Trina Yin
#95571284
Project Proposal
I plan to create a paper based strongly on this interview with web links about Asian American history, organizations, publications and articles on Asian American Identity. The lucky subject of my interview will be CINDY NAKUMARA (pseudonym) , mother of my good friend Kim Nakumara (pseudonym). During my youth and playing with Kim, it often struck me as odd that Mrs. N. could speak English perfectly, while all other parents of my Asian friends had heavy accents. I never recognized the importance of her past -- until of late, when I was better educated about the Asian migrations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Haphazardly, and luckily might I add, she has fallen into being my subject of interview. I was ecstatic to find out that she is a 4th generation Japanese whose American roots grew deep into Asian-American history as early as the sugar fields where a booming industry. Her great grandparents
arrived on the shores of Hawaii to find work on the plantations. She was born and raised in Hawaii, until she traveled eastward to the mainland eighteen years later.
I intend to deliver a brief description of her grandparents stories past on to her by word of mouth. Then I will turn the focus onto her life, growing up in America as an Asian American whose home land was foreign to her. While analyzing her experiences and personal emotions in the States, I
intend to delineate any conflicting emotions of existence and self-reflection. Her experiences are unique, because she only knows America, for she is foreign to Japanese tongue, and soil. By drawing
interesting details about a pure 4th generation American, entrapped by her racial uniform, I predict there will be some interesting tales and ideas to manifest before the diverse, but questionably "equal" present-day America.
Her stories will become the stories of the likes of people like myself. Born and raised in a foreign land, that is, consequently, not that foreign. Her matured and wise opinions, brought about by experience, should open doors to new ideas for Asian Americans of the future. What is to become of my life? Of the Asian American guy or girl who has lived like me? The future holds what has been constructed in the pasts of the likes of my subject.