Thesis statement: A Japanese girl grew up in the land of America could not find herself fit in either Japan or American society. Things are bad and got even worse when World War II came, made the relationship between America and Japan went bad. Awful things were pulled on this girl when she was still little.
Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone, is about a girl, named Kazuko, a Japanese American born and raised in Seattle during the World War II. As Kazuko grows up, she finds herself unable to fit in either Japan or American society. To Americans, she is Japanese and to Japanese people, she is more like an American. Since Kazuko was born and raised in a traditional Japanese household, she was highly expected to think, act and behave like
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It started on spring, when the Itoi family decided to have a trip came back to Japan to visit Kazuko’s grandpa. Everyone was happy, except for the youngest son, Kenji. Since Japan is a country well known with many natural disasters such as earthquake, tsunami,... Therefore; Kenji who is afraid of earthquake doesn't like to come here. The first tension that happened to Kazuko was she had a fight with her cousin Yoshiye. Because of different country comes with different culture led to different thoughts, fashion, and actions. Kazuko was descripted wearing a short white cotton skirt, red and white cotton dress made she felt like a tomboy. Meanwhile, Yoshiye was descripted wearing “a long, polished mane, tied tightly at the nape of her neck with black ribbon.”3(p.92),also with “a lovely, multicolored red silk kimono”(p.92). Yoshiye was asked to give one of her kimonos to Kazuko but she refused. Not just that, the climax was when she slapped Yoshiye in the face when Yoshiye said “You talk so funny”5(p.93). After that she doesn't feel sorry about slapping her cousin. Things even got worse when the local kids shout at them “American-Jin!”6(p.97), some older boys throw rocks toward at the Shoji, which is a kind of house with walls made from paper, where they stayed, ripping holes through “the taut white paper”7(p.97). Moreover; one morning, Kazuko and Henry got ambushed by the local children. From these thing above, she feels like she could not fit it that society. “I had felt I was an alien among them”8(p.108), it makes she feels like she is an outlier. These are the cultural difficulties that pull on Kazuko when she was a little
Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
Beginning in March of 1942, in the midst of World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully removed from their homes and ordered to relocate to several of what the United States has euphemistically labeled “internment camps.” In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes in frightening detail her family’s experience of confinement for three and a half years during the war. In efforts to cope with the mortification and dehumanization and the boredom they were facing, the Wakatsukis and other Japanese-Americans participated in a wide range of activities. The children, before a structured school system was organized, generally played sports or made trouble; some adults worked for extremely meager wages, while others refused and had hobbies, and others involved themselves in more self-destructive activities.
On the other hand, the novel depicts the distinct differences and tension that formed between the Issei and Nisei generations. Moreover, it can be seen as an attempt to describe the confusion experienced by Japanese Americans torn between two cultures. First, and most obvious, Monica Sone accounts for, in an autobiographical manner, the important events and situations in her life that helped create her self-identity. She recounts an event at the age of five, when she found out that she?had Japanese blood.? This recognition will spark the chain of many more realizations to come.
The most prevalent way that society impacted Jeanne was by discriminating against her and her entire race. Her view of racial divides was swiftly distorted and manipulated in the brief time before the move to Manzanar. Before the war, hostility towards Japanese Americans was rare: after the attack on Pearl Harbor, public “attitudes towards the Japanese in California were shifting rapidly . . . Tolerance had turned to distrust and irrational fear” (604). One of the first instances in which an American was ill-disposed towards Jeanne was in school. Jeanne was having trouble with the assignments, but the teacher was remote and aloof. In spite of Jeanne...
During Japan’s hegemony over Korea, in expressing women’s desire for their emancipation and change in women’s status, women cut their hair into bobbed hair in a manner that hinted at a “subtle masculinity” with an air of sexual permissiveness, and raised skirts exposing their knees(Yoo, 74). Women strove to determine their “own ideals of beauty, sexuality, and identity and believed that only through a “subversive confusion of gender, could the notion of equality begin to take hold”(Yoo, 75). Throughout the film, instead of alternating the original look by cutting into short hair or raising up the skirt, like the “new women” in the 1920s, she most often dresses in men’s clothing, including dark coloured tops and trousers, since they were the most practical and comfortable to wear while working as a pilot, except when Park attends congratulations party event where she wears a bright red dress and the charity event. Not only in the 1920s, but also in the contemporary period, media rarely represent heroines dressed in men’s formal evening wear, such as a vest over a men blouse, while at a evening party. At the evening party where Park dances with Han ji hyeok, other women other than Park and Lee Jeong Heui are all wearing kimonos or western dresses.
Nisei Daughter is a memoir of the author, Monica Sone’s experience growing up as a Japanese American in the United States prior to and during World War II. Born in America to Japanese immigrant parents, Sone is referred to as a Nisei, a second-generation Japanese American. Sone’s parents, Issei, the first-generation Japanese immigrants to America. Because Nisei were born in the United States they were considered to be an American citizen, but due to immigration laws any Issei was forbidden from becoming a U. S. citizen. Sone recollection of this time period of her life illustrates many themes throughout the memoir. One of these themes that Sone touches upon is the conflict between old and new, the Issei and Nisei.
The novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, tells her family’s true story of how they struggled to not only survive, but thrive in forced detention during World War II. She was seven years old when the war started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. Her life dramatically changed when her and her family were taken from their home and sent to live at the Manzanar internment camp. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, they had to adjust to their new life living behind barbed wire. Obviously, as a young child, Jeanne did not fully understand why they had to move, and she was not fully aware of the events happening outside the camp. However, in the beginning, every Japanese American had questions. They wondered why they had to leave. Now, as an adult, she recounts the three years she spent at Manzanar and shares how her family attempted to survive. The conflict of ethnicities affected Jeanne and her family’s life to a great extent.
Twenty years after the First World War, humanity was, yet again, plagued with more hostility. September 1st, 1939 marked the start of World War II, this time, with new players on the board. Waves of fear and paranoia rippled throughout the United States, shaking its’ very foundation of liberty and justice for all. The waves powerfully crashed onto a single ethnic group, the Japanese-Americans, who had their rights and respect pulled away from them. They were seen as traitors and enemies in their own country, and were thrown into prison camps because of it. This event marks one of the absolute lowest points in United States history and has changed the course of the country as a whole.
But, in this book Jeanne describes how her dad was in love with the United States. He rejected being Japanese and supported America. “That night Papa burned the flag he had brought with him from Hiroshima thirty five years earlier”(pg 6). Moving from place to place made it hard for The Wakatsuki family to get attached to. The family is then transported to Owens Valley, California, where 10,000 internees.
Jeanne was a mere 8 years old when taken from her home and sent to Manzanar where her family along with other Japanese people were held for at least 3 years during world war 2. throughout these three years not only did the camp change.But Jeanne did, as a young 8 year old who had been around mostly white people she was scared to be around as many Japanese people there were and
But for some of the Japanese Americans, it was even harder after they were discharged from the internment camp. The evacuation and the internment had changed the lives of all Japanese Americans. The evacuation and internment affected the Wakatsuki family in three ways: the destruction of Papa’s self-esteem, the separation of the Wakatsuki family, and the change in their social status. The destruction of Papa’s self-esteem is one effect of the evacuation and internment. Before the evacuation and internment, Papa was proud; he had a self-important attitude, yet he was dignified.
Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.
...ile the war is still happening. The lack of freedom and human rights can cause people to have a sad life. Their identity, personality, and dignity will be vanish after their freedom and human right are taking away. This is a action which shows America’s inhuman ideas. It is understandable that war prison should be put into jail and take away their rights; but Japanese-American citizen have nothing to do with the war. American chooses to treat Jap-American citizen as a war prisoner, then it is not fair to them because they have rights to stay whatever side they choose and they can choose what ever region they want. Therefore, Otasuka’s novel telling the readers a lesson of how important it is for people to have their rights and freedom with them. People should cherish these two things; if not, they will going to regret it.
Jeanne Wakatuski is a young girl who had to endure a rough childhood. She thought herself American, with a Japanese descent. However, with WWII and the internment camps, Jeanne struggled to in understanding who she really was. It started with Manzanar, at first she knew herself as a Japanese American. Living in Manzanar gave her a new perspective, “It (Manzanar) gradually filled me with shame for being a person, guilty of something enormous enough to deserve that kind of treatment” (Houston and Houston 161). Jeanne faced the problem of being someone who was not wanted or liked in the American society. A good section that shows the discrimination at the time was when Jeanne tried to join the Girl Scouts, which is on page 144. She was turned
In addition, shortly thereafter, she and a small group of American business professionals left to Japan. The conflict between values became evident very early on when it was discovered that women in Japan were treated by locals as second-class citizens. The country values there were very different, and the women began almost immediately feeling alienated. The options ...