Kazue Nakamura plays the “sanshin,” a traditional Okinawan stringed instrument, with her wishes for peace in Osaka Prefecture, May 18, 2025. Her thoughts intertwine with feelings for her father, whose name she does not even know. (Mainichi/Tomonari Takao)
OSAKA — Having faced prejudice, a 76-year-old woman born to an Okinawan mother and a U.S. serviceman who left Japan before she was born says that she wanted to erase her past until the 1990s.
This reporter met Kazue Nakamura in Osaka Prefecture, where she now resides. She took a small sip of “sanpin-cha” — a type of jasmine tea common in Okinawa Prefecture — from a cobalt blue Ryukyu glass and picked up a sanshin (a traditional Okinawan stringed instrument). Traces of her upbringing in Japan’s southernmost prefecture were evident. But it was there that her early life went through twists and turns.
Nakamura was born in 1949 in the village of Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture. Her mother, Teruko, apparently met an American man while working at Kadena Air Base after World War II. This man fathered Nakamura, though it is unknown whether he knew of Teruko’s pregnancy, making their child an Amerasian. Teruko later died in 1952 at the age of 22.
The term “Amerasian” is a portmanteau of “American” and “Asian.” It refers to children born to U.S. military personnel and local residents in countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea, where U.S. troops were stationed or dispatched after WWII. In recent years, many Amerasians proudly identify as being half Japanese and half American, or having “mixed roots.” However, in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, where one in four Okinawans perished, they faced prejudice and discrimination as “children of enemy soldiers,” and their families were often met with cold stares.
During the Battle of Okinawa, Nakamura’s grandparents and their family fled to the northern mountains to survive. After living in a tent at a Ginoza internment camp, they returned to Yomitan, only to find their home burned down. They lived in makeshift housing for postwar recovery, but poverty persisted. Nakamura was born and raised there. Teruko worked at a U.S. military facility to make ends meet.
As Nakamura grew, she became aware that her appearance was a bit different from that of her classmates. Her fair skin, light brown eyes and slightly reddish hair set her apart. Children around her often hurled heartless words at her, leaving her in tears time and again. Yet there was nothing she could do about it.
Turbulent emotions
While in the first grade, Nakamura spent about a week with an American couple at their home — a typical “gaijin (foreigner’s) residence.” From a life of either going barefoot or wearing sandals and having mostly sweet potatoes for meals, she found herself in a world with her own room shoes, adorable dresses, a comfy bed and a refrigerator stocked with ice cream. It felt like a dream, but when she received a visit from her grandmother Kama, tears welled up in her eyes, and her mind was disturbed. She broke free from the American woman’s arms, and rushed into the embrace of her grandmother, who was also in tears.
In the second grade, another American couple came and placed Nakamura carefully in the front seat of their car. A white puppy was in their garden. But a few days later, when her aunt came to check on her, Nakamura suddenly felt like going home and ran away. Later, stuffed animals and other toys were sent, but that was it. She reflected, “It seems both cases were temporary care in preparation for adoption. I only understood the situation much later.”
At the time, it was apparently not uncommon for Americans to adopt Amerasians. However, Nakamura’s grandmother continued regretting entrusting her granddaughter to others, as those around her had advised her to do. Sitting on the dirt floor peeling beans, she sobbed, “Why are our family called Americans?”
Nakamura wanted to erase her own past.
A young Kazue Nakamura plays with a puppy and a doll on her lap in front of the home of an American couple who considered adopting her in 1956. (Photo provided by Kazue Nakamura)
As her high school graduation approached, she decided to join a program for group employment in mainland Japan. She found a company that allowed her to attend a vocational school while working, and set a goal of becoming a child care worker. Her grandmother opposed the idea, saying, “You won’t find happiness even if you leave Okinawa.” But for a year, Nakamura saved money by working as a babysitter in gaijin residences among other jobs, obtained a passport (Japan travel certificate), and boarded a ship from Naha Port. At the time, Okinawa was still under U.S. control.
In 1970, Japan was abuzz with the Osaka Expo. That year, Nakamura traveled from Osaka Prefecture to Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward for a job interview to work as a child care provider. She had a firm resolve: “I’ll be honest and cheerful, no matter what the question is. And as my grandma taught me, look the interviewer in the eye when answering.”
Revealing her origins for 1st time
While interviewing for a job, Nakamura revealed her background for the first time.
“My father was an American who worked at the U.S. military’s Kadena base, and I heard he returned home before I was born,” she said. “I don’t know his face, name or whereabouts. My mother died of illness when I was 3.”
The interviewer, with surprise, asked her, “Then who raised you?”
“My grandma … excuse me,” she said. “I lived with my maternal grandmother, and my aunt and uncle — my mother’s younger sister and brother. They even sent me to the high school that I graduated from.”
Her grandmother died in 1974, aged 81.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that Nakamura’s desire to escape from her hometown began to change.
(Japanese original by Tomonari Takao, Osaka City News Department)
(This is the first part of a two-part series.)
AloJapan.com