind, “I hate the country, guy.”

        It happened a while ago, when I was looking for a Raggedy Ann & Andy. One of my friends was a big fan of those toys. She wanted me to get anything of Raggedy Ann & Andy stuff in the United States. I had no idea how to get that toy around here. The suspicion flashed on me that the Cracker Barrel might have that toy, so that is why I was there.

        I asked a lady at the counter about that toy. After that she suddenly called the manager of the shop by loudspeaker. I didn't know what was going on there, because the lady didn't say anything to me before she did it.

        I could guess that maybe she couldn't understand my talking, but I accepted that situation. I had no choice but to accept. After a while, the guy who was the manager showed up in my face, then suddenly said that word.

        I was very upset, and I said, “I can't speak Chinese either. I am a Japanese.”

        The majority of the Japanese care about being mistaken for other Asians, such as Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Japanese. Sadly but surely, I am one of them. Maybe the majority of Americans think, “Why are the Japanese so upset? They should not care just about a slight difference.” Sometimes that makes Japanese crazy.

        After the Cracker Barrel happening, I talked with a Japanese friend who has been living overseas almost 25 years. She had lived in the USA, Belgium, Germany, England and Hong Kong, and now she is back in Kentucky. She believes we will never avoid this prejudice as everybody has one. When she was in Belgium, she tried to buy some bread in a bakery, but the owner of the shop refused to sell to Asians. She said that was very shocking, but she realized she showed contempt for Chinese people herself when she was in Hong Kong. She is really a nice person and she has common sense, but she couldn't accept Chinese as equal to Japanese.

        When I look back over the past, I never thought of the “prejudice” in my life. Maybe I could feel prejudice, but I had never experienced it, because I lived in my own country.

        In Japan, we have many Chinese, Filipino and Korean immigrants. Maybe they have bad feelings and are uncomfortable the same as I now have been.

        I really appreciate my situation right now, so I can tell both feelings. I think that I will take time to think over my own prejudices.
        Share recent moments in your life by mail: In My Life, c/o The Cincinnati Enquirer; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: nberlier@enquirer.com.

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