By Dana S. Mar
The North American Post
At the gates of my adult life, I find myself looking around from the hazy future ahead to the foundations upon which I was raised. It is in this place that I must take note of how far I’ve come and how far I’ve yet to go.
A born and raised Chinese-Japanese American Seattleite, I grew up enjoying a close-knit family concentrated in both the Seattle area and spread out around the country. Though none of us speak Japanese or Chinese at home and very few could be considered even somewhat fluent, I have always felt an attachment to the cultural exchanges unique to my family. I am four generations down the line of Americanization on both sides of the family tree, but I long to know more of the inter-generational connections of my predecessors.
This is where the North American Pos t , a s a for um for my yonsei – perspective discourse, comes in. I started working as an intern for the Post in 2013 and just kept coming back to write a piece here and there or to take a few photos at the various community events I attend regardless of whether or not I am acting as a reporter. Now, in 2016, I spend half my time as a photography major at Seattle University and the other half as a part-time reporter and editor at the Post.
If the readers would have me, I would love to share my experiences as a fourth generation Japanese American in the hopes that we, as a community of similar yet greatly varied experiences, can better understand each other through our cultural and generational differences
