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Hey #AsianDiasporaCreators. I& #39;m Kira, a queer 4th gen Japanese-American. I& #39;m an illustrator & comic artist and the first in 3 generations to speak Japanese. My family history is a messy story of picture brides, internment, and WWII vets and I carry that legacy with me, always.
My paternal family can only trace itself back to Hiroshima, and that& #39;s just an oral accounting of where my great-great grandparents emigrated from, there& #39;s no records to confirm it. No one remembers what prefecture my maternal great-great grandmother, the picture bride, was from.
No one is even sure we& #39;re only Japanese, because it turns out my maternal grandmother& #39;s father was her step-father, and no one discussed who her biological father was from. It was one of those things we "just don& #39;t talk about."
It is speculated my grandmother& #39;s biological father was an Okinawan immigrant to Oahu, but NO ONE KNOWS
I talked about my family& #39;s history with internment and World War II in this thread. WWII changed the trajectory of my family& #39;s relationship with Japaneseness. Children born pre-Pearl Harbor? Japanese names, ie Makoto. After? American names, ie Harold. https://twitter.com/kirameks/status/1284947552987570176?s=20">https://twitter.com/kirameks/...
