I found this whole interview process from the background research to writing this final report to be extremely insightful. I met Reimi at the beginning of freshman year through mutual friends, but we did not become close until the beginning of the Fall 2022 semester. For a 35-minute interview, I feel as though Reimi’s story touches upon a wide range of topics from Japan’s colonization of Korea to what life is like as a Japanese-Korean-American today. The natural flow of the interview was almost in chronological order of Korea’s history. She discussed the tension amongst her extended family members which touches upon Japan’s colonial rule over Korea and how this continues to effect people today. She also touches upon the experiences of her parents, and what it was like for them to immigrate to the United States. And we wrapped up the interview by discussing what it was like for her to grow up with a unique ethnic background in New Jersey and how she is working towards embracing her cultural and ethnic identities today.
One aspect of our interview that I found particularly interesting was our discussion of cultural identity and cultural authenticity. Prior to our interview, I read an article by Justin Sprague titled, “Ghost in the Kitchen: Multiracial Korean Americans (Re)Defining Cultural Authenticity.” In this article, Sprague discusses how people of mixed races have struggled to find a sense of belonging throughout history which relates to Reimi because she is half-Japanese and half-Korean. In terms of cultural identity, Sprague included quotes from well-known Korean-Americans such as basketball player, Daniel Sandrin and model, Denyce Lawton. These quotes explained how Korean food was an integral aspect of their Korean-American identity.
This cross section between cultural authenticity and food came up in my interview with Reimi, Grace Cho’s memoir, Tastes Like War, and Michelle Zauner’s article, “Crying in H Mart.” During the interview, Reimi explained how a majority of the food that she eats at home is Korean food which has strengthened her connection with Korean culture to the point where it is stronger than her connection with Japanese culture even though she speaks Japanese at home with her parents everyday. This parallels several of Cho’s anecdotes, but the one that I believe has the most striking relation is the chapter titled, “Kimchi Blues.” During this chapter, Cho discusses how important kimchi was to her mother, and then how kimchi helped Grace maintain her connection to her Korean culture and her mother after she passed away. While reading Zauner’s article I could not help but identify the similarities between her experiences and Cho’s as both had Korean mothers and Caucasian fathers. While this does not exactly align with Reimi who has a Korean mother and a Japanese father, I find that they all had similar experiences as Korean-Americans. One dish that Reimi, Cho and Zauner all mentioned was miyeok-guk (seaweed soup). Reimi explained how her mother would always ensure that she had a bowl of miyeok-guk on her birthday, and Zauner shared a similar sentiment by saying that her mother would always make her seaweed soup on her birthday. Cho also mentioned how her served her seaweed soup when Grace was nervous before her first day of school. The fact that all of these individuals shared a similar experience with the same dish shows the impact that food has on culture and maintaining one’s cultural identity.
I was nervous going into my interview with Reimi. Since we had a pre-existing friendship, I was unsure of how to act. Given the fact that we were friends before, it would be pretty difficult for the interview to be, “all business,” but I was unsure of what the middle ground between a friendly conversation and an academic interview would look like, and more importantly feel like. I honestly think I might have been less nervous if I had been interviewing someone who I was not as close with. However, I am so happy that I decided to interview Reimi. I feel as though this interview allowed me to learn more about Reimi than I ever would have without it. Without setting aside an hour to ask Reimi specific questions about her parents’ experiences immigrating to the United States and her unique cultural background and ethnic identity, I am not sure that these topics would have ever been explored in a natural conversation.
While drafting potential interview questions, I wanted to ensure that I respected both Reimi and her parents. So I did not want my questions to pry into Reimi’s personal life, but I knew that some questions, particularly the questions regarding her ethnic identity, might elicit an emotional response. These questions were hard for me to ask because I was nervous Reimi would perceive them the wrong way. So I imagine they were even more difficult for Reimi to answer, but she articulated each of her answers in a thoughtful manner.
One of the biggest lessons that I am taking away from this interview is to not be afraid to have more profound discussions with people about their cultural backgrounds and ethnic identities. During this interview, Reimi and I were able to connect on a deeper level regarding our shared Asian-American experiences. We were also able to contrast how our experiences differed based upon where we grew up, her mixed ethnicity as a Japanese-Korean, and both of her parents being Asian and both of my parents being white. Having these discussions of cultural differences and one’s ethnic identity can bring people together, and also expand the perspective of everyone involved. So even though the questions may seem overbearing or nosy, I think that deep down everyone wants a space to talk openly about their identity in general, and talking with others may help them overcome some challenges they have with accepting their identity in every sense from their ethnicity to their sexual orientation.
—Grace Jones on her oral history with Reimi Kusaka