Yoshiko Uchida Character Analysis

Yoshiko Uchida has an insider perspective to this novel. Her parents were Japanese immigrants and Yoshiko was second-generation Japanese American, born in the United States. When she was about 20 years old, Japanese attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor in

Among this group of “Nisei” was the Uchida family from Berkeley, California. Yoshiko Uchida, the youngest daughter in the Uchida family was a senior at the University of California at Berkeley at the time of the attacks. Years later, Yoshiko became a prolific writer of children’s books (Sato 66). In her book, “Desert Exile”, published in 1982, Uchida gave a personal account of the evacuation and incarceration of her family during World War II (Sato 66). Uchida’s book raises awareness to the specter of racial prejudice and the hope that no other group of Americans would have to endure this type of injustice and violation of their human rights (Sato 66).

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.

'Even with all the mental anguish and struggle, an elemental instinct bound us to this soil. Here we were born; here we wanted to live. We had tasted of its freedom and learned of its brave hopes for democracy. It was too late, much too late for us to turn back.' (Sone 124). This statement is key to understanding much of the novel, Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone. From one perspective, this novel is an autobiographical account of a Japanese American girl and the ways in which she constructed her own self-identity. On the other hand, the novel depicts the distinct differences and tension that formed between the Issei and Nisei generations. Moreover, it can be seen as an attempt to describe the

After Japanese terrorist attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Americans have discriminated Japanese- Americans after their tremendous incident. Since the U.S. proclaimed a war zone, they decided to send Japanese-Americans to internment camps to keep themselves “secure”. The U.S. also sent Japanese-Americans to internment camps to make it accessible for the military to find Japanese spies. Some people accepted the execution the U.S. took to clarify this situation and some disagreed with the execution. In the excerpt “Camp Harmony,” from the autobiography Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, a Japanese-American, the purpose is to share the experience of a Nisei daughter who had to go to a Japanese internment camp with her family. The

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

Before you know it, spending enough time in a country that is foreign to you, with their custom surrounding you everyday, you will realize you are one with the culture. Heidi Julavits’, “Turning Japanese” entertains the reader with her story and experience after college. Julavits graduated from Dartmouth during the Gulf War when recession was prominent and the feeling of uncertainty was common throughout. Because of the ambiguity of her future, she decided to travel to Japan and teach English, in search of self-awareness.

Yossarian demonstrates real empathy for others, most notably with his feelings about Snowden. He eventually develops a more callous exterior, but he cannot cope with the suffering of characters--like Snowden's death. Also, he consistently and fervently rebels against a situation he sees as unjust. Though he usually explains this rebellion in selfish terms, he is fighting a repressive and sadistic system that affects everyone in the military, which makes him a symbol or icon of rebellion for the rest of the men. He inspires them in an unusual way by his

mother (Fryberg 464). When exposed to images depicting Natives in this purportedly positive light, Native Americans reported not only lower self esteem, but a diminished view of possible selves. The similarities between the stereotypes of Natives as described Fryberg’s study and Asian Americans in Kubo and the Two Strings as well as the mediums through which these stereotypes are perpetuated for both ethnic groups is concerning. While Kubo and the Two Strings may intend to honor Japanese culture, it is yet another culture piece depicting Asians as “frozen in the past”; by reminding Asians in the audience of the limited ways in which they are seen by mainstream society, they are harmed. Through this subtle yet detrimental misrepresentation,

I firmly believe that most conflict and confusion between any two country’s citizens is, in part, created by a lack of understanding of the other country’s culture, and the willingness to make assumptions based on word of mouth and stereotypes. These discrepancies, as a whole, reflect on the entire country who creates them, and can create a barrier that prevents better relations from forming even on a national level. Beliefs about Japan, both romanticized and remotely negative, have particularly been ingrained into our culture for several generations. Japanese culture is considered confusing to many people in the United States, often because they receive an over-exaggerated idea of it without any explanation as to why it’s a thing, leading them to believe it’s simply an irrational phenomena. Thus a stereotype is

We see many similarities and difference between Japanese and American people culturally. Beginning with the societal expectation of woman in both cultures, we see a similarity between the expectation of them in the house and now a rise of them in the work force. In both countries as well, they are looked upon as a lesser version of men; we see this in how woman are shamed in both countries for being a woman. The best examples of this is “slut shaming” woman for what they wear and the decision they make, forcing women to hate their sexuality. Shaming has been a vibrant part of many societies, the most notable being “food shaming” in egalitarian nomadic societies to prevent anyone person from becoming too powerful. The same logic is used in both

Yossarian’s story makes up most of the book because he is the protagonist. Although he is not without flaw, Yossarian has many characteristics that mark him as "good." He looks out for his friends even when the favor is not returned. He refuses to kill anyone in cold blood, even though it would solve most of his problems. Also, unlike the bureaucracy, he mourns the death of his fellow

A Genealogy of ‘Japanese’ Self-Images written by Dr. Eiji Oguma, a Japanese historical sociologist, in 1995, was the first book to thoroughly break down the assumption that Japanese perceived themselves to be an ethnically homogeneous nation-state during the Meiji period and during World War 2 (WW2). Prior to the publication of this book, there was a generally accepted narrative among liberal scholars that the pre-war Japanese Empire and its people believed in the myth of homogeneity, which was supposedly the source of their colonialism, discrimination against Koreans and Chinese and their military aggression in WW2. According to Oguma’s extensive analysis of government policies, academic debates and news articles from the Meiji to post-WW2 periods, he convincingly argues that the dominant narrative regarding Japanese self-identity during the pre-war era was that Japanese considered themselves to be

In many ways, Japan has been looked upon as a strangely homogeneous society for much of its modern history. And for some, it stands as one of the most homogeneous nation in the world. However, when looking at Japan as a whole, and considering whether or not it homogeneity is a problem, or just another cultural phenomenon, one must look towards the root cause of homogeneism in Japan. In Japan’s past, it has has been questioned, as well as assumed, that the growth of Japans homogeneous viewpoint was put forward by the government of Japan, and was done so by circulating false accusations of its lineage. Which these false stories of lineage, Japan has grown in its ethnocentric views and ways. Ethnocentrism, or

Japan is seen by many in the West as a mysterious, homogenous culture where traditional values and a long history stretch from time immemorial into practices today. What is especially problematic with this view (beyond issues of the essentialization of Japanese culture) is that many Japanese people hold this same belief (Stanlaw 2004; Block and Cameron 2002). Nihonjinron, or theories of Japanese people for Japanese people is a popular literature genre that advocates for the uniqueness of “Japaneseness”(Stanlaw 2004). However, in a country that now more than ever is being influenced by globalization, a process in which “social, economic, political, cultural, and demographic” changes that take place within nations cannot be understood without looking at the relations worldwide (Kearney 1995:547; Block and Cameron 2002), the homogeneity of Japanese culture is being challenged (dubbed by some as the “crumbling of the monolith” (Noguchi and Fotos 2001)). Of particular importance is the role of language in these processes. Language is an interdependent and inherent part of social life (Schieffelin and Ochs 1986), “our very sense of who we are, where we belong and why, and how we relate to those around us” (Llamas and Watt 2010: 1), “a definition of human beings in the world,” (Woolard and Schieffelin 1994:56) and interpretations go on. What all of these have in common is that social reality is inseparable from language. As such, language socialization, language ideologies, and