Episode 47: The "Nisei" Stewardesses of Pan Am

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The Pan Am Museum Foundation recognizes the month of May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and in this episode we explore the history of Pan Am’s “Nisei” Stewardesses with Dr. Christine R. Yano, retired professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai’I and author of the book, Airbourne Dreams: “Nisei” Stewardesses and Pan American World Airways.

This book is the story of an unusual personnel program implemented by an American corporation intent on expanding and dominating the nascent market for international air travel. That program reflected the Jet Age dreams of global mobility that excited postwar Americans, as well as the inequalities of gender, class, race, and ethnicity that constrained many of them.

The Japanese word “Nisei” means second generation Japanese American.  

In 1955, Pan Am began recruiting Japanese American women to work as stewardesses on its Tokyo-bound flights and for the airline’s celebrated round-the-world flights. Based in Honolulu, these women were informally known as Pan Am’s “Nisei” stewardesses, even though not all of them were Japanese American or even second-generation. They were hired for their Japanese-language skills, but in reality…few spoke Japanese fluently.

However, the main reason for the hiring of these women was to enhance the airline’s image of exotic cosmopolitanism and worldliness as the iconic American company pioneered new frontiers of race, language, and culture. These young women left home to travel the globe with Pan Am, forging their own cosmopolitan identities in the process.

In 2014, Chantelle Rose Acorda, Kim Nguyen, and Jasmine Pigford made a well-done student film and interviewed Hawaii state senator Glenn S. Wakai and Pan Am veterans Ailenn Sodetani and Mae Takahashi.

The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii produced a short educational film, Pan Am Ambassadors, with interviews of Pan Am "Nisei" stewardesses. 

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A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Aron, Chairman and CEO of AMC and president of the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Pan Am Brands for their continued and unwavering support!