Throughout primary school, the other Japanese children - including fellow hafus - made it a habit to tell me that I’m “not really Japanese”. They told me I wasn’t allowed to eat Japanese foods, namely the onigiri loving made by my Irish mother who tried to give me some connection to my lost other heritage. Most notably, I remember being in my primary school library with my class. As I put back my books another student came up to me and asked if I could translate a sentence written in Japanese. I couldn’t. Or at least not fully. The girl said, “Ashley said you wouldn’t be able to”.