Mou hitotsu no Nichibei-Kankeishi: Funso to kyocho no naka no Nikkei Amerikajin (Another Japan-U.S. relation: Japanese Americans in conflicts and cooperation)

Abstract

Recently, a growing number of scholars in Japan have taken interest in Asian American history, and Masako Iino is one of the most prominent figures in that development. In this general survey of Japanese American experiences, Iino skillfully crafts a history of the racial minority from the late nineteenth century to the present within the historical transformations of U.S.-Japan relations. The book “attempts to understand how the bilateral relations influenced Japanese immigrants and their descendants, and conversely what impact the latter had on the former” (pp. 2–3). Intended for the layperson in Japan, the narrative offers the basics of Japanese American history, albeit in a diasporic context, with snapshots of major historical events. Theoretical inquiries or conceptualizations are not the primary agenda of Iino's project. Professional U.S. historians may also find it frustrating that the author keeps the notes to a minimum in consideration of the targeted readership. Yet careful readers will note that the work actually draws from an impressive range of sources— primary and secondary, written and oral, and Japanese and English. Overall, this synthesis represents solid historical scholarship, which elegantly weaves the voices of individual agents into the complex entanglements between the American ethnic community and the two nation-states.