What makes a Japanese person pure? Is it their lineage? Is it the fact they live in Japan? Circle K Cycles written by Karen Tei Yamashita revolves around the concept of what is pure. Yamashita uses her own personal encounters, along with stories in order to try to understand the concept of what makes an ethnicity pure, and the hybridization of ethnicities. As a writer, Yamashita tries to explore the essence of purity by using different forms of writing. Yamashita, throughout the book, refers to her own experience of migration to Japan and Brazil. When reading we are able to see different levels of racism between the two countries. In order to explore the relevance of purity between Japan and Brazil within Circle K Circles, Yamashita uses her personal encounters, short stories, form, and language.
Yamashita begins Circle K Circles with the concept of introducing the term of being “purely Japanese.” Yamashita is a Japanese American that has traced her father’s “family back fourteen generations” (Yamashita 11). By tracing both of her family’s lineage, Yamashita came to the conclusion that she was pure Japanese, “They were Meiji Japanese” (Yamashita 11), with no foreign blood. The only thing that was different was that she was a third generation American. When Karen moved back to Japan, she physically looked like a “typical American sansei from California” (Yamashita 11). As a result, it wasn’t unusual for her to be asked about her ancestry. When Yamashita relates her lineage to the questioner and justifies that her family had originated from Japan that they exclaim: “Ah, then you are a pure Japanese” (Yamashita 12)! It is here where Yamashita asks us “What could it mean to be a “pure Japanese” (Yamashita 12)?
Yamashita, aroun...
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...we are given insight to how “unpure” Dekasegi’s are treated within Japan through Miss Hamamatsu and Ze Maria. Not only does Yamashita’s use of short stories, but she also uses form to show the clash of cultures. By using form we see how different conservative Japanese juxtaposed against the animated Brazilians. However, despite the Japanese need of trying to maintain “all things Japanese” we shown that Japanese is a language that isn’t pure in itself. Yamashita plays with the idea of impure language by hybridizing Japanese with Brazilian words. In the end, we are shown both that Japans advocating of keeping Japan pure, somewhat fails.
Works Cited
"Japanese Brazilian." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.
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Yamashita, Karen Tei. Circle K Cycles. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House, 2001. Print.
He points out that “While most immigrants have double identities to deal with, I have three. Am I Chinese, Thai, or American?” (Foner 339). His grandparents only had to deal with two—Chinese and Thai—but Chaukamnoetkanok is torn between three, making his experiences all the more difficult. He argues that no matter what identity he chooses, he will always be labeled as an “outsider”. His grandparents, on the other hand, were not concerned with being labeled as “different” and simply ignored those who had a prejudice against them. Chaukamnoetkanok understands that he must also possess this mindset in order better his experiences, but cannot change his way of thinking that easily, despite knowing he should. Overall, Chaukamnoetkanok determines that the main differences
Christopher Benfey’s work The Great Wave is a narrative driven by a collection of accounts, stories and curious coincidences tying together The Gilded Age of New England in particular with interactions and connections to the Japan of old and new. In the context of The Great Wave, Benfey's own personal journey to Japan at the age of sixteen should be understood. Embarking on this voyage to learn traditional writing, language and Judo, his story can also be seen as a not only a historical continuation, but also a personal precursor to the vignettes he discovers and presents to the reader.
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
Known for her work as a historian and rather outspoken political activist, Yamakawa Kikue was also the author of her book titled Women of the Mito Domain (p. xix). At the time she was writing this work, Yamakawa was under the surveillance of the Japanese government as the result of her and her husband’s work for the socialist and feminist movements in Japan (p. xx-xxi). But despite the restrictions she was undoubtedly required to abide by in order to produce this book, her work contains an air of commentary on the past and present political, social, and economic issues that had been plaguing the nation (p. xxi). This work is a piece that comments on the significance of women’s roles in history through the example of Yamakawa’s own family and
Therefore, G. Gotanda’s ‘The Sisters’ Matsumoto’ has been a great epitome of indescribable pain that can be shown as a play to people in America. The play itself has become a general narrative of Japanese people who had terrible experiences from the outbreak of internment. Especially, the play indirectly mentions people from the Issei generation as they are the people who are true victims of racial segregation from a democratic country. They are the victims of the tragic event created by the country that holds values highly on equality. Therefore, people should acknowledge their voices that had been lost as they had lost everything that they had worked for during the internment. And it was more painstaking for them as their children also had to suffer discrimination from their community. For example, Gotanda has used Togo Matsumoto, father of Grace Matsumoto, to show the voice of people of Issei generation. The author has not made Togo to appear in the play, but his presence to other characters is massive as they hold reminiscences of him even after his tragic death in the internment. Togo Matsumoto is a respectable man as he holds lots of wealth and properties, but like others from Issei generation, he has lost everything including his pride of being a successful businessman. It is tragic to see that a
Ogawa, D. (1993) The Japanese of Los Angeles. Journal of Asian and African Studies, v19, pp.142-3.
A changing world and a sense of dominance over other groups of people allows Etta Heine’s racism towards Japanese-Americans to be explicitly evident in the novel. During the 1940’s, the predominantly Caucasian country of America was gradually changing to incorporate a cultural diversity between several groups of individuals. Etta Heine’s lack of appreciation of a changing world enables her to develop a deep hatred towards foreign groups, “Carl’s heart failed him one clear October night in 1944…Carl junior was away at the war, and Etta took advantage of this circumstance to sell the farm to Ole Jurgensen” (Guterson 115). As Etta Heine prepares to take the stand in Kabuo Miyamoto’s trial, the narrator explains how Etta’s husband passed away. After Carl’s heart failed, Etta was quick to sell the land, despite her husband’s agreement with Zenhichi, to Ole Jurgensen. This signifies Etta’s deep hatred towards Japanese people since the death of her husband was merely a tactic used in her advantage to eliminate the deal her husband made with Zenhichi. A lack of mourning over the death of her husband was expressed, enabling the reader to develop assumptions about Etta’s character. Consequently, this proves how devious, cruel, and heinous Etta can be. Etta’s hateful attributes are deeply rooted with issues of certainty and structure that cause her to develop racist ideologies. Although America allows Japanese individuals to reside in their country, the law banning Japanese people from owning lands enabled Etta to justify her actions in a court of law. This portrays that Etta is a stubborn and traditional human, who has relatively made peace with Japanese individuals occupying “Etta’s country”, yet her husband’s deal with Zenhinchi caused he...
The Japanese had lived in isolation for over two hundred years. They had prevented any foreigners from entering or any ships to land at Japanese ports. “In 1850 they had no steam engine, no factory, or no modern firearms. And, amazing to relate, the ladies and gentlemen of Japan adopted no new fashions in wearing apparel!”
The importance of reflexivity is illustrated in Dissolution and Reconstitution of Self: Implications for Anthropological Epistemology, by anthropologist Dorinne Kondo. Her reflections lead her to realize that she has lost, or has almost lost, her identity as an American anthropologist and now sees herself as a young woman of Japanese culture. "What occurred in the field was a kind of fragmenting of identity into Japanese and American elements, so that the different strands, instead of interweaving to form a coherent whole, strained and tugged against one another" (78). As she became so immersed in the culture, Kondo began to understand and adopt cultural aspects that are unique to the Japanese, a thus adopted a new identity. At first, she practiced Japanese behavior to be socially accepted and gain the respect of her host family, but she was so successful that community members began to regard her as a fello...
Purity and filth have been on opposite sides of the fence ever since a distinction was made between the two. The purity vs filth battle can be seen in many aspects of life, whether that be displayed in race, religion, or even geographically. This brings into question, where is the division between filth and purity, or is there a division at all? This division is called out in Joe Weil’s “Ode to Elizabeth”, Nicolás Guillén’s “What Color?”, and possibly even in William Carlos William’s “This is Just to Say”.
14. Yanagisaka, Sylvia Junko Transforming the Past: Tradition and Kinship Among Japanese Americans, Stanford University Press, 1985.
Kondo acknowledges the affect that the Japanese have on her character and by so doing she acknowledges their power. Instead of standing in the place of supreme authority, the anthropologist, by using reflexivity, can give the authority to her informants.
Throughout its history, Japan has striven to define its national identity not by its own means, but by those predefined by foreign, and most recently, Western powers. Despite legends of the island archipelago being created by the sun goddess Amaterasu, Japan seems to have consistently maintained a indecisive self-image with respect to its neighbors. In the past, China had represented the pinnacle of culture and technology and had tremendously influenced other surrounding countries in Asia and in the world. Indeed, Japan owes its written language to imported and adapted Chinese characters. Without question, China remained for a long time the most influential force upon Japan. However, island nation maintained a rather precarious self-identity: How could a country like Japan, which was supposedly created by the gods and therefore a divine nation, consider itself the apex of the world, given China’s tremendous influence and power? Could Japan truly consider itself the greatest land in the world if China, or Chugoku in Japanese, literally meant “the central country?” For this reason, Japan never truly accepted a position of “belonging” to Asia. That is, despite a considerable amount of imported culture, Japan was still somehow inherently different from other Asian countries.
...accustomed to what we have in the United States, it is also enjoyable to see how other cultures are formed and structured. That’s what makes other people love each other, it is how they are. How we are all different. The Japanese culture may be different, but to them it is their society and marriage and love is important to reputation and society.
Japan is a prideful nation that honors tradition and culture. In Japan, where Shintoism and Buddhism are the major religions, families place emphasis on parental control because a strong lineage confirms a family's longevity and economic stability. According to Koike (2013), "Until the end of World War II, the Confucian-based ie seido, or family system, stressed the subordination of individual needs to the needs of the group. Consequently, the continuity of one’s family lineage, rather than personal preference, was the primary criterion in mate selection" (p. 320)....