Nathaniel Savory: Why I Am Japanese?

American Hawaii Hawaii is known for its beautiful beaches, it’s nice year-round weather, and its culture. Thousands of vacationers come to Hawaii each year to get away from the stressful city and relax. But do they know how cruel the Americans were to the natives? Do they know how we corrupted their culture and their religion? Do they know how Hawaii really became a state? Probably not. When most people think of Hawaii, they think of happy Hawaiian babes hula dancing and palm trees swaying in the warm breeze. Hawaii has still held on to many of their traditions although they were invaded by Americans. But you have to go to a museum to see their old way of life. Hawaii is now populated mostly by Americans.

Keiko said, “ I was born here. I don't even speak Japanese. Still, all these people, everywhere I go...they hate me.” (114)

The country of Japan is an island nation, which is separated from Mainland Asia by the Sea of Japan. (“Facts about Japan”)

Mine Okubo was an American citizen of Japanese descent, artist, and writer who was one of over a hundred thousand Japanese people that were forced into internment camps for “protective purposes” during World War II. In her graphic novel Citizen 13660, which was named after the number designated to her family unit, Okubo documents her journey from her initial relocation to Tanforan Assembly Center after the Pearl Harbor attack, up until she is finally granted release from the Central Utah Relocation Project in Topaz. She tells her story through sketches and storytelling due to recording devices being confiscated as contraband. Okubo’s original motive behind this novel was to inform her friends living outside the camps of her living situation, however, it has now transformed into a historical reference to the often glossed over history of Japanese internment camps in the United States. Okubo’s use of visuals gives the novel more clarity in delivering her story by giving the reader an additional source of information to digest. She also explicitly states in the preface that she believes some form of reparations and an apology are due to those who were evacuated and interned and that things could be learned from this tragic episode for it may happen again.

I first came to Japan knowing nothing about the language and the culture. Much more the issues the nation was facing. Most of the things I knew were taught to me by my father and I wasn’t intellectual nor educated enough to form my own opinions, thus, all my thoughts aligned with his, a typical conservative/ nationalist Japanese. As an individual of multinational backgrounds, I felt this strong desire to prove my Japanese-ness to others and indeed I tried.

Do you know what a Japan family goes through once they move in America back then? In the novel,” Under the Blood Red Sun”, Graham Salisbury writes about a Japanese family moving into Hawaii and what activities and hobbies they do. The Japanese army attacks Pearl Harbor and because of this event their racer pigeons and Tomi’s Papa and Grandpa are taken away. The author teaches the reader about how everything isn’t fair, bravery, and to treat others the way you want to be treated.

Hisaye Yamamoto, a Japanese American author, composed a collection of short stories titled, Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories. These collection of short stories describes the experiences Japanese Americans undergo while residing in America. The Japanese American culture that Yamamoto introduces has three types of generations. The first one being, the Issei, the second one being, the Nisei and the third one being, the Sensei. All three Japanese generations are described in Yamamoto’s short story cycle, which shows the relationship between Japanese Americans as well as with other ethnic groups. The major themes Yamamoto highlights within her novel defines the idea of what it is like to be Japanese American through the difficulties that Japanese immigrants face in America, the cultural separation between these immigrants and their children as well as restrictions that Japanese women face within their traditional Japanese culture.

Startled by the surprise attack on their naval base at Pearl Harbor and anxious about a full-fledged Japanese attack on the United States’ West Coast, American government officials targeted all people of Japanese descent, regardless of their citizenship status, occupation, or demonstrated loyalty to the US. As my grandfather—Frank Matsuura, a nisei born in Los Angeles, California and interned in the Granada War Relocation Center (Camp Amache)—often

To be a Japanese immigrant in the early 1900s was difficult but after December 7, 1941 things only got worse. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked the United States naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “Although conflict had been underway in both Europe and Asia for years, the United States did not formally enter the hostilities until December 8, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously declared the attack on Pearl Harbor ‘a day which we live in infamy’ and asked Congress for a declaration of war” (Wu and Izumi). After the attack on Pearl Harbor “race became increasingly associated with loyalty in the United States” (Harth 254). “What Japan had done was blamed on Japanese Americans” (Wu 2). On February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 granted the secretary of war and his commanders the power “to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded” (Executive Order 9066). “Although the text of Executive Order 9066 did not specifically mention Japanese Americans, it was intended to apply to them exclusively” (G. Robinson and G. Robinson 4).

In 1869, the first Japanese Immigrants arrived in California in an attempt to escape the Meiji restoration, which forced them out of their houses. Many joined them in America after that, forming the first generation of Japanese-Americans, the Issei. Those immigrants then formed families and gave birth to the second generation, the Nisei. However, the cultural differences between the Issei and the Nisei, who were all born in America, created an important gap between the two generations. The short story “Seventeen Syllables”, through the relation between Rosie, a Nisei young girl, and Tome Hayashi, her mother, is a good depiction of this issue.

The Korematsu Vs. U.S. Court case was held and decided during World War 2 between the time after the attack on pearl harbor, the decision that take place at that time were exaggerated and wrong during this time the american people were lead to believe that people of japanese ancestry were a threat to the security of the west coast do to wartime hysteria and false accusations of Espionage.

Japanese immigrants left their homelands for destinations in the United States as early as the 1790s. More than 100,000 people filtered into employment in the sugar cane fields of Hawaii, where the pull of work and good wages offered promising economic opportunity. By 1860, many Americans owned sugar plantations, who - aided by the United States military, attempted colonialization of Hawaii, against their will – and in an 1887 treaty, established a naval base at Pearl Harbor. On the mainland, immigrants arrived in numbers surpassing 200,000 during the period between 1900 – 1920. While the Japanese competed with “native-born” or immigrant residents in both locations, especially in California, they faced distrust and discrimination in seeking profitable livelihood.

Most of the Japanese Americans were American born, or Nisei (nee-say). Some of the families hoisted the American flag every day and many of their young men had enlisted in the armed services. They all served in the same unit serving on the European front with honor and distinction.

Japans history dates back almost 53,000 years and is filled with interesting and fascinating events. Most of Japans actions have left the major world powers in the world stunned. The base of this amazing country is astonishing just by itself. The base is a bunch of active and large under water volcanoes. Japans uniqueness from the rest of the world ranges from its culture to its very interesting history to the change in government every few hundred years and their trading dilemma with petroleum and their assortment of fish that they export. Japan as a country is so very appealing and kind compared to the rest of the world its no wonder that it’s geographically separate from the rest of the world.

            Throughout history most of Asia has been viewed as strange and exotic by western cultures.  This is especially true for Japan, because, unlike other Asian nations Japan was isolated from western culture until around the year 1542 when the Portuguese landed at Tanegashima (Bryant 14).  There are several reasons for Japan’s solitude, most of them geographical.  One of the primary reasons is what the Japanese call kamikaze, or divine wind (Bryant 24).  These strong stormy winds blew across the waters surrounding Japan, making it quite difficult to approach the island.  Japan is also quite far away from most western nations, especially since the ships had to sail around Africa to get to it.  When the