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Social Identity of Japanese Americans in Julie Otsuka's UNIVERZITA PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky Bc. Lucie Lemonová Social Identity of Japanese Americans in Julie Otsuka’s Historical Novels Sociální identita japonských Američanů v historických románech Julie Ocuky Diplomová práce Vedoucí práce: Prof. PhDr. Josef Jařab, CSc. Olomouc 2017 Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci na téma „Social Identity of Japanese Americans in Julie Otsuka’s Historical Novels“ vypracovala samostatně pod odborným dohledem vedoucího práce a uvedla jsem všechny použité podklady a literaturu. V Olomouci dne................... Podpis ............................ Acknowledgment I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. PhDr. Josef Jařab, CSc. for his guidance and valuable comments which helped me during the whole process of writing this diploma thesis. Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 6 1 The Concepts of Social Identity ........................................................................................ 8 1. 1 Social Identity .............................................................................................................. 8 1. 2 The Concept of Ethnic Identity .................................................................................... 9 1. 3 The Concept of National Identity ............................................................................... 11 1. 4 Ethnic Identity in Relation to Assimilation ................................................................ 13 1. 5 Theory of Asian American Identity Development ..................................................... 15 2 Japanese American Literature ....................................................................................... 19 2. 1 Introduction to Japanese American Literature ........................................................... 19 2. 2 Julie Otsuka: Introduction to Otsuka’s Work ............................................................. 20 3 The Buddha in The Attic: Being Japanese in America .................................................. 24 3. 1 The First Japanese Immigrants and Their Relationship with the White Majority ..... 24 3. 2 Generations: A Profile ................................................................................................ 33 3. 2. 1 Issei ..................................................................................................................... 34 3. 2. 2 Nisei .................................................................................................................... 36 3. 2. 3 Sansei .................................................................................................................. 38 3. 3 The Japanese (American) Culture .............................................................................. 39 3. 4. The Pre-war Japanese American Family and the Generational Conflict .................. 42 3. 5 Uprooting ................................................................................................................... 46 4 When the Emperor Was Divine: Being American, Looking Japanese ......................... 54 4. 1 Evacuation .................................................................................................................. 55 4. 2 The Incarceration ....................................................................................................... 65 4. 2. 1 Journey from Tanforan to Topaz ........................................................................ 65 4. 2. 2 Slowly Disappearing in the Internment Camp ................................................... 71 4. 3 Return Home .............................................................................................................. 82 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 91 Resumé ................................................................................................................................. 94 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 97 Annotation ......................................................................................................................... 100 Anotace .............................................................................................................................. 101 5 Introduction The purpose of this diploma thesis is to examine the theme of the social identity of Japanese Americans in historical novels When the Emperor Was Divine (2002) and The Buddha in the Attic (2011) by Julie Otsuka. In both novels, Otsuka explores the social status of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. Being a minority in American society, Japanese Americans were met with prejudice and discrimination since the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants in the 1880s. Eventually, this prejudice led the U.S. Congress to pass the Immigration Act of 1924 that halted Japanese immigration. This relatively short period of Japanese immigration gave Japanese Americans distinct generational groupings. Different generations of Japanese Americans are referred to as Issei (the first generation), Nisei (the second generation) and Sansei (the third generation). After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Japanese Americans, citizens and aliens alike, were regarded with suspicion and deemed the enemy. This resulted in the mass evacuation and the internment of all West Coast Japanese Americans. Each generation had lived through different socio-political circumstances, nevertheless all Japanese Americans experienced a social identity conflict in the first half of the twentieth century. In The Buddha in the Attic, which chronicles the pre-war immigrant experience, Otsuka largely focuses on the ethnic identity of Japanese Americans whereas in When the Emperor Was Divine she examines the ethnic and national identity conflict during and after the internment. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to analyze the ethnic identity and the national identity conflict that Japanese American characters in Otsuka’s historical novels experience. The thesis mainly focuses on the social status and conflict of the first and the second generation of Japanese Americans. For a thorough study of this theme, the thesis provides a socio-political background of the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. The first two chapters serve as an introduction to the concept of social identity and Japanese American literature. The first chapter defines the concepts of ethnic identity and national identity and it further focuses on the theory of Asian American ethnic identity development. These concepts are then applied in the literary analysis of Otsuka’s historical novels. To put Otsuka’s historical novels in some literary context, the second chapter presents 6 a brief introduction to Japanese American literature and to Julie Otsuka’s literary career and work. The next chapters focus on the literary analysis of Otsuka’s work from the historical perspective. These chapters are structured chronologically, so the thesis examines the pre- war period first and then the internment experience of Japanese Americans. The third chapter analyzes the theme of the social identity in the historical novel The Buddha in the Attic. This novel depicts the pre-war experience of Japanese immigrant women and Otsuka mainly focuses on their ethnic identity. This chapter deals with the first Japanese immigrants and their relationship with the white majority group, and the eventual evacuation from their homes. It analyzes the scenes that feature the social identity conflict and also provides a socio-political context of the pre-war period. Furthermore, this chapter introduces Japanese (American) culture and also presents a profile of three generations of Japanese Americans since each generation has a distinctive collective identity. The last chapter deals with the social status of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. Through anonymous Japanese American family Otsuka in When the Emperor Was Divine examines the conflict between Japanese ethnic identity and American national identity. This chapter is structured into three subchapters and discusses the psychological effect of forced incarceration on the development of Japanese American identity. Otsuka focuses on the personal experience of Japanese Americans and the aim of this thesis is to extensively analyze the social identity conflict that appears in her historical novels. Therefore, this literary analysis adopts historical perspective because the social status of Japanese Americans is defined in relation to a specific socio-political context. I argue that the first-generation Japanese Americans in Otsuka’s novels ultimately lost their unique identity and the second-generation Japanese Americans rejected their ethnic identity in favor of American national identity. In conclusion, the thesis summarizes the analysis of the Japanese-American social identity conflict and compares the formation of identity of the first-generation and the second-generation characters. 7 1 The Concepts of Social Identity 1. 1 Social Identity In psychology, the term identity refers to self-image, self-esteem, and individuality. Development of one’s identity is a process of constructing of one’s self over time. Erik Erikson
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