Japanese American Identity & Self-Image | Asian American Poll

JAPANESE AMERICAN IDENTITY & SELF-IMAGE
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:13:58 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.

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WHAT YOU SAY

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

Like the Editor asked, lets go back to JA self-image.

Ok.

I think that because I am a 3rd generation AJA who can speak, read and write Japanese, I have a self image that is greater than someone who is of German Ancestry that cannot speak German, since I speak German as well.

So while they claim that we are Americans first and that we should not hypenate our identities into Japanese-American, or Mexican-American etc, they still use the term "American" to denote "white".

An example is what I used before. If someone says that the babe has classical American looks, they mean white, nothing else.

This despite President Truman's assertion that "Americanism is a matter of the mind and the hart, it isn't nor never was a matter of race or ancestry".

Physical Self-image? White men of the same age look older than me. Their hair turns gray faster and they sunburn easier. True, JA men are physically smaller and shorter than whites, but not I. I stand 6ft tall.

Intellectual self image?
My parents told me that in order to be treated equal to whites in American society, I must not be equal to them academically, I must SURPASS them.

And this I did. BS, MBA, JD.

I have never had a self image problem as a JA in American society. I felt that we have been enriched BECAUSE we have retained our culture.
Navy LCDR airdale Saturday, June 29, 2002 at 09:14:02 (PDT)

Curious girl,

You are pissed off? I guess I touched a "sore spot" huh? deja vu.

Yes, your people have a long history of thinking they are intellectually superior. Facts are facts.

Once you said that you find my post slightly condescending. Now they piss you off. So what? Live with it. This is an Asian American webpage and we are not obligated to sugar-coat anything not to your liking.

You don't like when I assume that you are intelligently superior, yet, you chastize me for suggesting that you learn Chinese now because the method worked for me. You got pised off at that suggestion by calling me an ass and that my way is not necessarily the ony way. So, besides your assertion that you are good at picking up languages, what way do you propose that would be successful? Nothing. That is why I suggested last minute learning from so-called 15 min tourist language books.

Others who post claim to be Chinese American only 1 generation removed from the homeland. They state that they struggle with the Chinese language. Yet, ignoring their plight, you think that it is easy and can be learned at the occasion when and if you marry this guy.

You think your easy grasp ability to learn Chinese DESPITE the stories of the struggle experienced by the Chinese Americans themselves is evidence that you think that you are "intelligently superior" than these folks.

Oh by the way, it was YOU who said that white people are scum and are all arrogant, not I.

So while you bitch that I put words in your mouth, please look in the mirror at your pretty freckled and sunburned lips and hear from your own voice that it is you who is a racist.

Oh by the way, MLK went into detail how difficult Chinese is. Yet, your reply to MLK post does not address how you intend to combat that difficulty.

Instead, your reply only discusses how pissed off you are at me. This shows what? That you are immune to Chinese language difficulty. Why? One can conclude that you think your are intellectually superior.

Your prior post said that this is the last time you will waste your time and energy speaking to me.

I seriously doubt it. Your people, felling intectually superior, must also have the last word.

Navy LCDR Airdale Saturday, June 29, 2002 at 08:55:52 (PDT)

Are there any Japantowns in the NYC area?
Jin Friday, June 28, 2002 at 19:02:24 (PDT)

MLK,

I can definitely understand that Chinese is much harder for me to learn than another Latin-derived language. But Airdale really pissed me off because of his comment about "my people having a long history of thinking they are intellectually superior". I never once stated that I was smarter than people of other races, and for him to make a blanket statement about my race is well, racist.
curious girl Thursday, June 20, 2002 at 13:53:14 (PDT)

[Okay, let's get back to talking about the Japanese American self-image. --Ed]

to curious girl

Chill sister...it's not that he's trying to insult you or say that white folks are scum or arrogant or anything like that, it's that he's trying to impress upon you the relative difficulty of Asian languages in comparison to a romance language (anything with alphabets). Just because you can pick up Spanish or French or German easily doesn't mean you'll be able to pick up Chinese or Korean or Japanese as quickly. In fact, the pronunciation of most words would stump you at the onstart of the lessons unless you'd had previous tutoring at a very young age in at least one of the Asian languages where you're more familiar with the ways of tangling your tongue and lips around odd pronunciations. Say it slightly off and you've said something else entirely. In essence, if you start now, you might just be able to make yourself relatively understood by the time you get married. Except that, as I pointed out earlier, if you learned the wrong Chinese dialect (there are hundreds! but I find that Mandarin is actually easier for me to pronounce correctly than Cantonese...I have no clue why), you've basically wasted your time because your man won't understand you anyway, and you'll have to just write the characters out to him if you wanted him to understand your Chinese. This was what my paternal grandfather did anytime other Chinese herbal medicine men came to see him because he spoke a very very uncommon Chinese dialect (I have no idea what it is now because he's dead and no one else spoke the language but him). They would quietly communicate in the written Chinese language for hours upon end about the different herbs and ways to cure folks (all boring stuff, but I guess to them, it was interesting). Me, I don't know it at all. You could say I've lost part of my roots, except I have so many roots hanging off me that it would be difficult to keep them all alive and wiggling around.
MLK Thursday, June 20, 2002 at 00:27:25 (PDT)

Observer 1, just where in my previous posts is it that I ever state that I think I'm superior? I do not have a superiority complex. Anyone with a brain can see that this man is just goading me on for another round, he doesn't want to give up this stupid fight.
curious girl Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 13:37:26 (PDT)

Ah...I see that now, Navy LCDR airdale. I unfortunately didn't have the time that day to read the exchanges you two had previously yet also felt compelled to post my thoughts at the time.

I agree with you on the superiority complex.

Observer (1)...(I just noticed today that there was another person with this moniker....sorry about using it...) Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 17:14:05 (PDT)

Navy LCDR Airdale,

Why did you have to just come out of nowhwere and attack me? I haven't responded to your posts in weeks!! Get over it already, I did. Obviously I touched some sore spot. I suggest you check your local yellow pages for a therapist.

I never said that I could learn Chinese overnight or that it would be easy. I said that it would be my decision to learn it when I decided and that I thought I would be able to pick it up with relative ease as I have always been good with languages.

And WHO ARE YOU to make some gross assumption about me that I think I'm intellectually superior?? I never once said that in any of my posts. I think you must have an inferiority complex to accuse me of that. And accusing "my people"? Oh yes all of us white people are scum, we're all arrogant and racist, right? You have just insulted all of the white people on here with Asian spouses or girlfriends/boyfriends that honestly want to bridge the gap between our races.

This is the last time that I will waste any time or energy speaking to you.
curious girl Tuesday, June 18, 2002 at 14:06:17 (PDT)

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