A Different Mirror By Takaki Essay

After I readied Chapter one of Takaki’s book ‘A different Mirror’, he let me have a lot of different reviews about American history. In this book, the author Ronald Takaki focus study race and ethnicity inclusively and comparatively, and he writes " we will focus on several of them that illustrate and illuminate the landscape of our society's diversity." I am from China and I am an Asian American just like Takaki. People always thoughts American’s people is white or black. I remember when I was in The US Army, A group people talked about who they are and where are they from. One white man said I am an American, he looked at me said you are Chinese and he looked at other person said you are Mexican. Why he think he is an American, and another rice is not an American. Most of the American textbook does not have a lot of information about multicultural, but

In the United States World War II has been one of the most remembered wars of all time. Acclaimed historian Ronald Takaki asserts that for many Americans, World War II was fought for a “double victory”: on the battlefront as well as on the home front. Takaki’s book Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II reminds the audience that there was much, much more happening at home and on the frontlines during World War II than in the battlefield. Takaki presents a strong central argument; it illuminates the incongruity of America's own oppressive behavior toward minorities at home, even while proclaiming the role in World War II as a fight against oppression abroad. It also pays tribute to the determination and perseverance of ethnically diverse Americans in their two-front war against prejudice and fascism. In addition Takaki tells the story through the lives of ethnically diverse Americans: Japanese Americans who felt betrayed by their own country when families were sent to internment camps; For African Americans, the war for freedom had to be fought in their country’s own backyard; a Navajo code talker who uses his complex native language to transmit secret battle messages and confound the Japanese, while his people are living in desperate poverty on a government reservation. Their dual struggle to defeat the enemy abroad and overcome racism at home gives the Double Victory its title and its texture.

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

Double Victory: Multicultural History of America in World War 11”, is a book written by Ronald Takaki was published in the early 2000s. Double Victory shows the wartime responses from many ethnic backgrounds as well as the war at home against racism and the war abroad against fascism. Takaki also shows the roles of; African-Americans, Native-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Asian-Americans, during the war and the sacrifices made for their country. In Double Victory, Takaki introduces different revisionist arguments that I will be discussing in this essay along with the connection it has to previous knowledge of the World War II era, and the relation it has to the understanding of the expansion and contraction of citizenship and equality throughout history.

In chapter 2 of the book, A Different Mirror, written by Ronald Takaki, the culture being represented are the Indians. While in chapter 3 of the book, Takkaki mainly discusses the cultures of the African American and English settlers of early America. Furthermore, in chapter 6 of the book, Takkaki explains the culture of the Irish and their migration to the United States. In a relevant lecture, which includes keywords such as: privilege, marginalization, and minoritization. In chapter 2, the material Takkaki discusses shows examples of how the Indians have shaped America into what it is today. In this chapter, Takkaki discusses how the English forced the Indians off their land and killing them in the process. While doing this, the English learned

Have you ever wondered how history repeats itself? Have you wondered the different ways your own country, America, has sabotaged their own people? Back in the 1800’s, Blacks weren't treated like whites were. Especially black woman because they were expected to not have jobs and be housewives. They were thought less of because of their race and some by their gender. Much like how about 100 years later, during WWⅡ, The whites Incarcerated Japanese and some Italian/German Immigrants because they were the same race as the enemy. In this essay, Japanese Americans and Mary Ann Shadd Cary will be compared and contrasted through history.

In the sixteenth chapter of A Different Mirror, Ronald Takaki reflects on the struggles that lead to the 'melting pot' that is America today. Beginning with Russian Jews, Takaki notes that a majority of these immigrants who fled from anti-Semitic hostilities were not Jewish by faith but rather by ethnicity after being prohibited from practicing their religion (406). Takaki further illustrates this by quoting Aleksandr A. Shlyen: "They started to beat the Jewishness out of Jews a long time ago, under the czars" (406). This is why America was presented as an opportunity to start fresh with religious freedom. Next, Takaki relates the desire of a fresh start to the Irish who were starving because of high unemployment during the Potato Famine.

Manifest Destiny, one of the most influential ideologies in American history, was used as the basis to justify almost-continuous conflict from the early- to the late-19th century (Greenberg 3). This conflict included the relentless displacement of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, a war of aggression against Mexico in 1846, and attacks on countries such as Canada, Cuba, and even Central America, by filibusters and military action to gain overseas colonies (Greenberg 10, 25, and 26). While Manifest Destiny first arose as a dominant ideology during the early nineteenth-century, the concept of American exceptionalism, the heart of this ideology, was older than the nation itself. This concept was taken by white Americans as proof that they, and their nation, were unique and marked by God for a special destiny (Greenberg, 5). It would be several decades before the advantages of American settlement would be presented to the world. One advantage being the Louisiana Purchase, which was the expansion westward.

“White men won, and white men wrote history”, he writes. Pointing out that white men have claimed the “American” name but have left the real Americans out of history. Therefore, Chris Ryder believes that what we’ve been taught is only “partial

When I first began the class, I was excited because I have always been interested in history although I have shied away from it. One of the books required for the class was A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki. With the introduction, the instructor gave of A Different Mirror, I could tell that this book would not be a collection of facts backed by data that tends to be a boring read but would actually be a book filled with dramatic events that would hold my attention and make me want to read more. Takaki’s book did not have a lot of data to support his opinion of these different races but instead seem to have information that supported the point he was trying to make to his reader. He often used folk songs, poetry, and memoirs to evoke the words and emotional state of ordinary people.

In the news there is never really a individual. The individual is twisted in a way where they always represent a certain group. Once they are in this group the news uses the master narrative to control the peoples thoughts and actions, making the viewers think a certain way. Just like the book A Different Mirror by Ronald Takaki states being “different, inferior, and unassimilable” you will be designated as “other”(P.4 line 18). due to the fact that some men see woman as inferior beings, all woman get grouped up into that one category and

Minorities in the United States, throughout its history have not been provided the equal opportunity to thrive and have a successful life. As the settlers began moving west, the native american lives were destroyed. Their lands were taken, they were killed off by war and diseases and were forced into smalls areas of land less fertile than those they once lived on. Unfair treaties like the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe, where the “federal government retains ultimate ownership over the land, which has been “leased” to Native Americans and their heirs forever” (Ames and Mikdashi 23). Another famous time in US history that today is not really talked about that showed the effects of the expansion of colonialism was that of the “trail of tears”. According to Evelyn Nakano Glenn, whenever there was conflict over land by the settlers moving west,

I have learned a variety of information and knowledge about difference from the article, A Different Mirror. I have discovered more history of multicultural America which I virtually was not much knowledgeable about. Many different set of Americans were treated differently and encountered greatly distinctive experiences during centuries. The article provides a factual and concrete origins of the America of nationalists far as the Mexican Americans, Japanese America, Native Indians of America, African American, Chinse America, Irish America, and a host of other ethnicities of America. By the article addressing diverse stories of different groups, it opened my eyes in terms of learning the history of America itself, how society perceive particular

A bio-poem highlights biographical information about a subject, including their experiences, relationships, hopes, and interests. The book provides you with an example of a bio-poem. Once you have completed reading the example, please complete your own.

A Distant Mirror connects fourteenth century life with modern, proving that history is doomed to repeat itself. The economic arrangements of the fourteenth century are surprisingly similar to the policies that exist in the present day United States. Nobles earned exemption from direct taxation. They were still expected to pay aids and sales tax, however these taxes fed proportionately much more off of the poor than of the wealthy. While tax exemption is now associated with the lower classes, the wealthy of America are not required to pay taxes in a manner which is proportional to their earnings. This allows the wealthy keep a much greater portion of money, thus broadening the gap between classes. Allowing the same type of separation between