Photo/Illutration Sophia Fukushima, a third-year student at Izumi Junior High School in Yukuhashi, Fukuoka Prefecture, wins a prize for her essay about her experiences and thoughts. (Hisatoshi Tanaka)

YUKUHASHI, Fukuoka Prefecture--Sophia Fukushima thought she was “rather bad” at writing essays, but last summer she decided to put into words something that has bothered her for most of her young life.

The 14-year-old’s essay, “Hafu dakara nanda” (Hafu, so what?), won the Justice Ministry’s Human Rights Bureau award at a national junior high school essay contest for fiscal 2024.

The award ceremony was held at the Yukuhashi city hall on March 14.

“Hafu” (or “half” in English) is a Japanese term used to refer to a person who is half-Japanese.

Sophia, now a third-year student at Yukuhashi city’s municipal Izumi Junior High School in Fukuoka Prefecture, has a Japanese father and a Filipino mother.

She was raised in the Philippines until she was 1 year old, and has since lived in Japan for 13 years.

Although she has Japanese citizenship, Sophia said she somehow knew as far back as she can remember that “my roots are a little different from others.”

She has felt people staring at her because of her background and constantly being told, “Because you are hafu.”

When she started to write the essay, she thought she wanted to send a message to others: “Please don’t assume anything.”

As a fourth-grader at elementary school, her friends said to her on numerous occasions, “You speak English because you are hafu, don’t you?”

In her essay, Sophia wrote about such experiences: “It was a bit of a troubling question for me. I grew up in Japan, so English is not my strong point. And yet, I felt a little uncomfortable that people thought I could speak English simply because I am hafu.”

She said she does not mind the term hafu for herself and that she knew her friends meant no offense by it.

However, every time she was asked about her English ability, she felt puzzled. There were even times when she pretended to be able to speak the language, she said.

A senior student whose mother was from the Philippines attended the same junior high school. The boy had lived in the Philippines for a long time and was fluent in English.

One day after school, a friend asked Sophia, “Why is it that (the boy) is so good at English and you are not?”

She recalled the experience in her essay, “I was very hurt because I was compared and judged on whether or not I could speak English based on my looks and roots.”

Sophia says each and every person is raised and lives in a different environment and background. Yet, she was judged by a single image. It was painful as she thought, “I am who I am.”

Her mother, who came to Japan for work before Sophia was born, is accustomed to life here and speaks Japanese smoothly.

When Sophia was writing the essay, she asked her mother about her life.

She learned that her mother had a hard time finding a job in Japan and was rejected several times because she was Filipino, being told that “customers might be surprised.”

Her mother also said she was treated differently from Japanese employees at work.

She did not seem to want to recall these experiences, but she told her daughter, “I don’t want to be discriminated against.”

Undaunted, her mother persevered and now works in the field of elderly care.

Sophia said she wants to be like her mother.

In the essay, she wrote, “My mother is a very encouraging figure for me, and I am proud of her strength.”

As she wrote the essay with a mechanical pencil on a piece of manuscript paper, the girl pondered the differences among individuals and cultures. She wondered if people are able to respect and accept such diversity.

Although she may be told again that she is this or that because she is hafu, she hopes that she and others will take action when they see or hear discriminatory words or behavior.

In the essay, she wrote, “I want to have the courage to speak up and explain myself so that people will understand me.”

Her prize-winning essay became a topic of conversation among her friends.

Sophia said she feels a little shy about the human rights award, but she also wants her friends to know about her feelings that she wrote in the essay for the first time.

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