Eric K. Yamamoto and Liann Ebesugawa
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199291922
- eISBN:
- 9780191603716
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199291926.003.0008
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
How does a country repair its harm to a vulnerable minority targeted during times of national fear because of race? How did the United States redress its then popular yet unconstitutional WWII ...
More
How does a country repair its harm to a vulnerable minority targeted during times of national fear because of race? How did the United States redress its then popular yet unconstitutional WWII incarceration of 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans in desolate barbed wire prisons without charges, hearings, or bona fide evidence of military necessity? In response to a Congressional inquiry, political lobbying, and lawsuits, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 directed the President to apologize and authorized over one billion dollars in reparations. Congress also created a fund to educate the public about the government’s false assertion of “national security” to restrict civil liberties. Some considered redress a tremendous victory — rewriting history and personal healing. Others questioned reparations for one U.S. group but not others. Japanese American Redress served as a catalyst for reparations movements worldwide. This paper examines its genesis, legal implementation, and apparent effects. It also explores wide-ranging political mobilization and social meanings of redress and “unfinished business”. Reparations cannot be measured by laws alone. Diverse communities must engage contested questions of history, justice, and belonging. Reparations claims face often unforeseen benefits and limitations. The paper concludes with these “lessons learned” to date.Less
How does a country repair its harm to a vulnerable minority targeted during times of national fear because of race? How did the United States redress its then popular yet unconstitutional WWII incarceration of 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans in desolate barbed wire prisons without charges, hearings, or bona fide evidence of military necessity? In response to a Congressional inquiry, political lobbying, and lawsuits, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 directed the President to apologize and authorized over one billion dollars in reparations. Congress also created a fund to educate the public about the government’s false assertion of “national security” to restrict civil liberties. Some considered redress a tremendous victory — rewriting history and personal healing. Others questioned reparations for one U.S. group but not others. Japanese American Redress served as a catalyst for reparations movements worldwide. This paper examines its genesis, legal implementation, and apparent effects. It also explores wide-ranging political mobilization and social meanings of redress and “unfinished business”. Reparations cannot be measured by laws alone. Diverse communities must engage contested questions of history, justice, and belonging. Reparations claims face often unforeseen benefits and limitations. The paper concludes with these “lessons learned” to date.
Jeff Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195371932
- eISBN:
- 9780199870967
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371932.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society, Buddhism
Beginning in the 1950s, Japanese-American Buddhist temples were the first communities to import mizuko kuyō to the United States. Some Buddhist groups, such as Jōdo Shinshū and Sōka Gakkai oppose the ...
More
Beginning in the 1950s, Japanese-American Buddhist temples were the first communities to import mizuko kuyō to the United States. Some Buddhist groups, such as Jōdo Shinshū and Sōka Gakkai oppose the practice, while others, such as Sōtō Shū, Shingon Shū, Nichiren Shū, and Jōdo Shū are willing to perform the ritual upon request. These differing practices and perspectives reveal some of the diversity within Japanese-American Buddhism while also demonstrating the degree to which many of them remain vulnerable to trends in Japanese religion and culture despite more than a century of adaptation in America. In particular, the influence of Shin Isseis, new post-war Japanese immigrants, is highlighted when examining mizuko kuyō in these temples. This chapter also provides the set up for a comparative look at mizuko kuyō in both Japanese-American and convert Buddhist temples later in the book.Less
Beginning in the 1950s, Japanese-American Buddhist temples were the first communities to import mizuko kuyō to the United States. Some Buddhist groups, such as Jōdo Shinshū and Sōka Gakkai oppose the practice, while others, such as Sōtō Shū, Shingon Shū, Nichiren Shū, and Jōdo Shū are willing to perform the ritual upon request. These differing practices and perspectives reveal some of the diversity within Japanese-American Buddhism while also demonstrating the degree to which many of them remain vulnerable to trends in Japanese religion and culture despite more than a century of adaptation in America. In particular, the influence of Shin Isseis, new post-war Japanese immigrants, is highlighted when examining mizuko kuyō in these temples. This chapter also provides the set up for a comparative look at mizuko kuyō in both Japanese-American and convert Buddhist temples later in the book.
Ellen D. Wu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157825
- eISBN:
- 9781400848874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157825.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines how, in seeking to produce new envisagements about Japanese Americans, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) spoke to mid-twentieth-century liberals' confidence in the ...
More
This chapter examines how, in seeking to produce new envisagements about Japanese Americans, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) spoke to mid-twentieth-century liberals' confidence in the ability of educational campaigns and social science to transform existing ideas about race and alter the country's racial order. Constituents of the era's race relations complex identified Nikkei citizenship as an American dilemma to be repaired in order to prove the nation's capacity for righting its wrongs, thereby protecting the United States' global position. The celebration of Japanese Americans as model minorities seemed to vindicate the assimilationist approach to rehabilitating Nikkei citizenship as espoused by JACL and its allies. Yet at the same moment, the emergence of this image undermined the league's dominant position within the Nikkei community.Less
This chapter examines how, in seeking to produce new envisagements about Japanese Americans, Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) spoke to mid-twentieth-century liberals' confidence in the ability of educational campaigns and social science to transform existing ideas about race and alter the country's racial order. Constituents of the era's race relations complex identified Nikkei citizenship as an American dilemma to be repaired in order to prove the nation's capacity for righting its wrongs, thereby protecting the United States' global position. The celebration of Japanese Americans as model minorities seemed to vindicate the assimilationist approach to rehabilitating Nikkei citizenship as espoused by JACL and its allies. Yet at the same moment, the emergence of this image undermined the league's dominant position within the Nikkei community.
Ellen D. Wu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157825
- eISBN:
- 9781400848874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157825.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter talks about how the Nisei soldier, the Japanese American Citizens League's (JACL) brainchild, answered various race and citizenship imperatives in the 1940s and 1950s. For all Japanese ...
More
This chapter talks about how the Nisei soldier, the Japanese American Citizens League's (JACL) brainchild, answered various race and citizenship imperatives in the 1940s and 1950s. For all Japanese Americans, Nisei fighters guaranteed their claims to assimilability and national belonging by responding to the call to arms, recasting them from enemy aliens to loyal citizens in the process. As the pinnacle of wartime masculinity, soldiering allowed Japanese American men in particular to rebut deep-rooted popular beliefs that the gender identities of “Oriental” men were feminized, ambiguous, or deviant. For JACL, the ascendance of the warrior persona, recognized and lauded by the public and policymakers, offered reassurance that its orientation was indeed the righteous path to redemption for both itself and the ethnic community.Less
This chapter talks about how the Nisei soldier, the Japanese American Citizens League's (JACL) brainchild, answered various race and citizenship imperatives in the 1940s and 1950s. For all Japanese Americans, Nisei fighters guaranteed their claims to assimilability and national belonging by responding to the call to arms, recasting them from enemy aliens to loyal citizens in the process. As the pinnacle of wartime masculinity, soldiering allowed Japanese American men in particular to rebut deep-rooted popular beliefs that the gender identities of “Oriental” men were feminized, ambiguous, or deviant. For JACL, the ascendance of the warrior persona, recognized and lauded by the public and policymakers, offered reassurance that its orientation was indeed the righteous path to redemption for both itself and the ethnic community.
Asuka Suzuki
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195327359
- eISBN:
- 9780199870639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327359.003.0009
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
Applying a discursive approach to categories, this chapter examines video data which is extracted from the discussion section of a panel presentation titled “Japanese American Contemporary ...
More
Applying a discursive approach to categories, this chapter examines video data which is extracted from the discussion section of a panel presentation titled “Japanese American Contemporary Experiences in Hawai'i,” which took place at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i in 2003. It specifically investigates how participants who are often categorized as Japanese or Japanese Americans in Hawai'i use a variety of categories or references to themselves and others and how their orientation to the meaning of categories may instantiate their (subcategories of) ethnicity. My analysis is mainly concerned with how they deploy emergent categories to interactively position themselves and co‐participants, constructing and negotiating “who‐we‐know‐we‐are” (Schegloff 1972) at the moment of interaction.Less
Applying a discursive approach to categories, this chapter examines video data which is extracted from the discussion section of a panel presentation titled “Japanese American Contemporary Experiences in Hawai'i,” which took place at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i in 2003. It specifically investigates how participants who are often categorized as Japanese or Japanese Americans in Hawai'i use a variety of categories or references to themselves and others and how their orientation to the meaning of categories may instantiate their (subcategories of) ethnicity. My analysis is mainly concerned with how they deploy emergent categories to interactively position themselves and co‐participants, constructing and negotiating “who‐we‐know‐we‐are” (Schegloff 1972) at the moment of interaction.
Lainie Friedman Ross
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199273287
- eISBN:
- 9780191603655
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199273286.003.0015
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
CFR section 46.407 of Subpart D of the federal regulations addresses research that is not otherwise approvable. Research is not otherwise approvable because either (1) it seeks to enroll healthy ...
More
CFR section 46.407 of Subpart D of the federal regulations addresses research that is not otherwise approvable. Research is not otherwise approvable because either (1) it seeks to enroll healthy children, but offers no prospect of direct benefit and entails more than minimal risk; or (2) it seeks to enroll children with a disorder or condition, but offers no prospect of direct benefit and entails more than a minor increase over minimal risk. According to CFR section 46.407, such research can be permissible if it is reviewed and approved by a panel of experts convened by the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The regulations also require public review of the research. Prior to the year 2000, only two panels of experts were convened. This chapter examines the University of Washington’s experience with its protocol, Precursors to Diabetes in Japanese American Youth, as a case study of the strengths and limitations of the 407 process in 2001.Less
CFR section 46.407 of Subpart D of the federal regulations addresses research that is not otherwise approvable. Research is not otherwise approvable because either (1) it seeks to enroll healthy children, but offers no prospect of direct benefit and entails more than minimal risk; or (2) it seeks to enroll children with a disorder or condition, but offers no prospect of direct benefit and entails more than a minor increase over minimal risk. According to CFR section 46.407, such research can be permissible if it is reviewed and approved by a panel of experts convened by the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The regulations also require public review of the research. Prior to the year 2000, only two panels of experts were convened. This chapter examines the University of Washington’s experience with its protocol, Precursors to Diabetes in Japanese American Youth, as a case study of the strengths and limitations of the 407 process in 2001.
Emi Morita
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195327359
- eISBN:
- 9780199870639
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327359.003.0011
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
Choosing an appropriate self‐reference term from the many possibilities offered by the language is a social competence expected of Japanese speakers, and a way to display their understanding of their ...
More
Choosing an appropriate self‐reference term from the many possibilities offered by the language is a social competence expected of Japanese speakers, and a way to display their understanding of their social role at a given moment in a given context. Using Silverstein's model of nested indexical orders as an analytical tool, this chapter examines first‐ and second‐generation Japanese Americans' borrowing of the English first person self‐reference term me in their Japanese discourse – something strictly illegitimazed in Japan. Analyzing naturally occurring language use of immigrant communities, this chapter argues that this borrowing is an example of an emergent – and ongoingly transformative – entextualization of possible new community norms. In particular, by examining how the culturally transgressive use of me becomes an increasingly community validated norm when transplanted in American soil, the findings of this chapter make visible the contingent efficacy of a community's validation (or non‐validation) of new forms of language use.Less
Choosing an appropriate self‐reference term from the many possibilities offered by the language is a social competence expected of Japanese speakers, and a way to display their understanding of their social role at a given moment in a given context. Using Silverstein's model of nested indexical orders as an analytical tool, this chapter examines first‐ and second‐generation Japanese Americans' borrowing of the English first person self‐reference term me in their Japanese discourse – something strictly illegitimazed in Japan. Analyzing naturally occurring language use of immigrant communities, this chapter argues that this borrowing is an example of an emergent – and ongoingly transformative – entextualization of possible new community norms. In particular, by examining how the culturally transgressive use of me becomes an increasingly community validated norm when transplanted in American soil, the findings of this chapter make visible the contingent efficacy of a community's validation (or non‐validation) of new forms of language use.
Eiichiro Azuma
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195159400
- eISBN:
- 9780199788545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195159400.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The related themes of the Issei as pioneers and the Nisei (second generation) as carrying on Japanese development in the United States were central discourses in the upbringing of many American-born ...
More
The related themes of the Issei as pioneers and the Nisei (second generation) as carrying on Japanese development in the United States were central discourses in the upbringing of many American-born youths. However, neither the Issei pioneer thesis nor its interpretation by Nisei orators provided a concrete picture of what the future might hold for the new generation of Japanese Americans. How did Issei leaders expect the American-born to carry on Japanese development in the face of racial subordination? In what ways did immigrant parents attempt to enable their children to do this? What did Nisei “duty” really mean? The answers to these questions are to be found not so much in the intellectual productions of immigrant historians as in their social practices. This chapter explores some of the key community-wide efforts made by immigrant leaders and parents to promote a positive prospect for the Japanese minority in America in the postexclusion era.Less
The related themes of the Issei as pioneers and the Nisei (second generation) as carrying on Japanese development in the United States were central discourses in the upbringing of many American-born youths. However, neither the Issei pioneer thesis nor its interpretation by Nisei orators provided a concrete picture of what the future might hold for the new generation of Japanese Americans. How did Issei leaders expect the American-born to carry on Japanese development in the face of racial subordination? In what ways did immigrant parents attempt to enable their children to do this? What did Nisei “duty” really mean? The answers to these questions are to be found not so much in the intellectual productions of immigrant historians as in their social practices. This chapter explores some of the key community-wide efforts made by immigrant leaders and parents to promote a positive prospect for the Japanese minority in America in the postexclusion era.
Matthew M. Briones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691129488
- eISBN:
- 9781400842216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691129488.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter discusses how Kikuchi's diary and papers provide substantive evidence of interracial alliances and conflicts at a time when the theory and practice of democracy itself were rigorously ...
More
This chapter discusses how Kikuchi's diary and papers provide substantive evidence of interracial alliances and conflicts at a time when the theory and practice of democracy itself were rigorously being tested and redefined. During the first stage of this period, or the early years of the internment (1942–1943), Japanese Americans experienced an extreme form of prejudice, oppression, and segregation, while fellow minorities initially feared for their own welfare, understandably hewing to shibboleths of unqualified patriotism. Eventually, though, the absurd arbitrariness of the evacuation compelled other American minorities to consider their own possible futures. In the second stage—the resettlement of Japanese Americans, circa 1943–1945—growing populations of job-seeking minorities struggled over and negotiated the restricted urban spaces they were now forced to share with recently freed Japanese.Less
This chapter discusses how Kikuchi's diary and papers provide substantive evidence of interracial alliances and conflicts at a time when the theory and practice of democracy itself were rigorously being tested and redefined. During the first stage of this period, or the early years of the internment (1942–1943), Japanese Americans experienced an extreme form of prejudice, oppression, and segregation, while fellow minorities initially feared for their own welfare, understandably hewing to shibboleths of unqualified patriotism. Eventually, though, the absurd arbitrariness of the evacuation compelled other American minorities to consider their own possible futures. In the second stage—the resettlement of Japanese Americans, circa 1943–1945—growing populations of job-seeking minorities struggled over and negotiated the restricted urban spaces they were now forced to share with recently freed Japanese.
Ellen D. Wu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157825
- eISBN:
- 9781400848874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157825.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter discusses the ways in which Nisei zoot-suiters became a lightning rod for the prescriptions of resettlement's stakeholders, and how this illuminates critical features of wartime culture ...
More
This chapter discusses the ways in which Nisei zoot-suiters became a lightning rod for the prescriptions of resettlement's stakeholders, and how this illuminates critical features of wartime culture that operated to reset the terms of Japanese American citizenship after Exclusion. A professed political loyalty to the United States overshadowed the reimagining of Nikkei as assimilable Others. Gender and sexuality especially figured prominently in determining the contours of postcamp social standing. Scattered evidence indicates that community members tagged Nisei women regarded as morally wayward as yogore—derived from the Japanese verb yogoreru (to get dirty). The chapter shows how yogore expressed an alternative masculinity that deviated manifestly from dominant expectations of male citizens during wartime.Less
This chapter discusses the ways in which Nisei zoot-suiters became a lightning rod for the prescriptions of resettlement's stakeholders, and how this illuminates critical features of wartime culture that operated to reset the terms of Japanese American citizenship after Exclusion. A professed political loyalty to the United States overshadowed the reimagining of Nikkei as assimilable Others. Gender and sexuality especially figured prominently in determining the contours of postcamp social standing. Scattered evidence indicates that community members tagged Nisei women regarded as morally wayward as yogore—derived from the Japanese verb yogoreru (to get dirty). The chapter shows how yogore expressed an alternative masculinity that deviated manifestly from dominant expectations of male citizens during wartime.
James Fuji Collins
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199732074
- eISBN:
- 9780199933457
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199732074.003.0005
- Subject:
- Psychology, Social Psychology
Theories of identity fail to recognize the flexibility of identity within its social context, a conceptualization that is particularly relevant for Japanese-Americans. This chapter is about ...
More
Theories of identity fail to recognize the flexibility of identity within its social context, a conceptualization that is particularly relevant for Japanese-Americans. This chapter is about understanding how Japanese-American individuals create and negotiate identities as multiple categories, rather than a single category. Japanese-Americans are those who have been exposed to and have internalized two cultures, requiring the synthesis of cultural norms from two groups into one behavioral repertoire. As a consequence, the sense of identity among Japanese-Americans is both individualistic and collectivistic. The Japanese self is coded to participate in both extremes, but the self must be able to switch. The contradictions that these oppositions present are managed by contextualization in place, time, and social group. The chapter explores what it means to be Japanese-American, living at the juncture of two cultures and belonging to two cultures, either by being born of mixed racial heritage or born in one culture and raised in another. Based on recent personal interviews with bicultural Japanese-Americans, the author proposes a model of ethnic identity development The discussion focuses on how Japanese-Americans have negotiated the development of their identity in the United States according to the generation of their birth and relates how this experience is uniquely Japanese-American.Less
Theories of identity fail to recognize the flexibility of identity within its social context, a conceptualization that is particularly relevant for Japanese-Americans. This chapter is about understanding how Japanese-American individuals create and negotiate identities as multiple categories, rather than a single category. Japanese-Americans are those who have been exposed to and have internalized two cultures, requiring the synthesis of cultural norms from two groups into one behavioral repertoire. As a consequence, the sense of identity among Japanese-Americans is both individualistic and collectivistic. The Japanese self is coded to participate in both extremes, but the self must be able to switch. The contradictions that these oppositions present are managed by contextualization in place, time, and social group. The chapter explores what it means to be Japanese-American, living at the juncture of two cultures and belonging to two cultures, either by being born of mixed racial heritage or born in one culture and raised in another. Based on recent personal interviews with bicultural Japanese-Americans, the author proposes a model of ethnic identity development The discussion focuses on how Japanese-Americans have negotiated the development of their identity in the United States according to the generation of their birth and relates how this experience is uniquely Japanese-American.
Jane Naomi Iwamura
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199738601
- eISBN:
- 9780199894604
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199738601.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
1950s mass media representations of D.T. Suzuki and the American “Zen Boom” are the focus of this chapter. The specific way that Suzuki is portrayed—as engaging, yet ineffable Oriental—and the medium ...
More
1950s mass media representations of D.T. Suzuki and the American “Zen Boom” are the focus of this chapter. The specific way that Suzuki is portrayed—as engaging, yet ineffable Oriental—and the medium in which these depictions first appear—the fashion magazine—mark Eastern spirituality as a “stylized religion” and consumable object. The various “characters” that emerge in the unfolding of Zen Buddhism mid-century are explored: Alan Watts and Jack Kerouac as Suzuki’s most famous pupils and spiritual heirs; Arthur Koestler as Zen’s skeptical critic and; Mihoko Okamura, Suzuki’s long-time assistant, who figures the problematic representation of Asian Americans in the scheme of American conceptions of Asian religions. These real-life personalities and the debates and drama that ensue over Zen’s legitimacy and significance prefigure and establish a Virtual Orientalist narrative that is still popular today.Less
1950s mass media representations of D.T. Suzuki and the American “Zen Boom” are the focus of this chapter. The specific way that Suzuki is portrayed—as engaging, yet ineffable Oriental—and the medium in which these depictions first appear—the fashion magazine—mark Eastern spirituality as a “stylized religion” and consumable object. The various “characters” that emerge in the unfolding of Zen Buddhism mid-century are explored: Alan Watts and Jack Kerouac as Suzuki’s most famous pupils and spiritual heirs; Arthur Koestler as Zen’s skeptical critic and; Mihoko Okamura, Suzuki’s long-time assistant, who figures the problematic representation of Asian Americans in the scheme of American conceptions of Asian religions. These real-life personalities and the debates and drama that ensue over Zen’s legitimacy and significance prefigure and establish a Virtual Orientalist narrative that is still popular today.
T. Fujitani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262232
- eISBN:
- 9780520927636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262232.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter traces the processes and contingencies by which the racist state's civil and military officers first determined that Japanese Americans should be excluded from military service, then by ...
More
This chapter traces the processes and contingencies by which the racist state's civil and military officers first determined that Japanese Americans should be excluded from military service, then by the fall of 1942 completely reversed this earlier decision, and in January 1943 began aggressively recruiting Japanese Americans to become soldiers. It focuses primarily on the question of soldiering, because this was the site through which not only the soldiers themselves but also the racialized communities that they represented passed most paradigmatically and dramatically from the outside to the inside of the national community. The complicity of the War Relocation Authority and the War Department in linking the recruitment drive for army volunteers to a general program to determine the loyalty of all adult internees, both male and female, calls attention to the overwhelming symbolic importance of the citizen-soldier as the normative citizen. The chapter pays considerable attention to how discussions and policies regarding Japanese American soldiering were always interlaced with the larger questions of how to govern the Japanese American population in general, the nation as a whole, and the world. As a consequence of these considerations, the regime would promise Japanese Americans the abundant benefits of citizenship while sending many of them off to die or to suffer injuries with a frequency out of all proportion to their numbers.Less
This chapter traces the processes and contingencies by which the racist state's civil and military officers first determined that Japanese Americans should be excluded from military service, then by the fall of 1942 completely reversed this earlier decision, and in January 1943 began aggressively recruiting Japanese Americans to become soldiers. It focuses primarily on the question of soldiering, because this was the site through which not only the soldiers themselves but also the racialized communities that they represented passed most paradigmatically and dramatically from the outside to the inside of the national community. The complicity of the War Relocation Authority and the War Department in linking the recruitment drive for army volunteers to a general program to determine the loyalty of all adult internees, both male and female, calls attention to the overwhelming symbolic importance of the citizen-soldier as the normative citizen. The chapter pays considerable attention to how discussions and policies regarding Japanese American soldiering were always interlaced with the larger questions of how to govern the Japanese American population in general, the nation as a whole, and the world. As a consequence of these considerations, the regime would promise Japanese Americans the abundant benefits of citizenship while sending many of them off to die or to suffer injuries with a frequency out of all proportion to their numbers.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195146998
- eISBN:
- 9780199787890
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195146998.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, American Colonial Literature
This chapter deals with the novels of Carlos Bulosan and John Okada in the context of the Cold War and the racial politics of masculinity. Bulosan, a Filipino American, and Okada, a Japanese ...
More
This chapter deals with the novels of Carlos Bulosan and John Okada in the context of the Cold War and the racial politics of masculinity. Bulosan, a Filipino American, and Okada, a Japanese American, present their concerns about racial oppression through gender and sexuality, in this case through the lives of Asian American men who are deeply wounded by the racial violence and discrimination that often worked through emasculation. Okada's No No Boy and Bulosan's America Is in the Heart and The Cry and the Dedication are attempts to recuperate the wounded bodies of Asian American men, speaking to American society in terms that it could understand: freedom and materialism. The recuperated manhood they seek to establish is inevitably limited by the ways in which freedom and materialism are conceptually entangled with the same structure of racial discrimination and economic exploitation that targeted Asian Americans.Less
This chapter deals with the novels of Carlos Bulosan and John Okada in the context of the Cold War and the racial politics of masculinity. Bulosan, a Filipino American, and Okada, a Japanese American, present their concerns about racial oppression through gender and sexuality, in this case through the lives of Asian American men who are deeply wounded by the racial violence and discrimination that often worked through emasculation. Okada's No No Boy and Bulosan's America Is in the Heart and The Cry and the Dedication are attempts to recuperate the wounded bodies of Asian American men, speaking to American society in terms that it could understand: freedom and materialism. The recuperated manhood they seek to establish is inevitably limited by the ways in which freedom and materialism are conceptually entangled with the same structure of racial discrimination and economic exploitation that targeted Asian Americans.
Matthew M. Briones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691129488
- eISBN:
- 9781400842216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691129488.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter examines how the resettlement of West Coast Japanese Americans in the Midwest and Northeast after internment irrevocably transformed the population of Japanese Chicagoans. As both Allan ...
More
This chapter examines how the resettlement of West Coast Japanese Americans in the Midwest and Northeast after internment irrevocably transformed the population of Japanese Chicagoans. As both Allan Austin and Gary Okihiro have demonstrated, many young Nisei managed to leave the camps earlier than expected by filing education waivers. They matriculated predominantly at midwestern and East Coast schools, and some of their campmates were recruited for Japanese-language immersion at the Military Intelligence Service Language School, based at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Yet residual delinquency among Nisei bachelors and the lack of children's playgrounds still made the North Side area less than appealing to Nisei families; hence, another critical mass of Japanese Americans congregated on the South Side.Less
This chapter examines how the resettlement of West Coast Japanese Americans in the Midwest and Northeast after internment irrevocably transformed the population of Japanese Chicagoans. As both Allan Austin and Gary Okihiro have demonstrated, many young Nisei managed to leave the camps earlier than expected by filing education waivers. They matriculated predominantly at midwestern and East Coast schools, and some of their campmates were recruited for Japanese-language immersion at the Military Intelligence Service Language School, based at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Yet residual delinquency among Nisei bachelors and the lack of children's playgrounds still made the North Side area less than appealing to Nisei families; hence, another critical mass of Japanese Americans congregated on the South Side.
Ellen D. Wu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157825
- eISBN:
- 9781400848874
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157825.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This introductory chapter describes the racial order in twentieth-century America—its evolution, consequences, and significance. Japanese and Chinese Americans, the largest ethnic Asian populations, ...
More
This introductory chapter describes the racial order in twentieth-century America—its evolution, consequences, and significance. Japanese and Chinese Americans, the largest ethnic Asian populations, and the two that figured most prominently in the public eye between the 1940s and 1960s, are central to this investigation. Their trajectories unfold separately in order to illuminate their distinct histories. Yet Japanese and Chinese Americans also appear in tandem to emphasize the many parallels that account for their concurrent emergence as model minorities. As a mix of cultural, social, and political history, the chapter highlights how the discursive and the material mattered for Japanese American, Chinese American, and ultimately Asian American identity formation from World War II through the “Cold War civil rights” years.Less
This introductory chapter describes the racial order in twentieth-century America—its evolution, consequences, and significance. Japanese and Chinese Americans, the largest ethnic Asian populations, and the two that figured most prominently in the public eye between the 1940s and 1960s, are central to this investigation. Their trajectories unfold separately in order to illuminate their distinct histories. Yet Japanese and Chinese Americans also appear in tandem to emphasize the many parallels that account for their concurrent emergence as model minorities. As a mix of cultural, social, and political history, the chapter highlights how the discursive and the material mattered for Japanese American, Chinese American, and ultimately Asian American identity formation from World War II through the “Cold War civil rights” years.
Eiichiro Azuma
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195159400
- eISBN:
- 9780199788545
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195159400.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter explores the wartime and post-war phases of Japanese American history. The Pacific War led to the demise of transnational immigrant history. The collective world view that inspired Issei ...
More
This chapter explores the wartime and post-war phases of Japanese American history. The Pacific War led to the demise of transnational immigrant history. The collective world view that inspired Issei to search for a pioneer past and strive for a better future vanished with the collapse of the Japanese settlement communities and industries in the American West — tangible markers of racial development. The post-war phase of Japanese American history diverged from the Issei's original designs. Under the War Relocation Authority (WRA) policy, the leadership of the community fell into the hands of the second generation, notably senior members of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Along the line of the WRA-JACL collaboration, integration into mainstream society, rather than racial development, became the central concern of the ethnic community in the wake of internment.Less
This chapter explores the wartime and post-war phases of Japanese American history. The Pacific War led to the demise of transnational immigrant history. The collective world view that inspired Issei to search for a pioneer past and strive for a better future vanished with the collapse of the Japanese settlement communities and industries in the American West — tangible markers of racial development. The post-war phase of Japanese American history diverged from the Issei's original designs. Under the War Relocation Authority (WRA) policy, the leadership of the community fell into the hands of the second generation, notably senior members of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Along the line of the WRA-JACL collaboration, integration into mainstream society, rather than racial development, became the central concern of the ethnic community in the wake of internment.
T. Fujitani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262232
- eISBN:
- 9780520927636
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262232.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book offers a reinterpretation of nationalism, racism, and wartime mobilization during the Asia-Pacific war. In parallel case studies—of Japanese Americans mobilized to serve in the United ...
More
This book offers a reinterpretation of nationalism, racism, and wartime mobilization during the Asia-Pacific war. In parallel case studies—of Japanese Americans mobilized to serve in the United States Army and of Koreans recruited or drafted into the Japanese military—the author examines the U.S. and Japanese empires as they struggled to manage racialized populations while waging total war. He probes governmental policies and analyzes representations of these soldiers—on film, in literature, and in archival documents—to reveal how characteristics of racism, nationalism, capitalism, gender politics, and the family changed on both sides. The author demonstrates that the United States and Japan became increasingly alike over the course of the war, perhaps most tellingly in their common attempts to disavow racism even as they reproduced it in new ways and forms.Less
This book offers a reinterpretation of nationalism, racism, and wartime mobilization during the Asia-Pacific war. In parallel case studies—of Japanese Americans mobilized to serve in the United States Army and of Koreans recruited or drafted into the Japanese military—the author examines the U.S. and Japanese empires as they struggled to manage racialized populations while waging total war. He probes governmental policies and analyzes representations of these soldiers—on film, in literature, and in archival documents—to reveal how characteristics of racism, nationalism, capitalism, gender politics, and the family changed on both sides. The author demonstrates that the United States and Japan became increasingly alike over the course of the war, perhaps most tellingly in their common attempts to disavow racism even as they reproduced it in new ways and forms.
T. Fujitani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262232
- eISBN:
- 9780520927636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262232.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show that during the Second World War the positions of U.S. and Japanese ethnic and colonial soldiers, as well as the ...
More
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show that during the Second World War the positions of U.S. and Japanese ethnic and colonial soldiers, as well as the respective regimes that called them national subjects and then mobilized them into service, were surprisingly similar. It seeks seek to show how discussions about, policies concerning, and representations of these soldiers tell us a great deal about the characteristics of wartime racism, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, gender politics, the family, and related issues on both sides of the Pacific that go well beyond the Japanese American and Korean Japanese soldiers themselves. The chapter then discusses two factors that propelled the American and Japanese total war regimes toward vigorous campaigns in which each presented itself as the authentic defender of freedom, equality, and anti-imperialism while pointing to the other as not only the true racist power and oppressor but also as duplicitous in its denunciations of racism. An overview of the three parts of the book is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to show that during the Second World War the positions of U.S. and Japanese ethnic and colonial soldiers, as well as the respective regimes that called them national subjects and then mobilized them into service, were surprisingly similar. It seeks seek to show how discussions about, policies concerning, and representations of these soldiers tell us a great deal about the characteristics of wartime racism, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, gender politics, the family, and related issues on both sides of the Pacific that go well beyond the Japanese American and Korean Japanese soldiers themselves. The chapter then discusses two factors that propelled the American and Japanese total war regimes toward vigorous campaigns in which each presented itself as the authentic defender of freedom, equality, and anti-imperialism while pointing to the other as not only the true racist power and oppressor but also as duplicitous in its denunciations of racism. An overview of the three parts of the book is also presented.
T. Fujitani
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262232
- eISBN:
- 9780520927636
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262232.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter details how during the war years the need to gain allies of color to win first the war, and then the projected peace, facilitated the rehabilitation of Japanese Americans into model ...
More
This chapter details how during the war years the need to gain allies of color to win first the war, and then the projected peace, facilitated the rehabilitation of Japanese Americans into model soldiers and Americans. The production of these images continued in the postwar and particularly Cold War period, but with the very important difference that Cold War memory making shifted away from an assimilationist to a multiculturalist model. Such a turn away from the idea that cultural difference signified cultural pathology or lagging development to the idea that some aspects of cultural difference might be celebrated was directly related to the Cold War and the postcolonial scheme for U.S. hegemony in East Asia, which gave the nation of Japan a unique location in the global community as the United States' capitalist and “almost, but not quite white” younger sibling. Japanese Americans within the re-racialized postwar U.S. society came to be positioned in a way that was in some important respects homological to the new location of Japan within the American imperium. Just as Japanese Americans continued their transwar transition into America's model minority, so Japan became America's model minority nation.Less
This chapter details how during the war years the need to gain allies of color to win first the war, and then the projected peace, facilitated the rehabilitation of Japanese Americans into model soldiers and Americans. The production of these images continued in the postwar and particularly Cold War period, but with the very important difference that Cold War memory making shifted away from an assimilationist to a multiculturalist model. Such a turn away from the idea that cultural difference signified cultural pathology or lagging development to the idea that some aspects of cultural difference might be celebrated was directly related to the Cold War and the postcolonial scheme for U.S. hegemony in East Asia, which gave the nation of Japan a unique location in the global community as the United States' capitalist and “almost, but not quite white” younger sibling. Japanese Americans within the re-racialized postwar U.S. society came to be positioned in a way that was in some important respects homological to the new location of Japan within the American imperium. Just as Japanese Americans continued their transwar transition into America's model minority, so Japan became America's model minority nation.
