Bicultural Experience(Ms.Sayuri)

By Christal Wu

     In a lot of cases, people have perceptions that in love, distance, race, family and age are matter. In a lot of fantasy stories, girls run away from their families and get married with foreign guys. I though it would just happen on TV; however in our life, there are many similar stories like this going on. Today, we’ll talk about a story of Ms. Sayuri’s family bicultural experience.

     Ms. Sayuri is half Japanese and half Colombian. Her mom was born and raised in Japan. Her dad was born in America, but raised in Columbia. Japanese people are traditional and conservative in terms of relationships, friendships, showing affection, rules, strictness and academy. Latinos are more about love and living life. Two people with totally different backgrounds supposedly lead parallel lines, but in this case they intersected in Japan which is where the story lies. Sayuri’s dad immigrated to New York when he was 17 and got shipped to Japan as an American naval officer. He met Sayuri’s mom and fell in love with her. As an
American naval officer, her dad faced to a lot of obstacles. There was a lot of history behind Japan and America; as a result of that, they kept the relationship a secret for a long time. When her mom was finally determined to tell her family about the relationship, she got slapped on her face and was broken up with her family. They got married when Sayuri’s mom was 21 and her dad was 17. In the wedding, Sayuri’s mom’s family was unhappy and wouldn’t talk with her dad at all.
     After the marriage, her mom lived in America with her dad and gave birth to two babies which are Ms. Sayuri and her brother, John Carlos Buritica. Ms. Sayuri was named by her mom because her brother was named by Columbian grandmother. When she was a child, she grew up by identifying mostly her Japanese culture. She ate Japanese food, met Japanese friends, and celebrated Japanese culture and ceremonies. Her dad worked frequently and her mother raised her more. Both her dad and mom gave their children a lot of independence with their studies. They have high expectations on them, but it wasn’t really a requirement. Her mom always supported and agreed her dad’s mentalities; they never had conflicts about two cultures. Sayuri’s mom’s family changed their minds and thought that her dad was the best man in their family.

      Indeed bicultural love has a lot of difficulty, but Sayuri’s family experience demonstrates that love can overcome everything. As a child of this family, Sayuri is really proud of having twodifferent unique cultures.