KTVU PSA - I'm Proud to be a Japanese American

[sake408]

I remember seeing these when I was a kid. I think there was one for Chinese and Italian Americans too.

[Forevernight]

@sake408 Yep and a Mexican one too. I want to see the rest

[thejusticemike]

Oh, this takes me BACK! Thanks for posting!  I remember one for Mexican-Americans too.

[vicvas6]

442nd were a battalion of badasses. *Salute* from this soldier.

And yeah KTVU was so awesome when I was a kid.

[Earych]

Watching these as a kid, I always wondered why my heritage wasnt represented. Looking back, I guess it would have been too long for a commercial so without further ado:

I'm proud to be an Irish, English, Dutch, Swedish, Scottish, French American :)

BTW: My great grandfather was adopted so the list might be even longer.

[bravo0105]

How about being proud of simply being an American?

As for facing harassment and discrimination, that's why, in their prescience, the Founders enumerated the Second Amendment at the insistence of the Anti-Federalists.

American Citizens of Japanese descent having been armed to the teeth would have proven a powerful disincentive to FDR interning them. Of course, a self-inflicted Depression and the Firearms Act of 1934 mitigated that threat.

"God created man; Sam Colt made them equal."

[MichaelHansenFUN]

i remember this

[Earych]

God I totally forgotten about this! KTVU was always so special.

[fuegonocturno]

Hi Golabutron,

Thanks for posting this, I was asked to do this with another classmate back when I was in 6th grade at Malcolm X in Berkeley by Belva Davis, the first female African American reporter on the West Coast. It was great fun, and helped me become aware of not only Japanese American history, but was the impetus for learning more about the exclusion of other communities from US history. I am glad you decided to include everyone's posts here, it's eye-opening.

[vividwatch47]

And they make a big deal of what happened to the Japanese Americans in the internment camps, and fail to remember what happened to the Italian Americans and the even the German Americans who were also interned. I'm not being racist, I'm trying to prove a point, and the Italian Americans or the German Americans have yet to get an apology from the U.S..

[thejusticemike]

@vividwatch47 Yeah, but all these "apologies" have to go. Every other day the US is issuing a "formal apology" for internment camps and Japan is issuing a "formal apology" for WWII and it's, like, how many times do people born in the 50's, 60's, and 70's have to apologize for what people did in the 40's?

[videofieldsoldier]

I really appreciate whtat they were going for here but these kinds of PSA's have always something awkward about them.

[Nssjxchamaco]

Wow. I remember this on KTVU.

[Xervosh23]

Wow, its been a while since I've seen this; I'd totally forgotten about it. I'm surprised they didn't do a few more takes; the performance of those girls leaves a lot to be desired. When one of the girls cites "Congressmen" as one of the occupations Japanese-Americans hold, the guy they show is ultra right-wing U.S. Senator S.I. Hiakawa, who served in office from 1977-1983 (he didn't run for re-election in 1982).

[frenchjr25]

This was part of a series of PSA's that KTVU aired about race and being proud of one's background. I just wish the poster could have included the music and title sequences. Man I wish KTVU would rerun these.

Someone really should remove the hate filled comments below.

[golabutron]

@frenchjr25 I considered deleting the negative comments, but ultimately it's just another example of what Japanese Americans and other ethnic minorities in the U.S. are up against, so it's more honest to keep them (but I will start deleting them if things get out of hand).

[aaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaa]

They forgot to mention how the Japanese attacked pearl harbor and killed 1000's.

[golabutron]

@aaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaa Japanese Americans didn't attack Pearl Harbor, so it doesn't need to be on their list of accomplishments.

[aaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaa]

@golabutron: What is it exactly that they are proud of? Why is it so racially specific? They personally had nothing to do with the actions of their ancestors...........so why are they proud? Proud of genetics? Proud of something they had NO control over. Racial pride is nothing more than a way to divide Americans. Being proud of race is as ridiculous as being proud of your hair or eye color. How about being proud of personal achievment. Oh yeah, I am proud to be 6 feet tall------------STUPID

[phantomsuccour]

@aaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaa this was the 80's and what you don't know is that the history books, tv, everything, only showed whites americans. So children of other races where left feeling as if they weren't even part of the country. Things are different now, which is why this wouldn't be needed in the current times.

[aaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaa]

@phantomsuccou: Who cares---stupid japs.

[wallofvideo]

@aaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaaqaa that's really a mean-spirited thing to say. you really need to stop & take a look at yourself & ask what would motivate you to say something like that. seriously, let go of this hate & move on. our time in this life is too short for that sort of thing.

[MichaelHansenFUN]

GOT ANY OTHERS?

you are right it is from the early 1980's

[oldhatrs25]

God, I remember this from my childhood. It's amazing how this stuff is stored way back in the recesses of my brain.

[opalteen]

the last message was directed @ThePhantom2K9

[opalteen]

She does sound like she saying 1970 but she strung together the words aroun'(d) eighteen seventy. "Neighteen Seventy". Cute! I hope someone can put up the rest of these and in better quality! Still better something rather than nothing.

[Hajime598]

Iv never seen any Japanese American stuff I'll iv seen were WWII stuff.I proud that people want to show that Japanese r good.

[wallofvideo]

who are the two girls? i'm wondering if they ever did any other acting work. and can anyone tell where the beach scenes were filmed? i always assumed it was in sf.

[rkmugen]

@wallofvideo Somewhere along "Ocean Beach" in San Francisco, probably... you know... west of 'the avenues'...

[wallofvideo]

@rkmugen that sounds reasonable. but that mountain in the background at 0:03 has me wondering if maybe the scene was shot at a beach in the east bay.

[bab4]

Wow I remember this... I guess no I'm Proud to be a Chinese American huh? Someone must have it!

[phlizmo]

@bab4 there was a chinese american spot as well.. maybe someone will post it.

[afistfulofclips]

overall, a groovy message. but instead of hayakawa, i'd have substituted either richard aoki (black panthers) or wendy yoshimura (symbionese liberation army) or shinya ono (east wind).

[ThePhantom2K9]

1970? Wrong it was the late 1800s Japanese immigration started! I'm positive...

[ThePhantom2K9]

The video quality makes this look older. Oh, and GO FOR BROKE!

[akhon]

Oh my God! I've been looking for these forever. Thank you for posting!

[moxie96]

does anybody have or remember the one with the girl twirling a flower and imagining what she wants to be when she grows up? Thanks for posting this one too!

[rahayden2009]

@moxie96 yes I do, check out snipets, it should list a lot of psa commercials from 1974 to 1980

[rahayden2009]

@moxie96 sorry, its called snippets

[rahayden2009]

@moxie96

[enochy1225]

Golabutron thanks for posting this. I'm 33 and these commercials still burn bright in the old memory bank. I hope you have the other PSA's stored somewhere so you can eventually post them.

[mefault]

@enochy1225 I'm also 33 and I can still remember these vividly. They use to play in the bay area on KTVU when it was an independent station. By the way, thanks Golabutron for posting

[superrc]

does anyone remember the psa of the girl pondering what she wanted to be when she grew up? some careers were firefighter, police officer, news reporter. in the end (while petting a dog or picking at a flower?), she said something to the effect of "someday i just want to be me"

[solmonhut]

I remember that one. I really do need to see it . Im 29 still struggling in college. I could use the wisdom. these were all great.

[deyoungparker]

Holy crap, I do remember that. Someone has got to post that. How did these things get so burned in our brains?

[SFFOOL76]

@superrc

I remember that, they also had IM PROUD TO BE A ITALIAN AMERICAN and a few other commercials.

[bago510]

@superrc yes i remember that PSA comercial about the girl imaginining what her future careers could be . man i havn't seen that in years hopefully some one will upload it one day .

[enochy1225]

Awesome stuff! I'm still hoping one day someone can do a story on what these kids in the PSA ended up doing...a where are they now article or video. Those PSA's were all about communicating a message that kids could get in to whatever field they wanted. I remember that other PSA where this girl was daydreaming about being in all these different occupations. Good stuff.

[wago70]

I totally remember this! thanks for posting!

[AnnainCA]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have been looking for this for years, and it's such a treat to see it again. Someone else recently uploaded the "I'm Proud to Be an Italian-American" spot, so now all that remains is to find the Mexican-American and Chinese-American PSAs. I think those four were the only ones made, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[JudgePat]

There was Black-American too. Not sure but I think there was also one for Native Americans. If there was, it didn't get as much airplay as these.

And thanks for tipping me off to this one. Boy, does this bring back memories!

[recto89]

@JudgePat These things should go on the Air today. I wish they add more ethnic groups to this like "I'm Proud to be a Muslim-American' Or "I'm proud to be a Hindu-American" or "I'm proud to be a Filipino-American" except these things would be too contraversial for TV now. and Glenn Beck and Fox News would take these KTVU PSA's out of Context.

[fromthaBAY2WA]

@recto89 I remember seeing a "proud to be a Filipino-American" PSA on KTVU back in the 90's

[wordboydan]

Awesome that you dusted this one off and posted, golabutron!

[ThePhantom2K9]

The United States shall never have only one race. We are the nation of human-kind. God Bless America!

[recto89]

@ThePhantom2K9 Tell that to Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona.

[fluffy1931]

@ThePhantom2K9 ..,go hug a tree and fall off a cliff.