Women In Japan

Throughout time, the role that Women had in the early twentieth century to the present has changed drastically and it has changed for the better. Japanese American Women residing in the United States, has experienced the evolution of their culture, tradition, values and their role in society. However though it seems as if there is no time in this ever so rapid society, they still continue to pass down culture and tradition through each generation. Some key terms that are crucial in order to understand the essay are, Issei, or the first generation, Nisei, the second generation ,and Sansei, known as the third generation.Over time the Women slowly moved away form being the average Homemaker and transforming into a respected and valued member of society.

Part two included the following four chapters that the Dower depicted the characteristics and assumptions that Westerners had on Japanese in particular, but included other races likewise. Chapter four examined Westerners’ association of Japanese with animals, restated that they were considered differently than their German and Italian allies, who were still considered as “people” and treatment dependant on individual behaviors. These discrimination applied to Japanese Americans, who were American citizens, also (Dower 78, 82). Chapter five studied reasons the term “lesser men” and “supermen” were given to the Japanese. Before Pearl Harbor, Westerners devalued the Japanese culture, for not having “uniqueness”, as well as its military strength, because of unimpressive performance in imperialism in its occupied colonies (i.e. China, Korea) (95, 98). Because of these arrogant

Both “Naomi” and “The neighbor’s wife and mine” are representative stories of westernization of Japanese culture. Naomi was written by Junichiro Tanizaki and published in newspaper in 1924. It demonstrates aestheticism and created the word naomism that represents the modern girl. The neighbor’s wife and mine is also a story that shows how Japanese people were longing to be like westerners. Both are stories of transition from classic Japanese culture to modern western style culture. I would like to describe how each story represents modernity and the difference of each women modernization.

During World War II, approximately 120,000 people of Japanese descent who lived on the Pacific Coast of the US were sent to internment camps after the bombing at Pearl Harbor by Japan on December 7th, 1941. American citizens made up 62% of those who were interned. And even though these American citizens were being unconstitutionally blocked off from the rest of society, the majority of these citizens still declared that they remained forever loyal to America. Some of the recollections left behind by the internees of their experiences at these camps include letters to their loved ones, diaries, pictures, and even full plays. And while living in often cramped, and poorly maintained conditions, the internees still tried to lead normal lives

Ronald Takaki told his experiences of military men, immigrants, and the government during World War II. The United States was hypocritical having ethnic groups fight for freedom but not treated as equal individuals nor having full access to the “Four Freedoms”. (Takaki, 7) As articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on January 6, 1941, the Four Freedoms are freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Equally important, Ruth Benedict argued that Hitler’s Anti-Semitism required Americans to challenge their own racism. (Takaki, 6) There is no master race, as Hitler argued. Everyone is from one race: the human race. During World War II racism was not only in the service it was also still going on with civilians. As World War II took place, Takaki expressed his feelings about the military men, the immigrants, and the government because the United States was very hypocritical. All of this can be seen in the WWII experiences of Japanese Americans, African-Americans and women.

Women in Western Europe and Japan compare and contrast religiously, politically, and economically. Religiously, women in Western Europe were better off with the advantage of becoming a nun than women in Japan were who lost their role in Buddhist and Shintu rituals. Politically, feminist thinkers were allowing women to have a greater say politically but there were fewer female rulers or regents in Europe. Japan who had female empresses prior to Koken was less inclined to have success. Economically, women in Japan could not inherit land but were able to be in the merchant class, while women in Europe could also inherit land; they were better off and more economically engaged than Japan with the running and working of a craft guild.

Women have historically had a rocky relationship with governmental, cultural, religious, and social rights. The Women’s Rights movement has been in effect since approximately 1792, with the publication of the first feminist work, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by British writer Mary Wollstonecraft” (“Women’s Rights Movement”). While social changes have occurred and more progressive laws have been put into place throughout the years, there is still not equality between the sexes. Additionally, gender roles in different countries differ greatly. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the major causes and concerns of the Women’s Rights movements throughout the decades, as well as denote the differences between more progressive societies and their less accepting counterparts.

Soseki lived through the Mejeii Restoration and more than likely encountered many different Japanese views of Westerners. Here, it seems as if Soseki is playing devil’s advocate to popular belief and describing this particular Westerner as non-threatening and willing to take up Japanese customs and ways of living. Soseki may have been trying to reveal the dominant belief (as described above by Duus) may have not been the only sentiment of whites in Japanese society. In fact, Soseki may be trying to reveal there were Westerners who successfully accepted Japanese traditions and customs. The narrator’s awe of this Westerner seems to reveal and highlight this point by his surprise that Westerners like this existed who were willing to adopt Japanese culture in a non-threatening fashion.

In the 19th century, technological improvements enabled many European nations to enlarge their power and have greater impact on other parts of the world. Those impacts are clearly demonstrated in the book Abina and the Important Men and the source Fifty Years of New Japan. Abina and the Important Men views on how a young woman from Gold Coast, West Africa in the 1870s failed to declare her own freedom in a local British dominated court. The source Fifty Years of New Japan demonstrates how Japan had modernized in fifty years with adoption of European cultural practices. Because the Gold Coast was a crown colony of the British empire, change made by European culture and power was in favor of the interest of Britain. Indigenous people respond to such changes differently based on their different social status. Japan, on the other hand, was independently adopting western cultural practices for modernization, so Japan was able to better improve herself by learning about the Western Civilization.

The Japanese picture brides’ American-born children who rejected their mothers’ culture and language remind me of myself and my own failed efforts to suppress my cultural identity at Marin Academy as a way to fit in with my peers, invoking a great feeling of empathy within me because I understand what it is like to want to feel included within a greater community. Julie Otsuka reveals the stark change that begins to occur in the mother’s children when she writes, “They preferred their own company to ours and pretended not to understand a word that we said… They insisted on eating bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast instead of bean-paste soup” (74-75). By “pretend[ing] not to understand” what their mothers are saying, the children are breaking the only form of communication

But they are at least my own. I did not borrow them for the sake of convenience as a man might a dress suit” (Soseki 128). The contemporary values of the West were not meant for Japan; it was similar to a suit that the Japanese put on in order to modernize but it just did not fit. In the attempt to move forward, Japan adopted Western ideas despite the shadow of the past and the traditions still being there; Western modernity provided no means to overcome that shadow, and that is what Soseki is trying to highlight through the miscommunications between characters and the isolation that resulted from that. Sensei even writes to the narrator, “You and I belong to different eras, and so we think differently.

Japan, forced to rebuild itself from the ashes of defeat, was occupied by Americans in the aftermath of World War II. Although it was commonly perceived through the victors’ eyes, in John W. Dower’s novel, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, Dower summarized his studies of Occupied Japan and the impact of war on Japanese society in the view of both the conqueror and the defeated. He demonstrated the “Transcending Despair” (p. 85) of the Japanese people through their everyday lives in the early stages of the occupation. In chapter three, Dower attempted to comprehend the hopes and dreams – as well as the hopelessness and realities – of the Japanese who were in a state of exhaustion and despair. In chapter four, due partly to the food shortage, crime rates rose as people began to steal. Women turned to prostitution while men turned to the black market. Some Japanese were so desperate that they stripped out of their clothing and exchanged it for food. Dower vividly conveyed the depth of loss and confusion that Japan experienced. On the other hand, Kasutori culture flourished in the 1950s as sexually oriented entertainments dominated the commercial world. In chapter five, the people of Japan turned wartime slogans into slogans for reconstruction and peace. They used witty defeat jokes as a way to escape despair. Even though they were defeated, the people of Japan pushed through the misery and sought to reinvent their identity as illustrated through prostitution, the black market, and “Bridges of Language” (p. 168).

Japan is an unique oriental country in many aspects, especially in politics and economy, both western practices and traditional nationalism are coexisted in this country. The period 1890-1940 was just followed the Meiji restoration, and was typical in the history of Japan, at that time, Japan was on the way from a feudal country to a capitalistic country, called modernization. Many western practices were being more and more adopted, however, at the same time, traditional rules still had strong influences in Japan. Under this background, this report will discuss the Japanese cultural factors during 1890-1940 that influenced the disclosure

The culture of a place is an integral part of its society whether that place is a remote Indian village in Brazil or a highly industrialized city in Western Europe. The culture of Japan fascinates people in the United States because, at first glance, it seems so different. Everything that characterizes the United States--newness, racial heterogeneity, vast territory, informality, and an ethic of individualism-- is absent in Japan. There, one finds an ancient and homogeneous society, an ethic that emphasizes the importance of groups, and a tradition of formal behavior governing every aspect of daily living, from drinking tea to saying hello. On the surface at least, U.S. and Japanese

I have really been on Return of Kings for some time, perusing and relishing my reasonable share of practical knowledge, sardonic hilarity, not to mention women bashing. So much of women thrashing. I probably would not criticize this since I also do same, I can understand the disappointment. Conversely, I know lots of men disparage women in general but yet start compliment Eastern Asian ladies. Examples of these countries are Thailand, Philippines, Singapore, et cetera.