I'm a fourth-generation Japanese-American. I don't even speak Japanese except for a few words.'"
Overcomes disability
Jim Yamaguchi, her father, is a dentist. Carole Yamaguchi, her mother, is a medical secretary. Yamaguchi was born with a foot problem--both feet pointed inward--that her mother said may have made her a better skater. Until she was a little over one year old, she wore tiny plaster casts on her feet. Inside each cast was a metal bar that forced her feet into the correct position. "She learned how to walk in those casts," her mom told the San Jose Mercury News. She also wore corrective shoes until she was about five. "It was in part because of that that I wanted her to get involved in things involving her legs and feet, like dancing and skating," her mother continued. "That, and the fact that she really liked skating."
"My grandfather didn't talk much about World War II, but he let me know how proud he was to see me make it as an Asian-American representing the United States," Yamaguchi told the Chicago Tribune in 1992. "My parents let us know how fortunate we are now. Otherwise, they really don't look back on [being in the camps] too much.
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