Breaking the silence : redress and Japanese American ethnicity / / Yasuko I. Takezawa

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910793554903321
• Autore: Takezawa Yasuko I. <1957->
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Ithaca, New York ; ; London : , : Cornell University Press, , [1995]; ©1995
• ISBN: 0-8014-8181-3; 1-5017-2021-X
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (259 pages)
• Collana: Anthropology of contemporary issues
• Disciplina: 305.8956073
• Soggetti: Japanese Americans - Ethnic identity; Seattle (Wash.) Ethnic relations
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations, Maps, Figure, and Tables -- A Note to the Reader -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Redress Movement in Seattle -- 3. Nisei Experience -- 4. Sansei Experience -- 5. Redefining the Past and the Present -- 6. Transformation of Ethnicity -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This book is a unique interpretation of how wartime internment and the movement for redress affected Japanese Americans. Yasuko I. Takezawa, a Japanese national who has lived in the Japanese American community as well as in the larger American society, has a distinctive vantage point from which to assess the changing meaning of being a Japanese American. Takezawa focuses on the impact of two critical incidents in Japanese American history-the wartime evacuation and internment of more than a hundred thousand individuals and the redress campaign that resulted in an official apology and reparation payments from the U.S. government. Her book is a moving account filled with personal stories-both painful and joyous-told to her by Nisei and Sansei (second- and third-generation) interviewees in Seattle. Covering the period before, during, and after World War II, Takezawa captures the internal struggles of the Japanese American community in seeking redress. She shows how its members have handled identity ; crises caused by racial discrimination, evacuation and internment, and the long-prevalent American ideology of the melting pot. She is particularly skillful in comparing the differences between the generations as they sorted out their experiences and reconfirmed their ethnic identity through the redress movement.