Japanese American Identity & Self-Image | Asian American Poll

JAPANESE AMERICAN IDENTITY & SELF-IMAGE
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:14:04 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

In relating with other Asian American groups, Japanese Americans most exhibit which of the following attitudes?
More Americanized than thou | 51%
More rooted in ancestral heritage | 0%
More anxious to be low key | 49%
More embracing of other AA | 0%

Which of the following has the most impact on the Japanese American identity?
Smallest percentage of recent immigrants | 36%
World War II internment | 51%
Japan's economic success | 6%
Smaller population than other AA groups | 7%

This poll is closed to new input.
Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISING INFO

© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.

WHAT YOU SAY

[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]

LA yonsei:

I don’t know what kind of experiences you and your family may have had in the United States. But please, don’t generalize that all Japanese Americans, including myself, want to be like you. If you and your friends have a hard time identifying with Japan and its people, then that’s a problem for you and your friends to deal with. Don’t automatically assume that all fourth, fifth or even sixth-generation Japanese Americans are not going to want to identify in some way with their ancestral homeland. From my perspective, cultural and racial identity are two very different things. I don’t identify with the Japanese from Japan on a cultural level, but I do identify with them racially. Japanese Americans may not be respected well in Japan. However, that must not be a contributing factor in turning our backs on the homeland of our parents or grandparents. Look at us. We’re Asian. No amount of assimilation is going to erase that fact. The United States went out of its way to make Japanese Americans the enemy during World War II. Even with the end of WWII, JAs and other asians were still the enemy. JAs who served during the Korean War were still called Japs, or gooks. Even in the Vietnam War, JA soldiers were Japs or gooks. When Japan bashing was in vogue in the late-eighties to the early-nineties, I was more or less referred to as a Jap or a gook.

F*** that more assimilated (white-washed) than other Asians bullsh*t. Half of this BS was started by other AAs. From what I can tell, immigrant Chinese and Koreans (as well as the children of these two immigrant groups) have this need to continuously “punish” anyone Japanese, including Japanese Americans for the sins of WWII Japan. By calling JAs white-washed, more assimilated, less Asian in identity is their own way of bad-mouthing or taking vengence against us for what the Japanese Military did to their kind during the colonization of Korea and the rest of WWII. What’s worse is when loser white-worshiping JAs or native-born Japanese (with a superiority complex over JAs) jump in with all of this BS.

Eikaiwa Shark Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 23:57:57 (PDT)

Hi,
Im JA and would like to tell you about something that happened to me at work a few weeks ago. I was in a conference call with two white coworkers on my end. A person with a heavy chinese accent was dominating the entire conference call. Everytime I wanted to ask or say something this guy would butt in with a long heavily accented monolgue. After the call I mentioned to my coworkers, "that Chinese guy was very annoying". Later I thought they also must have been thinking the same thing but would never say anything for fear of appearing racist. Was I wrong to say anything or to even be annoyed?
P Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 16:23:47 (PDT)

LA Yonsei, I really appreciated your post. There's a lot of US history, esp. with the earliest AAs, that will not be formally taught except maybe as college electives. It was cool reading your perspective.
~nikel Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 13:46:39 (PDT)

well, if you think about it, there is nothing wrong with japanese americans wanting to be recognized as a group distinct from other asians b/c...they are a distinct group. it's an american fallacy to believe that all asians come from similar cultures and share similar values and eat somewhat similar foods. aside from the way in which we are viewed by americans and given differential treatment, there is nothing else inherent in our culture that indicates that we all belong to the same group. we are, in fact, very different people.
penelope Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 10:50:31 (PDT)

WT:
The impression among many immigrants or short-term residents from Japan living in the U.S. is that ALL Japanese-Americans have zero functionality in Japanese language and culture. Many Japanese aren't even aware of immigration to the US past the 1960s when Japan's boom really started to get going. This Japan we're talking about is a country where kids who have lived overseas and attended Japanese schools, then return to their home country (kikokusizyo) are bullied for not being Japanese enough. So, of course there is less interaction and trust between American-born and FOBs in the Japanese community.

This is in great contrast to Korean and Chinese-American communities where, even though the language ability is arguably lower (comparing 1st/2nd gen. ABCs/Korean-Americans to modern-era Ixsei and Nisei), FOBs are more likely to know at least a few American-born kids who can speak the mother tongue quite well, these kids tend to be helpful in getting them adjusted to life over here, then, in turn, they introduce the FOBs to all the other American-born Asians. So there is at least some degree of interaction, and in the long run, probably more language reinforcement (we can say for sure in about 10 years when sansei kids of post-WWII immigrants start reaching their late teenage years, and compare them to 3rd-generation Chinese and Koreans).

I don't discount that national character has something to do with the integration - but remember that Japan has had lots of shifts in national character in a very short time due to all the various social upheavals (overthrow of the bakufu, promulgation of Meiji constitution, militarists, imposition of post-war Constitution, 60s riots and bombings, bubble collapse, etc.) sometimes tending more towards adaptability and cooperation with the larger society you happen to find yourself in, sometimes not. Every generation changes. Just compare the Japanese immigrants in the U.S. (late Meiji, early Taisho) to those in Brazil (started coming after the U.S. immigration cutoff, so late Taisho, early Showa - coinciding with the rise of the militarists). Compare the students of the 1960s who were getting in the faces of university administrators and talking down to them, to the students of the confident 80s, to the furiita and the like of the post-collapse 90s and today.

BTW if you really think the average Japanese soldier was fanatically loyal I'll try to dig up some statistics on the rate of absentee-ism and drunkenness among soldiers going on kamikaze missions ... funny thing is that arguably what kept the war going was the upper-class delusion that the average Japanese soldier was fanatically loyal and would overthrow said upper-class in the name of the emperor (who was controlled by the upper-class anyway) if they didn't keep the war going.

LA Yonsei:
"I'm a 4th generation (yonsei) JA as are most of my friends. We barely know Japanese although I attended Japanese school for a bit. Both of my parents are not really fluent in Japanese either. As a result, it's hard to identify with other Japanese from Japan or the culture."
In the end, it comes down to individual effort and stubbornness. You can't change WWII policy or the number of immigrants from Japan. You can improve your own Japanese linguistic and cultural ability, and pass it on to your kids. And who knows, if you're stubborn enough, you might inspire a few friends to do the same.

T.H. Lien Wednesday, April 10, 2002 at 09:59:13 (PDT)

NEWEST COMMENTS | EARLIER COMMENTS