Advertisement
Nisei Daughter: Exploring Identity, Heritage, and the Second Generation Japanese American Experience
The term "Nisei daughter" evokes a powerful image: a woman born in the United States to Japanese immigrant parents, navigating a complex tapestry of cultures, traditions, and societal expectations. This post delves into the rich and often challenging experiences of Nisei daughters, exploring their unique perspectives on identity, heritage, and the lasting impact of historical events like World War II. We'll examine their struggles, triumphs, and the invaluable contributions they made – and continue to make – to American society. Prepare to uncover a compelling narrative of resilience, adaptation, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
The Defining Characteristics of a Nisei Daughter
The term "Nisei" itself signifies the second generation of Japanese Americans, born in the United States to Issei (first-generation) parents. Nisei daughters, therefore, inherited a complex cultural legacy. They were raised in American society, exposed to its values and opportunities, yet simultaneously immersed in the traditions and language of their parents' homeland. This duality often created a unique identity, one that blended American and Japanese cultural elements, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes conflictually.
Navigating Two Worlds: Cultural Assimilation and Preservation
Many Nisei daughters faced the pressure to assimilate into American culture, often at the expense of their Japanese heritage. This pressure came from various sources: schools, peers, and even sometimes from within their families, who saw assimilation as a path to greater acceptance and success. Yet, simultaneously, they felt a strong pull towards preserving their Japanese heritage, a connection to their parents' history and a sense of belonging to a larger community. This internal conflict played a significant role in shaping their identities and worldview.
Language and Communication: A Bridge Between Cultures
Language was often a key battleground in this cultural negotiation. While many Nisei daughters learned English fluently, their fluency in Japanese varied greatly, impacting their relationships with their parents and the broader Japanese American community. The loss of the Japanese language could represent a severing of ties with their heritage, while maintaining fluency often served as a vital connection to their roots and family history.
The Impact of World War II: A Defining Moment
The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II profoundly affected Nisei daughters. The sudden uprooting, loss of property, and the stigma of being labeled an "enemy alien" left deep emotional scars. This traumatic experience shaped their understanding of identity, belonging, and the complexities of American society. The resilience displayed during and after the internment is a testament to the strength and determination of this generation.
Contributions and Legacy of Nisei Daughters
Despite the challenges they faced, Nisei daughters made invaluable contributions to society. They excelled in various fields, breaking barriers and paving the way for future generations. Their experiences and perspectives enriched American culture, offering a unique blend of Japanese and American values.
Breaking Barriers: Achievements in Diverse Fields
Nisei daughters demonstrated remarkable resilience and ambition, achieving success in various fields, including academics, arts, business, and activism. They defied stereotypes and challenged societal expectations, showcasing their talent and determination. Many became trailblazers, demonstrating the capabilities of women from marginalized communities.
Preserving Heritage: Advocacy and Cultural Contributions
Many Nisei daughters became active advocates for the Japanese American community, working to preserve their heritage and ensure that the experiences of their generation were not forgotten. Through storytelling, activism, and cultural initiatives, they have ensured that the legacy of the Nisei generation is both remembered and celebrated.
Shaping Future Generations: Mentorship and Role Models
The experiences and accomplishments of Nisei daughters serve as a powerful source of inspiration for subsequent generations of Japanese Americans and other minority groups. They have become role models, demonstrating the possibility of overcoming adversity and achieving success while preserving one’s cultural identity.
Conclusion
The story of the Nisei daughter is a testament to the power of resilience, cultural adaptation, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. Their experiences, shaped by both the richness of their heritage and the challenges of assimilation, have left an indelible mark on American society. By understanding their unique perspectives, we gain a deeper appreciation for the complexities of identity, the importance of cultural preservation, and the lasting impact of historical events. Their legacy continues to inspire and empower future generations.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between Issei, Nisei, and Sansei? Issei refers to first-generation Japanese immigrants to the United States. Nisei are their children, born in the US. Sansei are the grandchildren of Issei, born in the US.
2. How did the internment camps affect Nisei daughters' lives? The internment camps caused immense trauma, resulting in displacement, loss of property, and social stigma. It significantly impacted their sense of identity and belonging in America.
3. What role did language play in the lives of Nisei daughters? Language was a crucial element in negotiating their dual cultural identities. Proficiency in both English and Japanese varied greatly, influencing their relationships with family and community.
4. What are some notable achievements of Nisei daughters? Nisei daughters achieved success across various fields including academics, arts, business, and activism, often breaking barriers and becoming pioneers in their chosen areas.
5. How can we learn more about the experiences of Nisei daughters? You can learn more through oral histories, memoirs, documentaries, academic research, and engaging with Japanese American community organizations and museums.
| nisei daughter: Nisei Daughter Monica Itoi Sone, 1979 A Japanese-American's personal account of growing up in Seattle in the 1930s and of being subjected to relocation during World War II. |
| nisei daughter: A Study Guide for Monica Sone's "Nisei Daughter" Gale, Cengage Learning, 2016 A Study Guide for Monica Sone's Nisei Daughter, excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Themes for Students: Race and Prejudice. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Themes for Students: Race and Prejudice for all of your research needs. |
| nisei daughter: Kiyo Sato Connie Goldsmith, 2020-09-01 Our camp, they tell us, is now to be called a 'relocation center' and not a 'concentration camp.' We are internees, not prisoners. Here's the truth: I am now a non-alien, stripped of my constitutional rights. I am a prisoner in a concentration camp in my own country. I sleep on a canvas cot under which is a suitcase with my life's belongings: a change of clothes, underwear, a notebook and pencil. Why?—Kiyo Sato In 1941 Kiyo Sato and her eight younger siblings lived with their parents on a small farm near Sacramento, California, where they grew strawberries, nuts, and other crops. Kiyo had started college the year before when she was eighteen, and her eldest brother, Seiji, would soon join the US Army. The younger children attended school and worked on the farm after class and on Saturday. On Sunday, they went to church. The Satos were an ordinary American family. Until they weren't. On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The next day, US president Franklin Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the United States officially entered World War II. Soon after, in February and March 1942, Roosevelt signed two executive orders which paved the way for the military to round up all Japanese Americans living on the West Coast and incarcerate them in isolated internment camps for the duration of the war. Kiyo and her family were among the nearly 120,000 internees. In this moving account, Sato and Goldsmith tell the story of the internment years, describing why the internment happened and how it impacted Kiyo and her family. They also discuss the ways in which Kiyo has used her experience to educate other Americans about their history, to promote inclusion, and to fight against similar injustices. |
| nisei daughter: Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky Sandra Dallas, 2014-09-01 It's 1942: Tomi Itano, 12, is a second-generation Japanese American who lives in California with her family on their strawberry farm. Although her parents came from Japan and her grandparents still live there, Tomi considers herself an American. She doesn't speak Japanese and has never been to Japan. But after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, things change. No Japs Allowed signs hang in store windows and Tomi's family is ostracized. Things get much worse. Suspected as a spy, Tomi's father is taken away. The rest of the Itano family is sent to an internment camp in Colorado. Many other Japanese American families face a similar fate. Tomi becomes bitter, wondering how her country could treat her and her family like the enemy. What does she need to do to prove she is an honorable American? Sandra Dallas shines a light on a dark period of American history in this story of a young Japanese American girl caught up in the prejudices and World War II. |
| nisei daughter: Nisei Radicals Diane C. Fujino, 2020-12-31 Demanding liberation, advocating for the oppressed, and organizing for justice, siblings Mitsuye Yamada (1923–) and Michael Yasutake (1920–2001) rebelled against respectability and assimilation, charting their own paths for what it means to be Nisei. Raised in Seattle and then forcibly removed and detained in the Minidoka concentration camp, their early lives mirrored those of many second-generation Japanese Americans. Yasutake’s pacifism endured even with immense pressure to enlist during his confinement and in the years following World War II. His faith-based activism guided him in condemning imperialism and inequality, and he worked tirelessly to free political prisoners and defend human rights. Yamada became an internationally acclaimed feminist poet, professor, and activist who continues to speak out against racism and patriarchy. Weaving together the stories of two distinct but intrinsically connected political lives, Nisei Radicals examines the siblings’ half century of dedication to global movements, including multicultural feminism, Puerto Rican independence, Japanese American redress, Indigenous sovereignty, and more. From displacement and invisibility to insurgent mobilization, Yamada and Yasutake rejected stereotypes and fought to dismantle systems of injustice. |
| nisei daughter: Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater Wenying Xu, 2022-08-15 A Library Journal Best Reference Book of 2022 This book represents the culmination of over 150 years of literary achievement by the most diverse ethnic group in the United States. Diverse because this group of ethnic Americans includes those whose ancestral roots branch out to East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Western Asia. Even within each of these regions, there exist vast differences in languages, cultures, religions, political systems, and colonial histories. From the earliest publication in 1887 to the latest in 2021, this dictionary celebrates the incredibly rich body of fiction, poetry, memoirs, plays, and children’s literature. Historical Dictionary of Asian American Literature and Theater, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 700 cross-referenced entries on genres, major terms, and authors. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this topic. |
| nisei daughter: Asian American Autobiographers Guiyou Huang, 2001-05-30 Asian Americans have made many significant contributions to industry, science, politics, and the arts. At the same time, they have made great sacrifices and endured enormous hardships. This reference examines autobiographies and memoirs written by Asian Americans in the twentieth century. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on 60 major autobiographers of Asian descent. Some of these, such as Meena Alexander and Maxine Hong Kingston, are known primarily for their writings; others, such as Daniel K. Inouye, are known largely for other achievements, which they have chronicled in their autobiographies. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and provides a reliable account of the autobiographer's life; reviews major autobiographical works and themes, including fictionalized autobiographies and autobiographical novels; presents a meticulously researched account of the critical reception of these works; and closes with a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. An introductory essay considers the history and development of autobiography in American literature and culture and discusses issues and themes vital to Asian American autobiographies and memoirs, such as family, diaspora, nationhood, identity, cultural assimilation, racial dynamics, and the formation of the Asian American literary canon. The volume closes with a selected bibliography. |
| nisei daughter: Writing the Ghetto Yoonmee Chang, 2010-11-08 In the United States, perhaps no minority group is considered as model or successful as the Asian American community. Rather than living in ominous ghettoes, Asian Americans are described as residing in positive-sounding ethnic enclaves. Writing the Ghetto helps clarify the hidden or unspoken class inequalities faced by Asian Americans, while insightfully analyzing the effect such notions have had on their literary voices. Yoonmee Chang examines the class structure of Chinatowns, Koreatowns, Little Tokyos, and Little Indias, arguing that ghettoization in these spaces is disguised. She maintains that Asian American literature both contributes to and challenges this masking through its marginalization by what she calls the ethnographic imperative. Chang discusses texts from the late nineteenth century to the present, including those of Sui Sin Far, Winnifred Eaton, Monica Sone, Fae Myenne Ng, Chang-rae Lee, S. Mitra Kalita, and Nam Le. These texts are situated in the contexts of the Chinese Exclusion Era, Japanese American internment during World War II, the globalization of Chinatown in the late twentieth century, the Vietnam War, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the contemporary emergence of the ethnoburb. |
| nisei daughter: Sweet Cakes, Long Journey Marie Rose Wong, 2011-07-01 Around the turn of the twentieth century, and for decades thereafter, Oregon had the second largest Chinese population in the United States. In terms of geographical coverage, Portland�s two Chinatowns (one an urban area of brick commercial structures, one a vegetable-gardening community of shanty dwellings) were the largest in all of North America. Marie Rose Wong chronicles the history of Portland�s Chinatowns from their early beginnings in the 1850s until the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1940s, drawing on exhaustive primary material from the National Archives, including more than six thousand individual immigration files, census manuscripts, letters, and newspaper accounts. She examines both the enforcement of Exclusion Laws in the United States and the means by which Chinese immigrants gained illegal entry into the country. The spatial and ethnic makeup of the combined Old Chinatown afforded much more contact and accommodation between Chinese and non-Chinese people than is usually assumed to have occurred in Portland, and than actually may have occurred elsewhere. Sweet Cakes, Long Journey explores the contributions that Oregon�s leaders and laws had on the development of Chinese American community life, and the role that the early Chinese immigrants played in determining their own community destiny and the development of their Chinatown in its urban form and vernacular architectural expression. Sweet Cakes, Long Journey is an original and notable addition to the history of Portland and to the field of Asian American studies. |
| nisei daughter: The Little Exile Jeanette Arakawa, 2017-04-17 An American girl of Japanese ancestry is exiled in her own country after Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, little Marie Mitsui, who considers herself a typical American girl, sees her life of school and playing with friends in San Francisco totally upended. Her family and 120,000 others of Japanese ancestry are forcibly relocated to internment camps far from home. Living conditions in the camps are harsh, life after camp is similarly harsh, but in the end, as she and her family make their way back to San Francisco, Marie sees hope for the future. Told from a child’s perspective, The Little Exile deftly conveys Marie’s innocence, wonder, fear, and outrage. Though names and some details have been altered, this is the author's own life story. She believes that underlying everyone's experience, no matter how varied, are threads of humanity that bind us all. It is her hope that readers of all ages are able to find those threads in her story. |
| nisei daughter: Rejection and Disaffiliation in Twenty-First Century American Immigration Narratives Katie Daily, 2018-06-11 Rejection and Disaffiliation in Twenty-First Century American Immigration Narratives examines changing attitudes about national sovereignty and affiliation. Katie Daily delinks twenty-first century American immigration narratives from 9/11, examining genre alterations within a scope of literary analysis that is wider than what “post-9/11” allows. What emerges is an understanding of the speed at which the rhetoric and aims of many twenty-first century immigration narratives significantly depart from the traditions established post-1900. Daily investigates a recent trend in which novelists and filmmakers question what it means to be an immigrant in contemporary America and explores how these “disaffiliation” narratives challenge some of the most fundamental traditions in American literature and society. |
| nisei daughter: Documents of Japanese American Internment Linda L. Ivey, Kevin W. Kaatz, 2020-12-02 Explore Japanese internment through the voices of those who endured removal, those who designed this notorious forced relocation, and those who witnessed the broken promise of U.S. democracy. This document collection sheds light on Japanese American internment through the voices and perspectives of those who directly experienced this event as well as those who created the policy behind it. The book provides readers with a wide range of first-hand accounts, government reports, and media responses that help readers to better understand the events of this unfortunate period of American history. Each document has contextualizing information to help students understand content they may come across in their research. This format is meant to accommodate a wide range of documents that includes a variety of viewpoints and perspectives, such as eyewitness pieces (personal narratives, letters; and first-hand accounts); media pieces (newspaper articles, op-ed articles, and reactions and responses to the events); and government and legislative pieces (laws, proclamations, rules, etc.). Books in this series provide a preface, introduction, guide to primary documents, and chronological organization of documents, with each document providing its own introduction, the text of the document or excerpt, and a brief list of additional readings. |
| nisei daughter: When the Emperor Was Divine Julie Otsuka, 2007-12-18 From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese American incarceration camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our times. On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her home, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family's possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their home and sent to a dusty incarceration camp in the Utah desert. In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells their story from five flawlessly realized points of view and conveys the exact emotional texture of their experience: the thin-walled barracks and barbed-wire fences, the omnipresent fear and loneliness, the unheralded feats of heroism. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today's headlines. |
| nisei daughter: Negotiating Identities Helen Grice, 2002-10-11 Negotiating Identities is a study of the development of writing by Asian American women in the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the successful late 20th century writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, Joy Kogawa, Bharati Mukherjee, and Gish Jen. It relates the development of Asian writing by women in America – with a comparative element incorporating Britain – to a series of theoretical preoccupations: the mother/daughter dyad, biracialism, ethnic histories, citizenship, genre, and the idea of 'home'. |
| nisei daughter: Encyclopedia of Asian-American Literature Seiwoong Oh, 2015-04-22 Presents a reference on Asian-American literature providing profiles of Asian-American writers and their works. |
| nisei daughter: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature [3 volumes] Guiyou Huang, 2008-12-30 Asian American literature dates back to the close of the 19th century, and during the years following World War II it significantly expanded in volume and diversity. Monumental in scope, this encyclopedia surveys Asian American literature from its origins through 2007. Included are more than 270 alphabetically arranged entries on writers, major works, significant historical events, and important terms and concepts. Thus the encyclopedia gives special attention to the historical, social, cultural, and legal contexts surrounding Asian American literature and central to the Asian American experience. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and cites works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography of essential print and electronic resources. While literature students will value this encyclopedia as a guide to writings by Asian Americans, the encyclopedia also supports the social studies curriculum by helping students use literature to learn about Asian American history and culture, as it pertains to writers from a host of Asian ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including Afghans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Iranians, Indians, Vietnamese, Hawaiians, and other Asian Pacific Islanders. The encyclopedia supports the literature curriculum by helping students learn more about Asian American literature. In addition, it supports the social studies curriculum by helping students learn about the Asian American historical and cultural experience. |
| nisei daughter: Encyclopedia of the American Novel Abby H. P. Werlock, 2015-04-22 Praise for the print edition: ... no other reference work on American fiction brings together such an array of authors and texts as this. |
| nisei daughter: Christianity, Social Justice, and the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II Anne M. Blankenship, 2016-10-07 Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yields insights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese Americans maintained their traditional identities as Buddhists, a sizeable minority identified as Christian, and a number of church leaders sought to minister to them in the camps. Blankenship shows how church leaders were forced to assess the ethics and pragmatism of fighting against or acquiescing to what they clearly perceived, even in the midst of a national crisis, as an unjust social system. These religious activists became acutely aware of the impact of government, as well as church, policies that targeted ordinary Americans of diverse ethnicities. Going through the doors of the camp churches and delving deeply into the religious experiences of the incarcerated and the faithful who aided them, Blankenship argues that the incarceration period introduced new social and legal approaches for Christians of all stripes to challenge the constitutionality of government policies on race and civil rights. She also shows how the camp experience nourished the roots of an Asian American liberation theology that sprouted in the sixties and seventies. |
| nisei daughter: Contested Boundaries David J. Jepsen, David J. Norberg, 2017-04-10 Contested Boundaries: A New Pacific Northwest History is an engaging, contemporary look at the themes, events, and people that have shaped the history of the Pacific Northwest over the last two centuries. An engaging look at the themes, events, and people that shaped the Pacific Northwest – Washington, Oregon, and Idaho – from when only Native Peoples inhabited the land through the twentieth century. Twelve theme-driven essays covering the human and environmental impact of exploration, trade, settlement and industrialization in the nineteenth century, followed by economic calamity, world war and globalization in the twentieth. Written by two professors with over 20 years of teaching experience, this work introduces the history of the Pacific Northwest in a style that is accessible, relevant, and meaningful for anyone wishing to learn more about the region’s recent history. A companion website for students and instructors includes test banks, PowerPoint presentations, student self-assessment tests, useful primary documents, and resource links: www.wiley.com/go/jepsen/contestedboundaries. |
| nisei daughter: Asian American Women Linda Trinh V?, Marian Sciachitano, 2004-01-01 Asian American Women brings together landmark scholarship about Asian American women that has appeared in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies over the last twenty-five years. The essays, written by established and emerging scholars, made a significant impact in the fields of Asian American studies, ethnic studies, women?s studies, American studies, history, and pedagogy. The scholarship is still relevant today?broadening our critical understanding of Asian American women?s resistance to the forces of racism, patriarchy, militarism, cultural imperialism, neocolonialism, and narrow forms of nationalism. The essays in this collection reveal the experiences and struggles of Asian American women within a global political, economic, cultural, and historical context. The essays focus on diverse issues, including unconventional Asian American women of the early 1900s; the life of a Japanese war bride; possibilities for transnational Asian American feminism; the politics of Vietnamese American beauty pageants; mixed race identities and bisexual identities; Filipina healthcare providers; South Asian American representations; and a multiracial exchange on pedagogical interventions. The collection represents the rich diversity of Asian American women?s lives in hope of creating a new transnational space of critical dialogue, strategic resistance, and alliance building. |
| nisei daughter: We Hereby Refuse Frank Abe, Tamiko F. Nimura, 2021 Three Japanese American individuals with different beliefs and backgrounds decided to resist imprisonment by the United States government during World War II in different ways. Jim Akutsu, considered by some to be the inspiration for John Okada's No-No Boy, resisted the draft and argued that he had no obligation to serve the US military because he was classified as an enemy alien. Hiroshi Kashiwagi renounced his United States citizenship and refused to fill out the loyalty questionnaire required by the US government. He and his family were segregated by the government and ostracized by the Japanese American community for being disloyal. And Mitsuye Endo became a reluctant but willing plaintiff in a Supreme Court case that was eventually decided in her favor. These three stories show the devastating effects of the imprisonment, but also how widespread and varied the resistance was. Frank Abe is writer/director of the film on the largest organized resistance to incarceration, Conscience and the Constitution (PBS), and co-editor of JOHN OKADA: The Life and Rediscovered Work of the Author of No-No Boy (University of Washington Press). Tamiko Nimura is a Sansei/Pinay freelance writer, editor, and public historian, contributing regularly to Discover Nikkei and the International Examiner. Ross Ishikawa is a cartoonist and animator living in Seattle. Matt Sasaki is the artist on Fighting for America: Nisei Soldiers by Lawrence Matsuda. |
| nisei daughter: Asian American Literature Bella Adams, 2008-04-17 This critical study of Asian American literature discusses work by internationally successful writers such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Chang-rae Lee, Bharati Mukherjee, Amy Tan and others in their historical, cultural and critical contexts. The focus of the book is on contemporary writing, from the 1970s onwards, although it also traces over a hundred years of Asian American literary production in prose, poetry, drama and criticism. The main body of the book comprises five periodized chapters that highlight important events in a nation-state that has historically rendered Asian Americans invisible. Of particular importance to the writers selected for case studies are questions of racial identity, cultural history and literary value with respect to dominant American ideologies. |
| nisei daughter: Japanese American Midwives Susan L. Smith, 2010-10-01 In the late nineteenth century, Japan's modernizing quest for empire transformed midwifery into a new woman's profession. With the rise of Japanese immigration to the United States, Japanese midwives (sanba) served as cultural brokers as well as birth attendants for Issei women. They actively participated in the creation of Japanese American community and culture as preservers of Japanese birthing customs and agents of cultural change. Japanese American Midwives reveals the dynamic relationship between this welfare state and the history of women and health. Susan L. Smith blends midwives' individual stories with astute analysis to demonstrate the impossibility of clearly separating domestic policy from foreign policy, public health from racial politics, medical care from women's caregiving, and the history of women and health from national and international politics. By setting the history of Japanese American midwives in this larger context, Smith reveals little-known ethnic, racial, and regional aspects of women's history and the history of medicine. |
| nisei daughter: Asian American Culture [2 volumes] Lan Dong, 2016-03-14 Providing comprehensive coverage of a variety of Asian American cultural forms, including folk tradition, literature, religion, education, politics, sports, and popular culture, this two-volume work is an ideal resource for students and general readers that reveals the historical, regional, and ethnic diversity within specific traditions. An invaluable reference for school and public libraries as well as academic libraries at colleges and universities, this two-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of a variety of Asian American cultural forms that enables readers to understand the history, complexity, and contemporary practices in Asian American culture. The contributed entries address the diversity of a group comprising people with geographically discrete origins in the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent, identifying the rich variations across the category of Asian American culture that are key to understanding specific cultural expressions while also pointing out some commonalities. Entries are organized alphabetically and cover topics in the arts; education and politics; family and community; gender and sexuality; history and immigration; holidays, festivals, and folk tradition; literature and culture; media, sports, and popular culture; and religion, belief, and spirituality. Entries also broadly cover Asian American origins and history, regional practices and traditions, contemporary culture, and art and other forms of shared expression. Accompanying sidebars throughout serve to highlight key individuals, major events, and significant artifacts and allow readers to better appreciate the Asian American experience. |
| nisei daughter: Ethnic American Literature Emmanuel S. Nelson, 2015-02-17 Unlike any other book of its kind, this volume celebrates published works from a broad range of American ethnic groups not often featured in the typical canon of literature. This culturally rich encyclopedia contains 160 alphabetically arranged entries on African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American literary traditions, among others. The book introduces the uniquely American mosaic of multicultural literature by chronicling the achievements of American writers of non-European descent and highlighting the ethnic diversity of works from the colonial era to the present. The work features engaging topics like the civil rights movement, bilingualism, assimilation, and border narratives. Entries provide historical overviews of literary periods along with profiles of major authors and great works, including Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Maya Angelou, Sherman Alexie, A Raisin in the Sun, American Born Chinese, and The House on Mango Street. The book also provides concise overviews of genres not often featured in textbooks, like the Chinese American novel, African American young adult literature, Mexican American autobiography, and Cuban American poetry. |
| nisei daughter: Reading Seattle Peter Donahue, John Trombold, 2014-05-01 Seattle, with its spectacular natural beauty and rough frontier history, has inspired writers from its earliest days. This anthology spans seven decades and includes fiction, memoirs, histories, and journalism that define the city or use it as a setting, imparting the flavor of the city through a literary prism. Reading Seattle features classics by Horace R. Cayton, Richard Hugo, Betty MacDonald, Mary McCarthy, Murray Morgan, and John Okada as well as more recent works by Sherman Alexie, Lynda Barry, David Guterson, J. A. Jance, Jonathan Raban, and others. It includes cutting-edge work by emerging talents and reintroduces works by important Seattle writers who may have been overlooked in recent years. The writers featured in this volume explore a variety of neighborhoods and districts within the city, delineating urban spaces and painting memorable portraits of characters both historical and fictional. |
| nisei daughter: Recovered Legacies Keith Lawrence, Floyd Cheung, 2009-08-31 Rediscovering the writings of early Asian America. |
| nisei daughter: Paper Wishes Lois Sepahban, 2016-01-05 Ten-year-old Manami did not realize how peaceful her family's life on Bainbridge Island was until the day it all changed. It's 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Manami and her family are Japanese American, which means that the government says they must leave their home by the sea and join other Japanese Americans at a prison camp in the desert. Manami is sad to go, but even worse is that they are going to have to give her and her grandfather's dog, Yujiin, to a neighbor to take care of. Manami decides to sneak Yujiin under her coat and gets as far as the mainland before she is caught and forced to abandon Yujiin. She and her grandfather are devastated, but Manami clings to the hope that somehow Yujiin will find his way to the camp and make her family whole again. It isn't until she finds a way to let go of her guilt that Manami can reclaim the piece of herself that she left behind and accept all that has happened to her family. |
| nisei daughter: A Different Mirror Ronald Takaki, 2012-06-05 Takaki traces the economic and political history of Indians, African Americans, Mexicans, Japanese, Chinese, Irish, and Jewish people in America, with considerable attention given to instances and consequences of racism. The narrative is laced with short quotations, cameos of personal experiences, and excerpts from folk music and literature. Well-known occurrences, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, the Trail of Tears, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Japanese internment are included. Students may be surprised by some of the revelations, but will recognize a constant thread of rampant racism. The author concludes with a summary of today's changing economic climate and offers Rodney King's challenge to all of us to try to get along. Readers will find this overview to be an accessible, cogent jumping-off place for American history and political science plus a guide to the myriad other sources identified in the notes. |
| nisei daughter: Multicultural Autobiography James Robert Payne, 1992 |
| nisei daughter: Literature and Ethnicity in the Cultural Borderlands , 2016-08-29 This volume stems from the idea that the notion of borders and borderlines as clear-cut frontiers separating not only political and geographical areas, but also cultural, linguistic and semiotic spaces, does not fully address the complexity of contemporary cultural encounters. Centering on a whole range of literary works from the United States and the Caribbean, the contributors suggest and discuss different theoretical and methodological grounds to address the literary production taking place across the lines in North American and Caribbean culture. The volume represents a pioneering attempt at proposing the concept of the border as a useful paradigm not only for the study of Chicano literature but also for the other American literatures. The works presented in the volume illustrate various aspects and manifestations of the textual border(lands), and explore the double-voiced discourse of border texts by writers like Harriet E. Wilson, Rudolfo Anaya, Toni Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Louise Erdrich, Helena Viramontes, Paule Marshall and Monica Sone, among others. This book is of interest for scholars and researchers in the field of comparative American studies and ethnic studies. |
| nisei daughter: Asian Americans [3 volumes] Xiaojian Zhao, Edward J.W. Park Ph.D., 2013-11-26 This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on Asian Americans, comprising three volumes that address a broad range of topics on various Asian and Pacific Islander American groups from 1848 to the present day. This three-volume work represents a leading reference resource for Asian American studies that gives students, researchers, librarians, teachers, and other interested readers the ability to easily locate accurate, up-to-date information about Asian ethnic groups, historical and contemporary events, important policies, and notable individuals. Written by leading scholars in their fields of expertise and authorities in diverse professions, the entries devote attention to diverse Asian and Pacific Islander American groups as well as the roles of women, distinct socioeconomic classes, Asian American political and social movements, and race relations involving Asian Americans. |
| nisei daughter: Fifth Chinese Daughter Jade Snow Wong, 2019-11-21 Jade Snow Wong’s autobiography portrays her coming-of-age in San Francisco's Chinatown, offering a rich depiction of her immigrant family and her strict upbringing, as well as her rebellion against family and societal expectations for a Chinese woman. Originally published in 1950, Fifth Chinese Daughter was one of the most widely read works by an Asian American author in the twentieth century. The US State Department even sent its charismatic young author on a four-month speaking tour throughout Asia. Cited as an influence by prominent Chinese American writers such as Amy Tan and Maxine Hong Kingston, Fifth Chinese Daughter is a foundational work in Asian American literature. It was written at a time when few portraits of Asian American life were available, and no similar works were as popular and broadly appealing. This new edition includes the original illustrations by Kathryn Uhl and features an introduction by Leslie Bow, who critically examines the changing reception and enduring legacy of the book and offers insight into Wong’s life as an artist and an ambassador of Chinese American culture. |
| nisei daughter: Memoir of a Modernist's Daughter Eleanor Munro, 1989 In this memoir the author describes her complex relationship with her dominant father, who was a Modernist philosopher and teacher, whose theories on child development and art predominated. |
| nisei daughter: Global Humanities Reader Alvis Dunn, James Perkins, Katherine C. Zubko, Keya Maitra, 2022-06-01 The Global Humanities Reader is a collaboratively edited collection of primary sources with student-centered support features. It serves as the core curriculum of the University of North Carolina Asheville's almost-sixty-year-old interdisciplinary Humanities Program. Its three volumes--Engaging Ancient Worlds and Perspectives (Volume 1), Engaging Premodern Worlds and Perspectives (Volume 2), and Engaging Modern Worlds and Perspectives (Volume 3)--offer accessible ways to explore facets of human subjectivity and interconnectedness across cultures, times, and places. In highlighting the struggles and resilient strategies for surviving and thriving from multiple perspectives and positionalities, and through diverse voices, these volumes course correct from humanities textbooks that remain Western-centric. One of the main features of the The Global Humanities Reader is a sustained and nuanced focus on cultivating the ability to ask questions--to inquire--while enhancing culturally aware, reflective, and interdisciplinary engagements with the materials. The editorial team created a thoroughly interactive text with the following unique features that work together to actualize student success: * Cross-cultural historical introductions to each volume * Comprehensive and source-specific timelines highlighting periods, events, and people around the world * An introduction for each source with bolded key terms and questions to facilitate active engagement * Primed and Ready questions (PARs)--questions just before and after a reading that activate students' own knowledge and skills * Inquiry Corner--questions consisting of four types: Content, Comparative, Critical, and Connection * Beyond the Classroom--explore how ideas discussed in sources can apply to broader social contexts, such as job, career, project teams or professional communities * Glossary of Tags--topical 'hubs' that point to exciting new connections across multiple sources These volumes reflect the central role of Humanities in deepening an empathic understanding of human experience and cultivating culturally appropriate and community-centered problem-solving skills that help us flourish as global and local citizens. |
| nisei daughter: Japanese Americans Paul R. Spickard, 2009 Since 1855, nearly half a million Japanese immigrants have settled in the United States, and today more than twice that number claim Japanese ancestry. While these immigrants worked hard, established networks, and repeatedly distinguished themselves as entrepreneurs, they also encountered harsh discrimination. Nowhere was this more evident than on the West Coast during World War II, when virtually the entire population of Japanese Americans was forced into internment camps solely on the basis of ethnicity. |
| nisei daughter: The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom, 2009 With the publication of her first novel in 1989, The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan was immediately recognized as a major contemporary novelist. Her work has received a great deal of attention and acclaim from feminist critics, and is very much concerned w |
| nisei daughter: The Nature of California Sarah D. Wald, 2016-05-02 The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California, Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together ecocriticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. |
| nisei daughter: Shaped by the West, Volume 2 William F. Deverell, Anne F. Hyde, 2018-09-11 Shaped by the West is a two-volume primary source reader that rewrites the history of the United States through a western lens. America’s expansion west was the driving force for issues of democracy, politics, race, freedom, and property. William Deverell and Anne F. Hyde provide a nuanced look at the past, balancing topics in society and politics and representing all kinds of westerners—black and white, native and immigrant, male and female, powerful and powerless—from more than twenty states across the West and the shifting frontier. The sources included reflect the important role of the West in national narratives of American history, beginning with the pre-Columbian era in Volume 1 and taking us to the twenty-first century in Volume 2. Together, these volumes cover first encounters, conquests and revolts, indigenous land removal, slavery and labor, race, ethnicity and gender, trade and diplomacy, industrialization, migration and immigration, and changing landscapes and environments. Key Features & Benefits: Expertly curated personal letters, government documents, editorials, photos, and never before published materials offer lively, vivid introductions to the tools of history. Annotations, captions, and brief essays provide accessible entry points to an extraordinarily wide range of themes—adding context and perspective from leaders in the field. Highlights connections between western and national histories to foster critical thinking about America’s diverse past and today’s challenging issues. |
| nisei daughter: White Scholars/African American Texts Lisa Long, 2005-09-02 What makes someone an authority? What makes one person's knowledge more credible than another's? In the ongoing debates over racial authenticity, some attest that we can know each other's experiences simply because we are all human, while others assume a more skeptical stance, insisting that racial differences create unbridgeable gaps in knowledge. Bringing new perspectives to these perennial debates, the essays in this collection explore the many difficulties created by the fact that white scholars greatly outnumber black scholars in the study and teaching of African American literature. Contributors, including some of the most prominent theorists in the field as well as younger scholars, examine who is speaking, what is being spoken and what is not, and why framing African American literature in terms of an exclusive black/white racial divide is problematic and limiting. In highlighting the whiteness of some African Americanists, the collection does not imply that the teaching or understanding of black literature by white scholars is definitively impossible. Indeed such work is not only possible, but imperative. Instead, the essays aim to open a much needed public conversation about the real and pressing challenges that white scholars face in this type of work, as well as the implications of how these challenges are met. |
Nisei Daughter Analysis - eNotes.com
Nov 9, 2024 · In her autobiography Nisei Daughter, Monica Sone examines her life as a Nisei, a first-generation Japanese American, in Seattle, Washington.She writes her life story chronologically, beginning ...
Nisei Daughter Critical Essays - eNotes.com
Nisei Daughter is a critically important document in a number of respects—personally, sociologically, and historically. In addition to exploring the personal life of a girl growing up among her ...
Masterpieces of Women's Literature Nisei Daughter Analysis
Masterpieces of Women's Literature Nisei Daughter Analysis. Sone, in discussing her early experiences as a Japanese American woman, focuses primarily on her identity. Until her parents told her ...
Nisei Daughter Critical Context - Essay - eNotes.com
Nisei Daughter is an important coming-of-age story. Within the body of Asian-American literature, the book is also important for its firsthand account of life in the internment camps.
Hisaye Yamamoto Criticism: Issei Mothers' Silence, Nisei …
SOURCE: "Issei Mothers' Silence, Nisei Daughters' Stories: The Short Fiction of Yamamoto," in Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1996, pp. 1-14. [In the following essay, Sugiyama ...
'Seventeen Syllables': A Symbolic Haiku - eNotes.com
After the mother and daughter watch the fire die, Tome tells her story to her daughter. "It was like a story out of the magazines. . . . Her mother, at nineteen, had come to America and married ...
No-No Boy Analysis - eNotes.com
4 days ago · An example is Monica Sone’s autobiographical work, Nisei Daughter (1953), which was commercially successful. Sone recounted her internment experience but was careful to depict Japanese Americans ...
Swaddling Clothes What Do I Read Next? - eNotes.com
Nisei Daughter (1953) by Monica Sone. An autobiographical account of the experiences of Japanese Americans during and before World War II, focusing on the internment of all U.S. residents of ...
Obasan Critical Evaluation - Essay - eNotes.com
Monica Sone’s Nisei Daughter (1953) is perhaps the closest to Obasan in tone and purpose. Among other compelling accounts are Toshio Mori’s Yokohama, California (1949), ...
Obasan Analysis - eNotes.com
Nov 12, 2024 · Monica Sone’s Nisei Daughter (1953) is perhaps the closest to Obasan in tone and purpose. ... She wrote about living a hybrid life as a Japanese-Canadian Nisei, her divorce, an abortion in 1971 ...
Nisei Daughter Analysis - eNotes.com
Nov 9, 2024 · In her autobiography Nisei Daughter, Monica Sone examines her life as a Nisei, a first-generation Japanese American, in Seattle, Washington.She writes her life story chronologically, beginning ...
Nisei Daughter Critical Essays - eNotes.com
Nisei Daughter is a critically important document in a number of respects—personally, sociologically, and historically. In addition to exploring the personal life of a girl growing up among her ...
Masterpieces of Women's Literature Nisei Daughter Analysis
Masterpieces of Women's Literature Nisei Daughter Analysis. Sone, in discussing her early experiences as a Japanese American woman, focuses primarily on her identity. Until her parents told her ...
Nisei Daughter Critical Context - Essay - eNotes.com
Nisei Daughter is an important coming-of-age story. Within the body of Asian-American literature, the book is also important for its firsthand account of life in the internment camps.
Hisaye Yamamoto Criticism: Issei Mothers' Silence, Nisei Daughters ...
SOURCE: "Issei Mothers' Silence, Nisei Daughters' Stories: The Short Fiction of Yamamoto," in Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1, 1996, pp. 1-14. [In the following essay, Sugiyama ...
'Seventeen Syllables': A Symbolic Haiku - eNotes.com
After the mother and daughter watch the fire die, Tome tells her story to her daughter. "It was like a story out of the magazines. . . . Her mother, at nineteen, had come to America and married ...
No-No Boy Analysis - eNotes.com
4 days ago · An example is Monica Sone’s autobiographical work, Nisei Daughter (1953), which was commercially successful. Sone recounted her internment experience but was careful to depict Japanese Americans ...
Swaddling Clothes What Do I Read Next? - eNotes.com
Nisei Daughter (1953) by Monica Sone. An autobiographical account of the experiences of Japanese Americans during and before World War II, focusing on the internment of all U.S. residents of ...
Obasan Critical Evaluation - Essay - eNotes.com
Monica Sone’s Nisei Daughter (1953) is perhaps the closest to Obasan in tone and purpose. Among other compelling accounts are Toshio Mori’s Yokohama, California (1949), ...
Obasan Analysis - eNotes.com
Nov 12, 2024 · Monica Sone’s Nisei Daughter (1953) is perhaps the closest to Obasan in tone and purpose. ... She wrote about living a hybrid life as a Japanese-Canadian Nisei, her divorce, an abortion in 1971 ...
