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Japanese People in Alabama

A short documentary by Alexandra Jo Hancock and Christian Sutton about the people Honda sends to work at its factory in Alabama:

“The Japanese families of the men working at the Honda Plant in Lincoln, AL, strive to maintain their culture and connection to their homeland.”

—

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25 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 11, 2011 at 11:24 am

Categories: General Japan Tags:

Anonymous

wow i had no idea about this, but im very glad i watched it. although i am assuming it wouldnt be possible, seeing the fathers (who i am assuming worked at the honda plant) actually doing work there would have been an interesting part of the documentary. the company treats their workers well and it seems like they love/loved their life in america.
Hamachiman

Interesting to see more of these kinds of videos of Japanese people living in the U.S. (as we have seen non Japanese living and working in Japan).

It seems like these families are almost living in their own isolated ‘communities’ going to school and interacting with their fellow countrymen. I hardly saw any local folk from Alabama interacting with them. I suppose it would be same for foreigners in Japan who go to international schools and live in similar expat type communities. It would have been nice to see more of how they lived among the greater community where they lived.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr.S.

I have a few Japanese friends who worked in the South. You can imagine the reasons that they didn’t enjoy it are similar to the reasons of another visible minority.

Comment

My closest Japanese friend lived in the South for 4 years, and loved it. But then again, he never tried to isolate or distance himself in any way either. Conversely, I lived in Japan for 4 years, and jumped into Japanese culture as deeply as I could. Despite this, I’ve met my share of bigots and racists there too.

Bottom line is there are uneducated people in all societies.

I’m no apologist for the South’s dark past, but to broadly paint all people in the South as like-minded is extremely unfair.

Jeffrey

While it’s true that there are the bigoted and uneducated in all societies, in the last decade or so the Old Confederacy has become increasingly militant in that regard.

Anonymous

I’m going to Chime in and reaffirm this. I moved from Indiana to Memphis, TN, last year. In Indiana, I can count the number of times I had seen or heard racism on one hand. It was maybe a once-a-year, or once-every-several-years occurrence. In 21 years of living in Indy, my feeling was that there was really no significant racism at all among people younger than, say, 30 or 40 years old. Down here in Memphis, though, it’s damn near every day. I’m disgusted at it and I’m white. I can’t imagine if I were a minority down here in the South.

Bruce S

I agree that there are ignorant people everywhere. ”Mr. S.’s” comment alludes to issues which have nothing to do with this story.

http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com/search/label/tokyo Mr.S.

Say what you like. Two friends who have not met each other, are broad minded enough to be fluent in two languages in one case, and three in the other, both had the same experience. I’ll trust them: I’ve never gone there and am a white Anglo.

Comment

“I’ve never gone there…”

So all your information is second hand, rumors, and heresy. Not really the type of stuff a wise person would form strong opinions around. Furthermore, your sample size is “2″.
http://hanlonsrzr.blogspot.com Mr.S.

@Comment, I only rely on ‘heresy’ to support my atheism.
Comment

When all else fails, make fun of a typo. That’ll always get your point across.

http://www.billowykimono.com Senor Science

One of my best friends is Nisei, and his parents decided to settle in Missouri and Florida before he was born.

Needless to say they loved every minute of it and were accepted. I’ve witnessed more racist and backwards thinking from Midwesterner’s and Northeasterner’s than I ever have from Southerners.

bernician

Japanese school is shorter than American school? LOL. The daughter has her rose tinted specs on majorly, Japanese kids get in at 8.20 and don’t leave till past 5 at least.

joe

lol

classes begin at 9 and end at 13:00. Just because they are in school does not mean they are in class.
weirdo

She’s not talking about schools in Japan, she’s talking about the school that -she- is going to. “Japanese school” or 日本語学校 is what Japanese Americans call Japanese language schools (typically attended every Saturday morning)
https://profiles.google.com/havill Eido Inoue

It’s called Japanese language Supplemental school, and it “supplements” what they can’t learn in American public/private school. It’s held on Saturday (they usually rent out a private school) for a half day: two periods of Japanese (for native speakers; 国語) and two periods of mathematics, followed by a week’s worth of homework. That’s why it’s shorter: only four periods for the two things they can’t learn in U.S. schools.

They follow the MEXT curriculum in sync, so the kids can re-assimilate into Japan’s public schools without being behind in language or math development.I saw people drive as far as three hours one way on Saturday for the school, but if you live really far away (some states only have one school or none at all), they’ll mail the textbooks to you to homeschool. That’s why it starts late: some parents have to drive a far distance to get their kids there.While the kids are in class, they usually have a Japanese book/video/flea market exchange in the auditorium etc for the parents, and people exchange tips on getting real Japanese groceries, etc. They will do a sports day and some other group activities during the year.The principal and some of the teachers are sometimes subsidized / sent over by the Japanese government. Sometimes they have to draft Japanese mothers & fathers and turn them into teachers.The prerequisite for joining the school is you have to be able to speak/read/write Japanese as a native / first language; speaking it As a Foreign Language Level is not good enough, as the textbooks are from Japan and assume you’re native.

Here’s a typical website for one of the schools: http://www.japanschoolraleigh.com/

Bruce S

This was quite interesting! Thanks for sharing on Google Plus.

richard

Interesting video, but too short! I wish I could see how the Yoshidas adjusted back to living in Japan. BTW, have you guys seen how much of a jump Japan Probe gave this video? It’s been out since May, but has gotten over 1,000 hits in the past two days.
Jeffrey

Poor bastards! Alabama. (Shaking head and tsking.)

Sdsk

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/151509/test-marketing

weirdo

For people that are more interested in the process of returning to Japan after a long stay in the North America, this is quite an accurate depiction. It’s pretty old, but most of it still holds true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY0WUup3x14
DungLai

as guest in the US they have a right to free assembly, to associate with whoever they want. if they dont want to hang out with the local whites, that’s their right. Alabamans can choose to associate or not with Japanese, as well–that is their right as well. Until Amendment 1 is changed, “Free Association”. article 21 of the Jpn. Const. also guarantees Free Association–hang out with foreigners or not: you are free to do either.
Goatsmell

Was that a photo of the Great Hanshin earthquake (collapsed highway) inserted after the news footage?

himawari

I thought the same thing. That’s definitely a picture from the Hanshin earthquake.

Marcus

Company slaves that let their jobs decide where they live.

Japanese People in Alabama

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