Not wanting to cause a scene — or worse, instigate an incident like the one that befell the elderly United passenger who refused to give up his seat on in April — Yamuachi sat Taizo on her lap and kept her mouth shut until she reached Boston.

“I started remembering all those incidents with United on the news. The violence. Teeth getting knocked out. I’m Asian. I’m scared and I felt uncomfortable. I didn’t want those things to happen to me,” she told Hawaii News Now.