Description
Book SynopsisTraces the contemporary ethnic experiences of Japanese AmericansAs one of the oldest groups of Asian Americans in the United States, most Japanese Americans are culturally assimilated and well-integrated in mainstream American society. However, they continue to be racialized as culturally Japanese foreigners simply because of their Asian appearance in a multicultural America where racial minorities are expected to remain ethnically distinct. Different generations of Japanese Americans have responded to such pressures in ways that range from demands that their racial citizenship as bona fide Americans be recognized to a desire to maintain or recover their ethnic heritage and reconnect with their ancestral homeland. In Japanese American Ethnicity, Takeyuki Tsuda explores the contemporary ethnic experiences of Japanese Americans from the second to the fourth generations and the extent to which they remain connected to their ancestral cultural heritage. He also places Japanese Americans in
Trade Review"In drawing and reflecting upon the voices and experiences of different generational cohorts, Tsuda not only fills a void in Japanese American studies but expands our very understanding of the concept of 'ethnic heritage.' Adeptly parsing processes of assimilation, transnationalism, racialization, and multicultural discourse, Tsuda engages the factors that shape the retention and refashioning of ancestral culture." -- Michael Omi,University of California, Berkeley
"Using the keyword `generation, Tsuda deftly explores notions of transnational ethnicity among contemporary Japanese Americans, moving beyond internment to provide an insightful analysis of how modern Japanese Americans have created new identities and communities in the American cultural landscape." -- K. Scott Wong,author of Americans First: Chinese Americans and the Second World War
"[The books] main strength is its comparison in ethnic heritage of four different generations of Japanese Americans. None of the previous books on this subject has compared three or more generations in the formation of ethnicity among members of one or more ethnic groups." * American Journal of Sociology *
