2. The Postwar Nisei: Biculturalism and Transnational Identities

Abstract

This chapter looks at the postwar second-generation shin-nisei, who are the children of post-1965 Japanese immigrants and came of age in a multicultural and increasingly globalized America at a time when Japan’s image had greatly improved and discrimination against Japanese had considerably lessened. Though culturally assimilated, the shin-nisei have also maintained the ethnic heritage of their parents, and are thus bicultural, as well as bilingual. They have developed transnational identifications with both the United States and Japan and are actively engaged in their ethnic homeland.