Toshio Mori is a Japanese American author born in Oakland California to immigrant parents in 1910. He grew up working with his parents in a plant nursery for a major part of his life. Mori acquired a passion for writing from reading dime novels. His main influences were Chekov, Stephen Crane, Sherwood Anderson and William Saroyan. Mori would enjoy writing after spending the day tending the flowers. It all culminated in to his first novel, Yokohama California. Mori is heavily influenced by the community he in which he lived. Kim writes “In choosing to write stories about ordinary events in the lives of ordinary people, Mori paid tribute to the struggles of these people, showed their humanity to an otherwise hostile public, and left a record of a way of life” (Kim 235). In this regard, Mori acknowledges the hardships that Japanese immigrants endured to arrive in America and to have a prosperous life. In this manner, he hopes to dispel any misconceptions Americans may have towards the Japanese. Although the American born Japanese live with their immigrant parents, growing up in America shaped their personal identity and dreams differently than their predecessors.
In Yokohama California, the narrator grows up in a Japanese American community that gets destroyed following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He recounts his experiences with a multitude of community members who have influenced his life. In one instance, Tom, a Nisei, gets too complacent and begins to slack off his job of going door to door selling flowers; pursuing artistic interests instead. This describes the typical relaxed nature of Japanese Americans in contrast to the first generation immigrants, who are much more uptight regarding work. In fact, their obsession with wor...
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...pular American pastime’ and even praises their gowns” (Mayer 251).
Work Cited
Kim, Elaine H. “Japanese American Family and Community Portraits.” In Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context, pp.122-72. Short Story Criticism 83 (2003); pages 232-236
Mayer David R. “The Short Stories of Toshio Mori.” Fu Jen Studies 21 (1988): pp. 73-87.
Short Story Criticism 83 (2003); pages 250-256.
Mori Toshio. The Chauvinist and Other Short Stories. Los Angeles: University of California, 1979.
Mori, Toshio. Yokohama California. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1979.
Sato, Gayle. “(Self) Indulgent Listening: Reading Cultural Difference in Yokohama, California.” The Japanese Journal of American Sturdies. 2/2/2010 .
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.
'Even with all the mental anguish and struggle, an elemental instinct bound us to this soil. Here we were born; here we wanted to live. We had tasted of its freedom and learned of its brave hopes for democracy. It was too late, much too late for us to turn back.' (Sone 124). This statement is key to understanding much of the novel, Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone. From one perspective, this novel is an autobiographical account of a Japanese American girl and the ways in which she constructed her own self-identity. 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.
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.
Monica Sone's memoir shows how growing up was like as a Japanese American in the United States before and during World War II. As the War was upon the U.S it was by no means an easy time for any American citizen, especially the Japanese Americans who dealt with persecution all along the West Coast. Kazuko was born in America to Japanese immigrant parents, known as Nisei which means second-generation Japanese American. While her parents are Issei which is first-generation Japanese immigrants to America. Nisei Daughter primary focus is on the family's strength in the face of challenges ahead, and their capability to give up everything for the country they love. Sone provides the process of assimilation, which is members of a minority group adopting to the behaviors and attitudes of the majority population. In Nisei Daughter, the issue of assimilation becomes especially complex. That is due to the fact that Japanese Americans including the Ioti’s are
John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of a country devastated by World War II. His capturing of the Japanese peoples' voice let us, as readers, empathize with those who had to start over in a "new nation."
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 ...
The forced eradication of Japanese & Japanese Americans from their homes within California, Washington, & Oregon from 1942 to 1946 brought suffering and personal loss to various communities. After the camps, Japanese were told to resettle within Midwest and East and avoid returning to hostile West Coast. Most communities perished and were never restored. For instance, as people started resettlement, Japanese communities like San Francisco Nihonmachi & Los Angeles Little Tokyo were ripped by urban renewal. The aim of this paper is to discuss the long term impacts like racism, economic loss and generational changes of this regrettable episode of American history upon the Japanese community.
Japanese-American internment camps were a dark time in America’s history, often compared to the concentration camps in Germany (Hane, 572). The internment camps were essentially prisons in which all Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were forced to live during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii. They were located in inland western states due to the mass hysteria that Japanese-Americans were conspiring with Japan to invade and/or attack the United States. At the time the general consensus was that these camps were a good way to protect the country, but after the war many realized that the camps were not the best option. Textbooks did not usually mention the internment camps at all, as it is not a subject most Americans want to talk about, much less remember. Recently more textbooks and historians talk about the camps, even life inside them. Some Japanese-Americans say that their experiences after being released from the internment camps were not as negative as most people may think. Although the Japanese-American internment camps were brutal to go through, in the long run it led to Japanese-Americans’ movement from the west coast and their upward movement in society through opportunities found in a new urban environment such as Chicago and St. Louis.
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.
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.
Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...
Shirane Haruo. et al. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900. New York: Colombia University Press, 2002. Print.
Yukio Mishima was a brilliant Japanese novelist whose work began to thrive in the late nineteen forty's. His novels focused mainly on Eastern religion, homosexual eroticism and fantasies of death. These controversial themes seem to repel some readers (Magill); however, Mishima remained a dedicated literary artist. In his lifetime he wrote multiple volumes of literature, but only about six or seven earned him a great deal of attention from critics and readers in Japan (Yourcenar 24-25). However, he has earned himself the reputation of Japan’s greatest contemporary novelist (Gale, Magill). Every night Mishima dedicated the late hours to writing his novels. Mishima had been nominated for the Nobel Prize twice in his lifetime, but lost first to his friend Kawabata, and later to Miguel Asturias (Stokes 192). Yukio Mishima should be remembered for his great novels, Confessions of a Mask, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, and The Sea of Fertility tetralogy.