Constructing and Contesting Japanese American Identity

Lon Kurashige. Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival in Los Angeles, 1934-1990. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 2002. xxii + 274 pp. $50.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-520-22742-2. Reviewed by Scott H. Tang Published on H-California (October, 2003) Constructing and Contesting Japanese Ameri‐ Nisei. According to Kurashige, the Issei merchants can Identity behind Nisei Week stressed the importance of eth‐ In Japanese American Celebration and Con‐ nic solidarity to encourage younger Japanese flict, Lon Kurashige uses an ethnic community cel‐ Americans to shop in Little Tokyo at a time when ebration in Los Angeles known as Nisei Week as a they could purchase similar goods outside of the prism for viewing the changing and contested community. Leaders from the local chapter of the meaning of Japanese-American identity. Festivi‐ Japanese American Citizens' League (JACL) be‐ ties such as public parades, beauty pageants, fash‐ came involved in the planning process as well. ion reviews, and talent shows promoted the ideal They envisioned the festival as an expression of second-generation Japanese American. The cele‐ Nisei identity that not only emphasized how the bration not only conveyed positive images of Ja‐ Nisei were thoroughly American but also rein‐ panese Americans to the world outside of "Little forced the Nisei's role as ethnic representatives to Tokyo" but also defined appropriate behavior for the rest of the nation. The Issei and Nisei leaders those living within the ethnic community. believed that the Nisei had to assume a bicultural position in order to protect and to promote the Kurashige begins his narrative with descrip‐ ethnic community. These leaders put together a tions of the Japanese American community and of program to celebrate both Japanese and American the economic, social, and political forces that led culture and to commemorate the immigrant pio‐ to the creation of Nisei Week in the decade prior neers who achieved economic success after years to the Second World War. The planners of the frst of struggle. Building upon existing studies that celebration in 1934 hoped that the events would treat the Issei and the older Nisei as a genera‐ undermine anti-Japanese sentiment and foster a tional block, Kurashige reveals that these leaders more positive race relations environment. In ad‐ had similar perspectives and values, and that they dition, they wanted to create community con‐ sciousness and ethnic consciousness among the H-Net Reviews frequently engaged in inter-generational al‐ the protest at the Manzanar Relocation Center. In liances. December 1942, over three thousand Japanese Those who attended the festival watched ki‐ Americans held a demonstration to protest the ar‐ mono-clad women performing a Japanese folk rest of several Kibei accused of beating up a JACL dance and parades displaying costumes from dif‐ informant.[1] The protest led to violence later that ferent periods in Japanese history. The planners night: angry internees physically assaulted sever‐ promised tourists an authentic Japanese adven‐ al alleged collaborators, and military guards fred ture and tried to promote a greater understand‐ their rifles into the assembled crowd, killing two ing of Japanese history and culture. However, as protestors and wounding many more. Kurashige tensions between the United States and Japan in‐ portrays the Manzanar protest as a challenge to creased at the end of the decade, Americanism the ethnic orthodoxy maintained by the JACL and eclipsed biculturalism as the dominant articula‐ argues that class, education, and cosmopolitanism tion of Japanese American identity. Nisei Week influenced whether one was against or for the events then became a demonstration of civic protest. By analyzing the social backgrounds of virtue and political allegiance. those involved, he claims that the pro-WRA fac‐ tion included college-educated urban Nisei who Kurashige exposes the ways in which these had the skills, the opportunity, and the cultural articulations of ethnic identity, including the con‐ capital to succeed in the world outside the ethnic structed ideal Nisei, obscured the diverse opin‐ community. The protestors, on the other hand, re‐ ions and social cleavages within the community. mained detached from white America and tended Editors for a leftist ethnic newspaper, for in‐ to come from the farming classes. Kurashige also stance, criticized festival organizers for ignoring suggests that white racism's persistence embit‐ working-class experiences and even labeled a few tered the Nisei and led some of them to criticize local businessmen as opponents of labor and sup‐ those who implemented and supported wartime porters of Japanese imperialism. Another part of internment. Kurashige's interpretation thus revis‐ Kurashige's argument against Nisei homogeneity es earlier studies that characterized the Manzanar offers a group profile of the JACL to show the dif‐ protest as primarily a struggle between the Amer‐ ferences between the community's political elites icanized Nisei and the Issei and Kibei, two social and rank-and-file Japanese Americans. After con‐ groups which were thought to have stronger cul‐ firming that those in the JACL generally possessed tural ties with Japan. more cultural capital and enjoyed higher socioe‐ conomic status, he describes the limited occupa‐ Nisei Week in the 1950s and 1960s only tional choices available to less privileged Nisei vaguely resembled the celebrations of the prewar and shares examples of juvenile delinquency era. Raising funds for community organizations among Nisei youth. The festival's positive images replaced the goal of bolstering Little Tokyo's busi‐ of the Nisei and the narratives of ethnic success nesses. In addition, Japanese-American chapters and social acceptance undoubtedly hid from view of mainstream veterans' organizations, women's the realities of marginalization and frustration. groups, and civic clubs played a more prominent JACL leaders may have provided the dominant Ni‐ role in planning the festival. Even outsiders such sei voice, frst one of biculturalism and then one as the mayor's office and the local media gave vi‐ of Americanism, but they never represented the tal support to the celebrations. Furthermore, the views of all Japanese Americans. inclusion of a swimsuit competition in the beauty contest signaled acceptance of mainstream Amer‐ During the Second World War, some of the ica and suggested a move away from an ethnic aforementioned social cleavages played a role in beauty standard. According to Kurashige, these 2 H-Net Reviews developments reflect both the postwar integra‐ Little Tokyo generated accusations that Japanese tionist orthodoxy and the improving social condi‐ Americans were losing control of their communi‐ tions and race relations experienced by Japanese ty and allowing it to fall into the hands of outside Americans. At the same time, cooperation be‐ interests. Japanese Americans representing differ‐ tween the United States and Japan in the war ent generations and different political perspec‐ against communism permitted Japanese Ameri‐ tives came together to protest the redevelopment cans to identify with Japan without endangering plans. Their efforts led to the promise that rede‐ their position at home. Nisei Week parades began velopment projects would be committed to both to feature a Shinto ritual and foats advertising Ja‐ preserving ethnic community and promoting in‐ panese businesses. By the end of the 1960s, Japa‐ ternational trade. Kurashige views the creation of nese corporations such as Toyota, Japan Airlines, the Japanese American National Museum as a and Mitsubishi Bank represented the festival's project that simultaneously addressed the com‐ largest financial contributors. munity's desire to preserve their heritage and the Beginning in the 1970s, the integrationist or‐ corporations' desire to defuse anti-Japanese senti‐ thodoxy and the anticommunist partnership ment. came under fre. Energized by the social move‐ Japanese American Celebration and Conflict ments of the 1960s, Asian-American youth criti‐ is a carefully crafted and elegantly written history cized Anglo-conformity and asserted a cosmopoli‐ resting upon a solid foundation of community tan identity that acknowledged their minority ex‐ newspapers, archival records, and personal inter‐ periences and connected them with the oppressed views. Kurashige creatively reveals the generation in America and abroad. For instance, the Van Troi and class distinctions within the prewar and the Anti-Imperialist Youth Brigade interrupted the wartime community and how they shaped expres‐ 1972 Nisei Week parade to proclaim their support sions of ethnic identity. He suggests the construct‐ for the Vietnamese people struggling against Japa‐ ed nature of Nisei masculinity and Nisei feminini‐ nese and American imperialism. The Van Troi ty as well but does not provide many examples of protestors also disparaged the beauty pageant for the ways in which these gendered identities are using white beauty standards to judge contestants contested. Kurashige gives more attention to gen‐ and for inviting white Americans to serve as der in the postwar era by relating the various de‐ judges. They called for ethnic pride and for com‐ bates concerning the beauty pageant. In my esti‐ munity control. This and other challenges to inte‐ mation, the investigation of postwar ethnic com‐ gration may have touched off an ethnic revival, munity and identity formation is

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