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american and japanese culture
american and japanese culture
brief history of racism
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Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to talk about how Japanese American are a minority group in the United States that has received unequal treatment for my Cultural Diversity class. To achieve this, I read Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, used the National University Library to search for information about Japanese experiences from 1900-2015. Japanese Americans faced prejudice, discrimination, and segregation from 1900 to 1960’s. I explain how Japanese Americans fit into the five essential properties of a minority group. These are physical and cultural characteristics, unequal treatment, endogamous, subordinate status, and involuntary membership in a minority group.
Throughout Americas history, there has been prejudice, discrimination, and segregation. The prejudice, discrimination, and segregation of African-Americans and Native Americans are well known and often portrayed in movies. The group that is less exposed in movies is the prejudice, discrimination, and segregation of Asians. Mine is about a minority group that has seen prejudice, discrimination, and segregation that is now recognized universally deplorable the Japanese American. The incarceration of the Japanese by the United States during World War II is now considered unjust. After “Executive Order 9066 the army moved 40,000 long-term immigrants, and 77,000 United States citizens of Japanese descent.” (Miksch and Ghere, 2004 p. 212) Although, at that time “Most people thought internment of enemy aliens was a normal precaution in wartime situations.” (Miksch and Ghere, 2004 p. 211) “The practice of internment of enemy aliens is normal practice in Canada, Australia, United States, and European countries.” (Miksch and...
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Culture of Japan - history, people, traditions, women, beliefs, food, family, social, marriage. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Japan.html
Alexander, L. (2014, October 5). Daughters tell stories of 'war brides ' despised back home and in the U.S. | The Japan Times. Retrieved from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/10/05/how-tos/daughters-tell-stories-war-brides-despised-back-home-u-s/#.VqVdb8v2bBh
Ellman, Y. (1987). Intermarriage in the United States: A Comparative Study of Jews and Other Ethnic and Religious Groups. Jewish Social Studies, 49(1), 1-26. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.nu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?sid=0bfb9f36-e537-4499-99ad-bcf2d453bf27%40sessionmgr4003&vid=0&hid=4114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=7114765&db=pbh
Since they lacked certain physical and/or cultural characteristics needed to belong in the American nation, they were not considered worthy enough to receive the same rights and privileges they deserve. Therefore, Takaki hopes that with his book, people would acknowledge how America developed a society centered to benefit only white people with the creation of laws hindering these racial groups from receiving the same and equal rights they deserve.
Although Americans vary widely in ethnicity and race and minorities are far from sparse, racism has never been in short supply. This has led to many large scale issues from Irish immigrants not begin seen as Americans during the Irish famine, to Mexican-American citizens having their citizenship no longer recognized during the Mexican Cession, all the way to Japanese internment camps during World War II. Both Dwight Okita and Sandra Cisneros Both give accounts of the issue from the perspective of the victims of such prejudice. Rather than return the injustice, both Okita and Cisneros use it to strengthen their identity as an American, withstanding the opinion of others.
In a portion of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s memoir titled Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne’s Japanese family, living in California, is ordered to move to an internment camp called Manzanar. Society impacts the family in many ways, but in this segment of the story we primarily see its effects on Jeanne. The context and setting are as follows: the Pearl Harbor bombing was a very recent happening, the United States was entering into war with Japan, and President Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066, allowing internment. Anyone who might threaten the war effort was moved inland into defined military areas. Essentially, the Japanese immigrants were imprisoned and considered a threat; nevertheless, many managed to remain positive and compliant. Jeanne’s family heard “the older heads, the Issei, telling others very quietly ‘Shikata ga nai’” (604), meaning it cannot be helped, or it must be done, even though the world surrounding them had become aggressive and frigid. The society had a noticeable effect on Jeanne, as it impacted her view of racial divides, her family relations, and her health.
Sollors, Werner. I Interracialism: Black-White Intermarriage in American History, Literature, and Law. New York: University Press, 2000.
The English immigrants are given a brief introduction as the first ethnic group to settle in America. The group has defined the culture and society throughout centuries of American history. The African Americans are viewed as a minority group that were introduced into the country as slaves. The author depicts the struggle endured by African Americans with special emphasis on the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement. The entry of Asian Americans evoked suspicion from other ethnic groups that started with the settlement of the Chinese. The Asian community faced several challenges such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and the mistreatment of Americans of Japanese origin during World War II. The Chicanos were the largest group of Hispanic peoples to settle in the United States. They were perceived as a minority group. Initially they were inhabitants of Mexico, but after the Westward expansion found themselves being foreigners in their native land (...
For 20 years, Asian Americans have been portrayed by the press and the media as a successful minority. Asian Americans are believed to benefit from astounding achievements in education, rising occupational statuses, increasing income, and are problem-fee in mental health and crime. The idea of Asian Americans as a model minority has become the central theme in media portrayal of Asian Americans since the middle 1960s. The term model minority is given to a minority group that exhibits middle class characteristics, and attains some measure of success on its own without special programs or welfare. Asian Americans are seen as a model minority because even though they have faced prejudice and discrimination by other racial groups, they have succeeded socially, economically, and educationally without resorting to political or violent disagreements with the majority race. The “success” of the minority is offered as proof that the American dream of equal opportunity is capable to those who conform and who are willing to work hard. Therefore, the term ...
American minorities made up a significant amount of America’s population in the 1920s and 1930s, estimated to be around 11.9 million people, according to . However, even with all those people, there still was harsh segregation going on. Caucasians made African-Americans work for them as slaves, farmers, babysitters, and many other things in that line. Then when World War II came, “World War II required the reunification and mobilization of Americans as never before” (Module2). They needed to cooperate on many things, even if they didn’t want to. These minorities mainly refer to African, Asian, and Mexican-Americans. They all suffered much pain as they were treated as if they weren’t even human beings. They were separated, looked down upon, and wasn’t given much respect because they had a different culture or their skin color was different. However, the lives of American minorities changed forever as World War 2 impacted them significantly with segregation problems, socially, and in their working lives, both at that time and for generations after.
Japanese immigration created the same apprehension and intolerance in the mind of the Americans as was in the case of Chinese migration to the U.S at the turn of the 19th century. They developed a fear of being overwhelmed by a people having distinct ethnicity, skin color and language that made them “inassimilable.” Hence they wanted the government to restrict Asian migration. Japan’s military victories over Russia and China reinforced this feeling that the Western world was facing what came to be known as “yellow peril”. This was reflected in the media, movies and in literature and journalism.4 Anti-Oriental public opinion gave way to several declarations and laws to restrict Japanese prosperity on American land. Despite the prejudice and ineligibility to obtain citizenship the ...
Jarratt, M. (2009). War brides: The stories of the women who left everything behind to
Their loyalty was questioned, they had to suffer. They were betrayed, they had to stay in camp in fear and anguish. All the suffering that Japanese American had to face shows that America is not a paradise, America can make people feel so bad, though there is hope for good life in people. Racism is the foundation for hate and anger and which would later turn into action. In shirt there was a combination of racism and anger that lead Japanese Americans into the horrors of the internment camps. There are no cities or states like this in United States anymore. It was very heart breaking situation but this should always be included in United States history, so that our next generation will never forget what Japanese Americans had to go through. At this point in history of United States, what we can see is that white people are discriminating, ignoring Japanese people. They are following racism. They are practicing “Defense against Difference”, which is Milton Bennett saying. The people from United States, white people are showing differentiation between them and Japanese, they are showing difference between two culture and they are thinking whites are more superior to Japanese culture. I have learned a lot about intercultural sensitivity this semester. This assignment gave me opportunity to not only evaluate intercultural stages but I got to learn about the other cultures. I have learned that everybody should accept other culture and respect them. If we are aware of the history of Japanese Americans, everyone will be educated and there will be no chances of repeating the same history
As a minority, coming from an international country to a foreign nation has been the most crucial decision that my family has concluded to live the possibility of the "American Dream". However, growing up as an Asian-American student wasn’t simple; I was faced with the challenge of malicious racial slurs, spiteful judgment, and unjustified condemnation that attacked my family's decision to come to America.
The United States of America is the place of opportunity and fortune. “Many immigrants hoped to achieve this in the United States and similar to other immigrants many people from the Asian Pacific region hoped to make their fortune. They planned to either return to their homelands or build a home in their new country (Spring, 2013).” For this reason, life became very complicated for these people. They faced many challenges in this new country, such as: classifying them in terms of race and ethnicity, denying them the right to become naturalized citizens, and rejecting them the right of equal educational opportunities within the school systems. “This combination of racism and economic exploitation resulted in the educational policies to deny Asians schooling or provide them with segregated schooling (Spring, 2013).”This was not the country of opportunity and fortune as many believed. It was the country of struggle and hardship. Similarly, like many other immigrants, Asian Americans had the determination to overcome these obstacles that they faced to prove that the United States was indeed their home too.
The trend and patterns of interracial marriages have increased substantially in America over the past few years. Between the early 1970 and late 1980’s after abolishing laws prohibiting interracial unions, the proportion of interracial marriages was under five percent of all married couples in America (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). Although recent surveys indicate that the percentage of interracial marriages is a little over five percent in America, the rate and frequency of occurrence are alarming (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). The American society has become more diverse and much of this diversity has been attributed to the growing number of new immigrants (Qian & Lichter, 2011). Immigration has lead to assimilation of many cultures into the mainstream American culture and as a result narrowing the gap between majority and minority groups. The United States of America Census Bureau show that there has been a dramatic increase in population due to immigration (Qian & Lichter, 2011). For instance, between 1980 and 2007, the Hispanic population in America has doubled while the Asian population has increased by four percent, and the Black population is more or less the same over the same time period (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). The increase in size of the population has resulted in the increase rate of interracial marriages. Interracial unions in the 1980’s represented about three percent of all marriages in America (Lewis & Robertson, 2010). In the year 2000, interracial marriages have only increased approximately by two percent, with marriages between Hispanic and white representing the greatest balance of all interracial marriages (Lewis & Robertson, 2010).
Throughout America’s history, there have been numerous incidents of unnecessary incrimination of certain races, perhaps most evidently the internment of Japanese-Americans between World War I and World War II. Not only did public opinions shift towards illogical discrimination of the foreigners, degrading propaganda, discriminating laws, and segregation/separation began taking over the nation. Mainly due to the idea of national safety, irrational fear of the Japanese quickly arose and the government saw internment as a reasonable response, which only led to the Americans feeling superior to the so-called “inferior creatures.” During the gap between the World Wars, the American population took drastic measures in order to make it clear that they are superior to the Japanese and the United States truly is their country.
For those Asian Americans who make known their discontent with the injustice and discrimination that they feel, in the white culture, this translates to attacking American superiority and initiating insecurities. For Mura, a writer who dared to question why an Asian American was not allowed to audition for an Asian American role, his punishment was “the ostracism and demonization that ensued. In essence, he was shunned” (Hongo 4) by the white people who could not believe that he would attack their superior American ways. According to writers such as Frank Chin and the rest of the “Aiiieeeee!” group, the Americans have dictated Asian culture and created a perception as “nice and quiet” (Chin 1972, 18), “mama’s boys and crybabies” without “a man in all [the] males.” (Chin 1972, 24). This has become the belief of the proceeding generations of Asian Americans and therefore manifested these stereotypes.