Subject: "What are you?" (Was: JA Vocabulary)
> By the way, here in Japan, "Nikkei-jin" is used to refer
> to people of Japanese ancestry living overseas AND in Japan
> who are not Japanese, i.e. Japanese citizens.
I have a Japanese American friend here in Japan. If he says
"America-jin desu," he is often asked "Are you a half?"
By the way, do you consider yourself "Nikkei" or "American"?
Or both equally?
I am interested in the process people go through in changing from
Nihonjin to Japanese American, or to American. And the reverse process from
Japanese Brazilians to Brazilian Japanese.
Usually the second generation's self-identification is with
the place they live, to the education and socialization they get.
Nikkei Brazilian children are now living in Japan and educated
in Japanese public school for more than 6 years. Are they becoming
Brazilian Japanese, instead of Nikkei Burajiru-jin?
Another question. Do you think the Japanese favor Japanese Americans
over Japanese Brazilians, maybe because of National image and
Dekasegi
image, and because of the language status (English vs Portuguese)?
Subject: Re: "What are you?"
> How do you refer to yourself when asked? "Nikkei Amerika-jin
> desu" or "Nikkei desu" -- or is either appropriate?
Whenever I am asked, I reply that I am an America-jin so I can watch
their reaction as they stare very, very hard at my features (especially eyes)
in their attempt to see at least a hint of blond or brown hair and blue eyes.
Subject: Re: "What are you?"
> How do you refer to yourself when asked? "Nikkei Amerika-jin
> desu" or "Nikkei desu" -- or is either appropriate?
I consider and therefore refer to myself as Nikkei Sansei.
It satisfies the curiosity of the Japanese and they ask no further questions.
Anyone who refers to themselves as "America-jin" and does not
fit the Japanese image of an American (white, blonde, and blue-eyed),
will certainly be asked by Japanese if they are "half?"
for the sake of clarity. The question is very tiresome,
but it is also very Japanese. And if you do not understand
the culture, you are bound to be frustrated by the question.
Subject: Re: "What are you?"
> I have a Japanese American friend here in Japan.
> If he says "America-jin desu," he is often asked
> "Are you a half?"
Funny, when I visited Japan and replied, "Amerikajin desu"
I was never asked this. Sometimes I would just follow it with,
"Sofubo ha nihonjin deshita." (My grandparents were Japanese.)
and people then understood that I must be sansei.
> By the way, do you consider
> yourself "Nikkei" or "American"? Or both equally?
> I am interested in the process people go through
> in changing from Nihonjin to Japanese American,
> or to American.
Interesting that you bring this up. I never had to think about whether I
was Nihonjin or Nikkei Amerikajin until after I left my parents' home for
college. Perhaps growing up in a small Japanese community of both
Nihonjin and Nikkeijin, we all assumed we represented Japan to the outside,
so we never really differentiated.
After being around large Asian communities,
I would be asked more specific questions, so I would reply
"I am Japanese American, and my grandparents were the ones who immigrated."
(If I said "third generation JA" many Chinese Americans would think that my
great-grandparents immigrated, because they count the
generations differently.)
It was not until I moved to the West Coast that I realized that
"Japanese American" is a unique and distinct entity -- distinct
from Japan and distinct from "mainstream America," a mixture of both.
I can't say that I identify more with Japanese or "non-Asian America."
It seems to be equal -- even if I am biased by language towards the latter.
I was surprised myself not too long ago when I met a Japanese family who
lived in the US for 6-7 years. Their children had started grade school
in the US, but completed their education in Japan. I couldn't help but
think how "American" these Japanese children seemed to me.
They seemed more "American" than I did!
Subject: Re: "What are you?"
> By the way, do you consider
> yourself "Nikkei" or "American"? Or both equally?
> I am interested in the process people go through
> in changing from Nihonjin to Japanese American,
> or to American.
I don't think there exists a "process" of change for Nihonjin
to JA or to American per se. Nor is there a reverse process.
You are what you are exposed to and what you have experienced.
This could be voluntary or forced upon you or both for that matter.
And whether you want to recognise it or not, you will always be
Japanese if you are Japanese and you will always be JA as long
as you are born that way. We all have different experiences and
are exposed to different things throughout our individual lives.
And, we do make choices about how we want to live. But once nikkei,
always nikkei and there is no denying that fact.
We all have heritage and this is what defines a good portion
of who we are. Another thing that defines us are our communities
past and present... the one(s) we were raised in, the one(s)
we were educated in and the one(s) we live and work in.
I know some people try to be something that they are not.
And it is their personal choice to do so. It certainly uses a lot
of energy... Energy that could be channeled
into something more honest, methinks.
Re: "What are you?"
> > By the way, do you consider
> > yourself "Nikkei" or "American"? Or both equally?
> > I am interested in the process people go through
> > in changing from Nihonjin to Japanese American,
> > or to American.
>
> I don't think there exists a "process" of change for
> Nihonjin to JA or to American per se. Nor is there
> a reverse process. You are what you are exposed to
> and what you have experienced. This could be voluntary
> or forced upon you or both for that matter.
Sorry for causing confusion. My question was carelessly made,
intermixing the assimilation process of social groups and
the process of the individual.
By "process", I meant the interrelated processes of enculturation
and identity formation of an individual.
Enculturation is the ongoing process of internalizing a culture-specific ethos or
meaning system into a structure of self-identity through communicating and
interacting with the surrounding people and environment, which can be called as the
processes of education, socialization and development.
An individual's cultural identity is formed in phases. One researcher studied
the Americanization process of Japanese children who were growing up in LA
in the late 1970's due to their parent's business transfer, and found that
in children's lives there is a sensitive period for the incorporation of
a particular cultural meaning system. This sensitive period appears to be
between the ages of 9 and 15 years.
I cannot be sure when the critical time is for cultural identity formation,
but at least I know the fact that some of Japanese returnee children who
incorporated the American cultural meaning system cannot identify with
Japanese Japanese, and the similar phenomena in the second generation
of immigrants worldwide has been well documented.
It seems to me that your saying, "You are what you are exposed
to and what you have experienced" and other comments are not
different from what I am thinking in essence.
But, I think one's subjective sense of self identity is changeable,
from Nihonjin to American, to Brazilain, to Chinese, or to Canadian ...
On the other hand, social categorization by others mainly based on
appearance also would affect the self-identification process and is
not so easily changeable. I think it makes Nikkei identity distinct
from Japanese Japanese and from American American (mainstream American).
It is almost the same mechanism that Japanese returnee students from
the US feel distinct from Japanese Japanese and from American American.
My honest feeling is that I cannot be at all confident about what constitutes
"being Japanese". Culture is Life (seikatsu no arikata), and the way
the Japanese live now is nothing uniquely Japanese.
> I never had to think about whether I was Nihonjin or
> Nikkei Amerikajin until after I left my parents' home
> for college. Perhaps growing up in a small Japanese
> community of both Nihonjin and Nikkeijin, we all assumed
> we represented Japan to the outside, so we never
> really differentiated.
>
> After being around large Asian communities, I would
> be asked more specific questions, so I would reply,
> "I am Japanese American."
When we are in a small community, Nikkeijin and Nihonjin can
go hand in hand ...
