Japanese American Identity & Self-Image | Asian American Poll

JAPANESE AMERICAN IDENTITY & SELF-IMAGE
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:14:01 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%

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WHAT YOU SAY

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

MLK:
"And then, the culture will be more American rather than Asian because it's too hard to teach a culture to a child who is made up of only a fraction of that culture."
Not necessarily. Though there's always someone to float the idea that the only reason people don't respect and honor their "whole heritage" is because those vicious Patriarchs of Mainstream Society are using brute force to shove them into one box only. It's perfectly reasonable to base your cultural identity on only a part of your ancestry, and tends to be a lot more successful in actually preserving some culture. By ethnicity I'm only one-fourth Chinese, but I still consider myself as a Chinese person of mixed ancestry, not as an amalgamate of four cultures. I'd much rather be a moderately-acculturated Chinese than a complete unacculturated German, Scotsman, Malay, and Chinese all at once. Preserving your "whole ancestry" isn't the right choice for everyone, and I'd venture to say even for most, no matter what the modern multiracial political movement has to say about it.

T.H. Lien Monday, May 13, 2002 at 01:49:34 (PDT)

I'm Chinese Hawaiian, with a bit of Irish and a bit of Cherokee. It made me laugh to see it in parenthesis.

How do I know we are a bit of Irish and a bit of Cherokee? Like most polynesians, are family is very much into genealogy. In addition like most people with Hawaiian blood, we approximated our blood quantum in order to qualify for the Hawaiian Homeland Program (it's a program similar to the reservations the Native Americans were put on. They give us the most undesireable land for an inexpensive long lease).

I think the culture that exists on the continental US is mixture of different cultures. There have been many immigrants to this country, and most have assimilated to the mix. Some have kept more of their original culture, but most have totally assimilated to the big mix. I also believe that there are regions in the continental US where the are distinct differences in the mix. I guess an example of it is the way people speak english differently in different regions, and the way different regions dress.

Hawaii today is the same. Some people don't realize we have our own Hawaiian language, which is not the pigeon english people speak today. There is a culture that exists in Hawaii that is not the true Hawaiian Culture, but is rather a culture based on a mixture of asian, euro, and polynesian cultures that have coexisted here for some time now.

There was a time when many cultures came to Hawaii for one reason or another but the only common language they had was english, and none of the groups spoke english particularly well. But it was the common language they shared, so the pigeon english spoken in Hawaii today is the result of these groups communicating back then. If you hear some one speaking pigeon english it's common to hear filipino words, chinese words, portagee words, japanese words, hawaiian words, etc. In addition you might not understand the way the english words are pronounced because these groups didn't pronounce vowels the same way as americans. There is also a difference with sentence structure and conjugations. But if you are local, it all makes perfect sense. Depending on what island and what area on the island the pigeon differs slightly.

Enough about Hawaii.

Can families be bi-cultural? I don't think most families can be, whether they are Euro, Asian, African, Latino, or Polynesian. They can live parts of both cultures, but not totally be two distinct cultures. The reason being is that they live in america, and sooner or later they have to assimilate in some degree to the mix and make some concessions to the america way. I don't like it, but there is no denying it.

Some of my aunts and uncles only speak Hawaiian in the house and whenever my cousins are with them, my cousins have to speak Hawaiian. Like Officer Airdale(airdales are good hunting dogs)has done with his children. It made me smile to read his story about McD's. Some of my uncles and aunties are the same way. When my cousins are with them, they have to speak Hawaiian. If they talk to someone who cannot speak or understand Hawaiian, they have to say it in Hawaiian first and then translate it to english. Of course they only do that when they are with their parents, when the parents aren't around they will speak english to people. Among my siblings, my brother is the only one who is fluent in Hawaiian. I like the idea of teaching the children the language if you know it. Just remember you live in america, so eventually they have to have a good english base too.

Language is only one part of a culture or heritage, there are so many things we can pass on to the next generation. Don't limit yourself to what you pass on. If you really want to preserve a part of your culture, you'll find it. We have a wealth of knowledge in the older generations.

My wife was born and raised in mainland China. We don't have children yet, but when we do we decided to speak Chinese in the house with them like Officer Airdale's family speaks Japanese. We also plan on teaching them about their genealogy, and we won't leave out the bit of Irish and bit of Cherokee they too will have.

Officer Airdale was write about american's not knowing their original culture. I believe this is one reason why there is so much resentment towards recent immigrants and AA. A lot of them feel consciously or subconsciously that it's not fair for us to keep our original culture.

I will end here, there's too many things I want to say, but I won't open that can of worms.

Have a nice day, and be proud of who you are. As long as you are happy, what others think shouldn't matter anyway.

A hui hou.
Xie Xie Monday, May 13, 2002 at 01:35:26 (PDT)

We Asian Americans assimilate at too high a rate. Even more than other white ethnic groups such as Italians and Jews.

True. Assimilation=Progression to a Mainstream Society.

If you think about it, Asians have progressed into the American Society at a much faster rate than the Italians and Jews. It takes about only 1 generation for the Asians to assimilate into American Society. It took like 2 or 3 generations for the Jews to assimilate. The Italians are not even assimilated. They are beginning to....while many Asians have already done so...

Btw, both the Italians and the Jews were brought up with same environment and the same schools. But the output of these 2 groups were starkly different. Why? The Jews valued education while the Italians did not. This is the reason why the Jews' appreciation for education made them much more successful and domineering as a ethnic group than the Italians. This is also the reason why the Jews have assimilated into the American Society at a quicker rate than the Italians. This is another reason why the ASIANS have assimilated at a faster rate than the Jews. Our cultures which value the appreciation for learning, and with all the resources out there, allow us to progress quickly to the mainstream society(the previous generation of Jews were not as blessed as today's Asians when it came to resources).

The comparision between the successes of the Jews and Italians can be compared with the Asians and the Latinos. Many working class Asians and Latinos are brought up in the same environment and same schools, both are America's fasting growing minority groups, but just look at the progress of the Asians and the Latinos...we know which group has made more progress.

Another reason for our fast progression is that maybe our cultures are more similar to the White-Anglo culture than the Italian or Jewish cultures. Italians and Jews are very expressive and undomesticated in demeanor, while White-Anglos (including the Irish) are stoic and pale in comparision. Asians tend to be more on the stoic side with the Anglo Whites. There are exceptions tho..such as the Southern Chinese who are often very expressive and voluble. This is the reason why the Southern Chinese Americans are less assimilated than the Japanese Americans or the Korean Americans or even the Americans of Taiwanese or Northern Chinese ancestry.

The third reason is that many Asians are concentrated in the areas dominated by Whites(Anglo, French, German, Scot-Irish ancestry). On the other hand, Jews and Italians lived mostly in the big cities of the East Coast, and most of them kept to themselves in isolated neighborhoods.

Observer Sunday, May 12, 2002 at 17:59:50 (PDT)

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