Abstract
This paper reflects on ways in which intergenerational familial experience of the Japanese American World War II mass incarceration may have differentially affected the ethnic and racial identity development of multiracial Sansei (third generation Japanese Americans). I begin with a brief review of the literature related to the effects of the camps on Nisei, integrating psychological understandings of racial and ethnic identity development, contextual history, and research on the psychological effects; I focus here on effects for Nisei that have been connected to their intergenerational interactions: distancing from Japanese American heritage and identity, silence about the camp experience, and the negotiation of racism and discrimination. I turn then to the primary focus of the paper: Using a combination of autoethnographical reflection, examples from qualitative interviews, and literature review, I engage in reflective exploration of two ways in which intergenerational effects of the camp experience influenced Sansei racial and ethnic identities that vary among monoracial and multiracial Sansei: familial transmission of Japanese American culture by Nisei to Sansei, and the intergenerational effects and transmission of racial discrimination and racial acceptance. I conclude with reflections on intergenerational healing within Japanese American families and communities, and reflections on the relation of these dynamics to current issues of racial justice more generally.
Highlights
The WWII Japanese American mass incarceration is often seen as the defining event in terms of cultural, group, and personal views of what it means to be Japanese in the United States, especially for
Hirabayashi 2008; Lee 2015; Schumacher-Matos and Grisham 2012) “internment” or “relocation” are often used, these are technically incorrect and I agree with other authors that argue that these terms fail to capture either the intent or the effect
This paper examines these effects, and it considers the ways in which these effects might vary for multiracial Sansei, given the ways that ethnocultural transmission and racial discrimination are differentially experienced in relation to the dominant European American community as well as in relation to the Japanese and Asian American communities and their attitudes towards multiracial Asian Americans
Summary
The WWII Japanese American mass incarceration is often seen as the defining event in terms of cultural, group, and personal views of what it means to be Japanese in the United States, especially for. Ethnic and racial identity are affected by larger societal and historical events, especially those that are closely tied to issues of race and ethnicity, such as the World War II incarceration camps This paper examines these effects, and it considers the ways in which these effects might vary for multiracial Sansei, given the ways that ethnocultural transmission and racial discrimination are differentially experienced in relation to the dominant European American community as well as in relation to the Japanese and Asian American communities and their attitudes towards multiracial Asian Americans. Japanese American and/or multiracial individuals in the developmental (childhood and adolescent) lives of Sansei; this agrees with Nagata’s (1993) findings that East coast and Californian Sansei differ in their reactions to the internment as well as Mass’s (1992) findings that location and community affect self-concept development in multiracial Japanese Americans As this example demonstrates, many variables other than mono- vs multiracial familial composition can create differences between groups as well as within groups. In addition to the familial and intergenerational cultural, racial, and camp related experiences that are discussed here, Sansei ethnic and racial identities would have been shaped by the historical movements for redress and, more generally, for civil rights and ethnic studies
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