Japanese American Identity & Self-Image | Asian American Poll

JAPANESE AMERICAN IDENTITY & SELF-IMAGE
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:14:00 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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Comments posted during the past year remain available for browsing.

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WHAT YOU SAY

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Navy LCDR airdale,

My family's been in this country for about five generations now. My ancestors fought in every war we've had in the last century. But when people ask me what I am and I say "American," I lose 'em.

If I say "Chinese AMerican" then they think I'm mixed. I have to tell peeps I'm "Chinese" so they don't get all confused. Anyhow, the point is, my family's been here forever, but peeps in this country keep reminding me I'm not American.
When I tell peeps that I don't like all the stereotyping of Asians in our media, they tell me whites get the same slack in Asia. They tell me, "well if I went to Japan it'd be bad for me [white ppl]." Well, I'm not just going to the U.S. - I live here. I'm not in a foriegn country. I'm home.

American gal Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 17:52:00 (PDT)

The question is, curious girl, will you commit yourself to LEARN the dialect of Chinese that your boyfriend's family speaks so that you and your potential husband and kids can speak Chinese in the house?

As for me, my wife is from Japan. My Japanese is self-taught. When I speak with my brother and sisters, it has to be in English, since our generation knows nothing but English.

Because I find it important to preserve the Japanese language, I learned it myself even before being stationed in Japan, and before I met my wife.

Today, even though I think in English, my Japanese sentences come out without formulating the sentences in my mind before speaking the sentence.

Our children go to preschool and elementary school and there, they speak English. In the home, they revert to Japanese. When they speak to me in English, I pretend that I don't understand so that they have to repest in Japanese.

Which language are they more proficient in? I do not know. I do know that when they talk in their sleep, the words are in Japanese.

Does this bilungual life confuse them? I thought it might. But once, a lady wrote to Ann Launders saying that the teacher at her daughter's preschool chastized her for speaking in French. Ann told her that to continue in French will assure her daughter's bilingual skill when she becomes an adult. It was this Ann Launder's advice that motivated me to speak Japanese in the home from the beginning.

In California, there are thousands of children of Mexican migrant workers who go to public schools and whose parents cannot speak English. Eventually, they grow up to be fully functional bilingual adults who speaks unaccented English. I work with many persons who are fully bilingual that come from that Mexican migrant background.

So curious girl, it is up to you to learn the Chinese dialect NOW so that when those children are born, you can reinforce your children's potential to be bilungual by communicating to them in both English and Chinese.

Are you willing to commit yourself to that task?

Navy LCDR airdale Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 13:36:51 (PDT)

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