Department of English and American Studies English Language And

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Karolína Kučerová

“These People Are Not Exactly Human”: Images of the Japanese in The Man in the High Castle and Snow Falling on Cedars

Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph. D.

2019

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

...... Karolína Kučerová

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor, Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D., for her guidance and valuable feedback during the process of writing this thesis. My thanks also go to Mgr. Filip Krajník, Ph.D. for his commentary on the Dickian part of this thesis. Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 5

1. Images of the Japanese in the United States ...... 8

1.1. The Discourse of Orientalism ...... 8

1.2. Images of the Japanese in the U.S. History ...... 11

1.3. First Impressions upon Opening Japan: Narrative of the Expedition

of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan ...... 21

1.4. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture ...... 23

1.5. The Four Categories from The Idea of Japan ...... 28

2. The Japanese in The Man in the High Castle ...... 32

2.1. Representations of the Japanese in The Man in the High Castle ...... 38

3. The Japanese in Snow Falling on Cedars ...... 44

3.1. The Struggle of Coming to Terms with the Past ...... 46

Conclusion ...... 60

Works Cited ...... 62

Abstract ...... 69

Resumé ...... 70 Introduction

The human race is quick to judge everything and everyone who is different. It is so because people have the need to sort things into categories to understand them and when something does not fit into a category where the majority occurs, it is instantly labelled as “foreign”, “strange” or “different” and perceived with skepticism and instant prejudice and hostility. This hostility in part induces the development of certain images or stereotypes which can permeate the views of an individual as well as a community and can substantially influence one’s way of thinking and their decision-making process. To illustrate the power of stereotyping, this thesis draws on two novels – The

Man in the High Castle (1962) by Philip K. Dick and Snow Falling on Cedars (1994) by David Guterson; two novels with a significant presence of characters of Japanese descent. Both novels’ plots take place on the Pacific Coast, which, in relation to the

Japanese (but also other minorities), has quite a turbulent past; a past which is interlaced with racial prejudice and stereotype towards the Japanese. It is not only their appearance that differs; it is also their culture and habits. One slip and the “others” are viewed as villains. However, as the thesis shows, there does not even have to be the slip. Only memories and perceptions based on a false sense of superiority are enough.

The main argument of this thesis is that regardless of the time period, the attitudes of the Americans towards the Japanese stay more or less unchanged.

In its respective parts, the thesis examines the process of creating certain stereotypical images and various representations of the Japanese. The selected literary examples are useful for this purpose as they reflect certain cultural sentiment of a particular time. To understand the construction of particular stereotypes and prejudice, the thesis first deals with the discourse of Orientalism as it was conceived by Edward

Said in his Orientalism (1978) and some consequences which have shaped attitudes of

the Americans towards the Japanese. These attitudes are then demonstrated in the second subchapter which examines the history of the Japanese in the USA, thus providing historical evidence for the later analysis of the two literary examples. The three following subchapters introduce three different works which have presented specific images of the Japanese and influenced the ways in which the Japanese have been represented in the USA in the past 150 years. The first work, Narrative of the

Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (1856) by Francis L.

Hawks, provides one of the first collections of American images of the Japanese upon entering Japan in 1853. The anthropological study by Ruth Benedict, The

Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946), examines the patterns of Japanese culture and provides their description along with their explanation and comparison to their

American counterparts. The last of these works is a collection of popular images of the

Japanese through which Americans has seen the Japanese – The Idea of Japan (1996) by Ian Littlewood. The span of their respective publications covers some 150 years which is a sufficient time period against which the arguments presented in the thesis can be validated. Furthermore, given that the examination of U.S. history covers more or less the same time period, the three works are well suited to illustrate how the

Americans have viewed the Japanese. Moreover, due to the fact that the three works are each of a different type – one travel book, one anthropological study and one popular collection, the range of the examined images is wide enough to provide sufficient foundation for the analysis. Similarly, the possibility that some images are excluded from the analysis is limited.

The second chapter examines the way the Japanese are portrayed in The Man in the High Castle, a science fiction novel from the 1960s. Special attention is paid to the character of Robert Childan, a 38-year-old American, whose attitude towards the

Japanese undergoes the most significant transformation. The way he treats the Japanese can be to some extent compared to the way the Japanese have been treated throughout

U.S. history (as is discussed in the first chapter): on the one hand he admires them for certain features, on the other he hates them and considers them inferior.

The third chapter analyses the second of the selected novels, Snow Falling on

Cedars, written in the 1990s. The chapter examines what happens when traumatizing past and deeply rooted prejudices join and how this combination affects the present.

This chapter analyses two of the novel’s characters, Etta Heine and Ishmael Chambers, and their respective attitudes towards the Japanese. While Etta typifies the attitudes of the older generation, Ishmael represents the younger one. Furthermore, the thesis examines Guterson’s use of a murder trial as the novel’s setting. The murder trial provides special space for the exploration of the prejudices which Americans have harbored since World War II.

1. Images of the Japanese in the United States

1.1. The Discourse of Orientalism

The concept of Orientalism refers to Edward W. Said’s theory of the Western tendency to perceive Eastern cultures and its people in certain ways based on the differences between the West (the Occident) and the East (the Orient). It is mostly a European1 construct but it can be applied to the whole Western hemisphere. However, there are variations across the West as to which Western countries regard which Eastern countries as Oriental: while Europeans associate the Orient with countries in the Middle

East such as Egypt and other Arabic countries, Americans “[do] not feel quite the same about the Orient, which for them is much more likely to be associated very differently with the Far East” (Said 1) and countries such as Japan and China. Said explains this difference by acknowledging Europe’s colonial past: for Europeans, the Orient is “the place of [their] greatest and richest and oldest colonies” as well as “the source of [their] civilization and languages” (1). The United States, on the other hand, was not a colonial power like the European countries therefore its interest has been directed elsewhere

(Weir 3). This distinction is important as the thesis focuses on the American views of and experience with the Orient, specifically Japan, than on the European ones.

Said defines Orientalism, aside from being a field of study, as “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the

1 Even though there has been a long-term dispute about whether or not Russia should be considered part of Europe (Davies 32-35), in Said’s Orientalism the country is considered European as Russia is among the countries which, even though to a lesser extent, “have had a long tradition of ... Orientalism” (1).

Thus, for clarity’s sake, the latter claims about Asia do not include Russia as part of “the Orient”, but rather “the Occident”.

Orient’ [i.e. the East] and ‘the Occident’ [i.e. the West]” (Said 2). The key element is a certain accepted difference between the two parts. The concept of Orientalism has no clear geographical borders (it is simply everything not in the West), results in the notion that there is no diversity in Asia and therefore that “Orientals [are] almost everywhere nearly the same” (Said 6; 38). This allows immense generalization across all Asia, leaving no space for recognizing specific features of each culture. Orientalism, in short, is “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient”

(Said 3). As for the reason of this style of control, Richie suggests that it is because one needs something “against which one can measure and hence validate the all-too-fluid self”. The Occident then always features as familiar and therefore superior to the Orient which is always foreign and unfamiliar.

The constructs of “the Occident” and “the Orient” attempt to create a clear distinction between “Us” and “Them”, respectively. Weir correctly regards Said’s

Orientalism as “an ideology of other-ness” (2). To be able to understand something new and different, one first needs to assign the phenomenon a name and then describe its features and characteristics. By this “privilege” of defining and describing something, one gets a false feeling of superiority and feels the right to impose their views on the object in question and demand these views are accepted as objective and universal values. This “privilege”, the feeling of superiority and the need for dominance account for many false impressions and are responsible for misinterpreting and stereotyping a country and its people thus the concept of the Orient and Orientalism is a key element which contributes to the process of forming ideas and perceptions about Asia, its peoples and cultures, in the West. It also contributes to understanding the impulses for stereotyping certain cultures and nations, such as the Japanese – the primary focus of this thesis.

The unknown initially tends to be treated as exotic and mysterious. It raises curious questions, but this curiosity is typically laced with wariness and some degree of fear towards this unknown. This fear prompts negative thoughts mostly towards the people and their customs and culture. Furthermore, if such fears are endorsed and cultivated, it may lead to the construction of various prejudices and stereotypes, as is the case of the Japanese who, for example, have been consistently depicted as

“monkeys” and animal-like creatures who cannot be trusted (Littlewood ch. 2). To understand this process, it is important to consider the complex history and the treatment of the Japanese in the United States throughout history.

1.2. Images of the Japanese in the U.S. History

The beginnings of the U.S. interest in Japan trace back to the 1850s when

Commodore Matthew Perry sailed to Japan, at canon point forced the Japanese to open their harbors to America and coerced them into signing a trade deal, consequently ending Japan’s very long era of isolation and undisturbed process of evolution (Takaki,

Strangers 43). As a result, the up-until-now isolated Japan became “the embodiment of a mysterious Orient” (Dickinson 489).

Following the events tied to the end of Japanese isolationism, mostly the Meiji

Restoration and the subsequent increase in taxes, many Japanese chose to migrate first to Hawaii and later to the American West Coast, the push force being their inability to pay taxes at home, and the pull force being a vision of high and easy earnings. This is what Takaki refers to when he states that shortly before the turn of the 20th century,

“American society witnessed … the arrival of a new group of immigrants” (A Different

Mirror 246). By the “new group” he meant the Japanese who replaced the Chinese in the 1880s as Chinese Exclusion Act went into effect in 1882, prohibiting “the entry of

[Chinese] ‘laborers’” (Takaki, A Different Mirror 248). Takaki claims that between

1885 and 1924, almost 400 000 Japanese set sail to the United States (A Different

Mirror 247).

In Hawaii, “the Japs”, as they were called, along with other nationalities such as the Chinese, the Koreans, the Filipinos or the Portuguese worked primarily on sugar cane plantations where they were pitted against other nationalities to increase productivity (Takaki, Strangers 25-30). The laborers, or “coolies”, were being

“ordered” among regular supplies such as canvas or fertilizer. They were even degraded to the position of mules and horses as they appeared on the list of order together

(Takaki, Strangers 25). Furthermore, the laborers were dehumanized as “the lunas2 never called a man by his name” but instead “[e]very worker was called by a number” which was stamped on a disk worn around their necks as if they were cattle (Takaki, A

Different Mirror 255). In this way, Americans dehumanized them and treated them as objects. This may be perceived as one specific example of racism resulting from the notions of which Orientalism comprises.

To an outsider (meaning a non-American and non-Asian individual), the

American treatment of the Japanese might seem quite contradictory and paradoxical since on the one hand, the Japanese were treated like objects and were dehumanized, while on the other, certain aspects of Japanese culture were something to be admired

(e.g. Buddhism) and imitated (e.g. art). Freesen suggests that American thinkers and writers such as “John La Farge, Henry Adams, Ernest Fenollosa [or] William Sturgis

Bigelow were among those who ‘were enthralled by Oriental thought; they were seekers of salvation in the Buddhist way’” (94) as they were seeking Nirvana. Freesen attributes this to their desire for the “fresh and original … which had not yet been appropriated by the Occident” (95). The second thing that fascinated the Americans and the whole West was Japanese art. This fascination eventually turned into its own art style known as Japonisme. Ono acknowledges that while “[i]t is quite hard to make a clear definition of Japonisme because of the breadth of the phenomenon … it could be generally agreed that it is an attempt to understand and adapt essential qualities of

Japanese art” (xvi). Similar to Freesen’s claim about Buddhism, it is the Western desire for the original that fueled this fascination with Japan. In other words, it is as if the

2 Or “foremen”, as Takaki dubs them (A Different Mirror 255).

Americans initially did not know how they should treat the Japanese and their culture.

However, this duality of fear and admiration is not specific only to the Americans and the Japanese, but it is generally applicable to all (originally) non-European cultures and furthermore it explains the way they have been approached.

However, an explanation as to why cultures tend to be treated in a positive way comes to mind: since people act and behave in unpredictable ways, they should be naturally feared out of self-preservation – even more so when they are of a different race because with a different race (supposedly) come different modi operandi. This instantly makes people of the different race inscrutable therefore dangerous. On the other hand, cultural elements are static, more or less unchanging (and if they do change, it is a slow and gradual process), they are therefore predictable and not dangerous. This unpredictability and dangerousness of the different race therefore fear towards it can be illustrated on the notion of “yellow peril” which later turned into a full-force stereotype.

“Yellow peril” refers to American fear of China’s (and generally Asia’s) rise to power and of eventually taking control over the Pacific Coast (Commission on Wartime

Relocation and Internment of Civilians3 37). Being neither white nor black, the

Japanese in the United States have been viewed with suspicion which certainly did not help in any way to eliminate these expansionist notions (CWRIC 3). The Americans initially accused Asian immigrants of unfair competition, of stealing their jobs (which ironically the Americans were reluctant to do in the first place) and, more importantly, they loathed them for their willingness to work for such low wages (Takaki, Strangers

28-29). It was not only the economic aspect that provoked “yellow peril” sentiments:

3 Later referred to only as CWRIC.

“The Chinese threat … eventually included claims of racial impurity and injury to western civilization” (CWRIC 29). Lyman claims that these “yellow peril” fears initially aimed at Chinese immigrants were later “recycled as anti-Japanese stories”

(692). However harsh anti-Chinese proclamations were, Lyman argues that later, when aimed at the Japanese, they were even worse, as he demonstrates on an article excerpt from Organized Labor, a San Francisco journal, issued in 1900:

[T]he sniveling Japanese, who swarms along the streets and cringingly

offers his paltry services for a suit of clothes and a front seat in our

public schools, is a far greater danger to the laboring portion of society

than all the opium-soaked pigtails [(meaning the Chinese)] who have

ever blotted the fair name of this beautiful city. (qtd. in Lyman 698)

The misleading state reports on the Japanese birthrate which claimed that “[it] was three times that of white citizens” (CWRIC 38), when in reality the Japanese birthrate was lower than the birthrate of the European immigrants, just fed the “[f]ear of Japanese expansion” (CWRIC 38).

In accordance with the notion of “yellow peril” and also in connection to

Japan’s growing power on the international scene (following their victory over Russia in 1904-5) in the beginnings of the 20th century, the Americans felt it was due time to

“protect” the American West (Lyman 702). The first decade of the 20th century was heavily shadowed by growing anti-Japanese sentiments. The Commission on Wartime

Relocation and Internment of Civilians admits that “[a]ntipathy and hostility towards the ethnic Japanese was a major factor of the public life of the West Coast states for more than forty years before Pearl Harbor” (CWRIC 3). Claims such as “Japanese in

America were merely agents of the Emperor” (CWRIC 32) reinforced the notion that

the Japanese were spies and only worsened the American attitude vis-á-vis the Japanese

(Lyman 689-699).

Eventually, exclusionist ideas materialized. Because the Issei4 wanted their children (American citizens) to be prepared for life in both America and Japan, “[m]any cultural patterns were transplanted into Japanese community life in the United States”

(CWRIC 38). These efforts resulted in “continuing criticism from anti-Japanese groups that the immigrants and their families were unassimilable and pro-Japan” (CWRIC 38).

Such sentiments also facilitated the formation of the Japanese Exclusion League in

1905. In the same year, “the San Francisco School Board announced a policy of removing Japanese students to the one Oriental school” so that “[white] children” and their “youthful impressions” were spared the “association with pupils of the Mongolian race” (CWRIC 33). Exclusionist efforts later aided “the 1908 Gentlemen’s Agreement

[between the United States and Japan]” which “restricted the [im]migration of Japanese laborers” (Takaki, Strangers 27). This caused a shift from immigrating to settling, inviting the settlers’ families to join them as the Agreement only prohibited immigration with the purpose of being hired for work, therefore Japanese wives and children were allowed entry (Takaki, Strangers 52-53). The American public inaccurately saw the incoming of the wives and children as an act of deception

(CWRIC 34), which only encouraged the sentiments of the Japanese being deceitful.

4 “The Issei are the immigrant generation from Japan” while “the first generation born in the United

States [thus American citizens] are the Nisei” and “the entire ethnic Japanese group in America are

Nikkei” (CWRIC 31).

Similarly, because of “yellow peril” and the fear of the Japanese’s success in agriculture, Nationality Acts of 1790 and 1870 were modified in 1906. They “restricted the right of naturalization to aliens who were either ‘free white’ or of ‘African nativity and descent’” (Imai, “Ozawa”). The modifications made it harder for (mostly Far East

Asian) immigrants, in the case of the Japanese the Issei, to become citizens. In 1922,

Takao Ozawa’s5 naturalization case questioned the meaning of “free white” which was one of the conditions for naturalization and pointed to the “ambiguous position of the

Japanese – [who were] ‘neither white nor black’” (Yamashita and Park, 137). The Court rejected Ozawa’s claims of his eligibility based on the fact that he “‘clearly’ was ‘not

Caucasian’” (Takaki, A Different Mirror 273). Given that Ozawa and his case inadvertently represented the Issei, the Court’s negative ruling stripped the then Issei of any hope of ever being eligible to obtain American citizenship (Takaki, A Different

Mirror 273). Furthermore, in 1924, Congress passed the Immigration Act which put all legal Japanese immigration to an end. The Act “[e]cho[ed] the phrase, ‘aliens ineligible for citizenship,’ from the Alien Land Law of 1913 [which prohibited land purchase and ownership by these aliens] and the 1922 Supreme Court decision in Ozawa v. United

States” (Imai, “Act”; Lyon). These laws would not be invalidated until the early 1950s

“when Alien … laws were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952”

(Imai, “Act”).

5 Takao Ozawa was a Japanese immigrant who “[met] all non-racial qualifications for naturalization set by the Act of 1906” and also “satisfied the five-year continuous residency requirement”. Having lived in the USA and Hawaii for more than twenty years, he was thus “an ideal test case to bring to the Supreme

Court” regarding the matter of alien naturalization” (Imai, “Ozawa”).

Due to the dual nature of their education and their appearance, the Nisei were not recognized as equal fellow citizens but rather as foreigners and even when they were Americans by birth, “they were told to ‘go back’ to Japan and were called ‘Japs’”

(Takaki, A Different Mirror 274). They were not American enough due to their heritage and not Japanese enough due to their American upbringing. According to Takaki, the

Nisei “stood on the ‘border line’ that separated the ‘Orient’ from the ‘Occident’”

(A Different Mirror 276), never really fully belonging to either.

These “native” notions of the Japanese incompatibility were very clear in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. Even though many Nikkei swore allegiance to the United

States, became members of an U.S. intelligence agency, translated enemy documents and fought in the U.S. Army against Japan – the land of their parents, they were still proclaimed enemies regardless their status (Takaki, A Different Mirror 383). In

February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which was “to exclude any and all persons, citizens and aliens' from designated areas in order to provide security against sabotage, espionage and fifth column activity6” (CWRIC 2).

Even though there was no evidence of these, the order gave authority to incarcerate over 110,000 Japanese, mostly those living on the mainland (CWRIC 3; Takaki, A

Different Mirror 378). Not explicitly stated but obvious from the context, the order was aimed at “alien enemies” (United States, Executive Office of the President [Franklin D.

Roosevelt] 1407), in other words the Japanese. While in Hawaii the officials recognized

6 Fifth column activity means “a group of people residing in a given country who work to actively support a wartime enemy of that country from within by engaging in espionage or sabotage or who engage in such activities in anticipation of war” (Niiya).

that vast majority of the Hawaiian Japanese were loyal to the United States, in

California the government succumbed to the hysteria and proceeded with mass evacuation of all Japanese. As the Order eloquently stated, “these actions were based upon ‘military necessity’” (CWRIC 49). However, several decades years later, the

Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians stated that the order was not “justified by military necessity” but was rather a result of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership” (CWRIC 18). The Japanese incarceration lasted until 1944 (but was terminated only in 1976) and left the Japanese filled with disappointment, “pain” and “anger” (CWRIC 297, Takaki, A Different Mirror 382).

Only as late as 1988, The Civil Liberties Act “acknowledged the internment to be unjust” (“Patriotism”), offering an apology for how the Japanese were treated, but the damage had already been done and bitterly internalized.

While up until the end of World War II, Asian Americans (especially the

Chinese and Japanese) were mostly hated, ostracized and seen as the “yellow peril” or

“vermin” (Littlewood ch. 2), the post-war period brought a sudden change: they were now “[America’s] most exceptional and beloved people of color, its ‘model minority’”

(Wu 1-2). The term was first used in the 1960s in connection to the Civil Rights

Movement but has been in use to the present day (Kiang et al. 1366). The essence of this new stereotype was embedded in the notion that “Asian Americans are academically and economically more successful than other racial minority groups due to their individual effort, values of hard work and perseverance, and belief in American meritocracy” (Atkin et al. 108). African Americans, on the other hand, who were at the time fighting for their basic rights and against racial discrimination, were being called

“‘lazy,’ ‘violent,’ sometimes even ‘primitive’” (Wang). It is them for whom Asian

Americans were to be the “model” as “[b]lacks should stop blaming racism for their

plight” and “follow the example of the self-reliant Asian Americans” (Takaki, A

Different Mirror 414).

However, as with other stereotypes, the “model minority” stereotype too was based on vast generalization, exaggeration and misleading reports. Takaki argues that the claims were inaccurate because, for example, “Asian-American families [had] more persons working per family than white families” (A Different Mirror 415). This increased the family income and made the Asian-American families appear more successful when in reality, many Asian Americans had to live in poverty and do menial jobs for low wages (Takaki, A Different Mirror 415).

Furthermore, this stereotype is not associated only with exemplary economic and academic results, but also with some typical characteristics of the Japanese: “Asian

Americans [are] viewed ... as quiet students that teachers and other school staff admire and respect” (Kiang et al. 1367). While in the past the Japanese and other Asian nations faced negative discrimination and mistreatment, this “model minority” stereotype can today bring positive discrimination – thanks to this myth, “Asian American students are given the benefit of the doubt – they’re often tracked into advanced placement ... or honors courses, sometimes without having taken a test to get in” (Lee). Wang observes that “Chinese-American parents passed down Confucian values, such as patience, discipline and obedience, and Japanese-Americans inherited from their ancestors Meiji values, including tolerance, fatalism and a willingness to accommodate to the larger society”. Up until the middle of the 20th century Asian cultures had been viewed from the Occidental perspective as inferior and pagan, but now, ironically, the Chinese and the Japanese have been praised thanks to precisely the very nature of their cultures. Yet again, American society proved how fast it can change its views and opinions when it comes in handy. Finally, due to continuous stereotyping as the “model minority”, the

Asian Americans will always be seen as foreigners because it is specifically the fact that they are considered “different” which makes them successful (Wang).

1.3. First Impressions upon Opening Japan: Narrative of the Expedition

of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan

In 1856, Francis L. Hawks published a multi-volume work about the 1853 expedition to Japan where he “provides informative and colorful descriptions of the local residents, architecture, and natural environment” (Rabson 1). Narrative of the

Expedition (1856) can be accurately viewed as a true Occidental work as Japan and its people are treated solely as study subjects and viewed as inferior to the USA. By stating that “the Empire of Japan [had] long presented to the thoughtful mind an object of uncommon interest” (3), Hawks justifies the American intrusion and deems it “not altogether inappropriate that the United States should be the instrument of breaking down these barriers” (4), implying that the United States should be given proper credit for “opening Japan to the rest of the world” (4).

Hawks regards the Japanese as heathens as “[t]he Christian … longs for the dawn of that day when a purer faith and more enlightened worship shall bring [the

Japanese] within the circle of Christendom” (3). Moreover he perceives them as a backward nation, referring to them countless times as “primitive”; for example, one of the questions he seeks to answer is “Whence came the primitive occupants of Japan?”

(Hawks 9). On this account, he tries hard to fit them into an already know category but fails to do so with conviction: “[It] seems … that the Japanese are of the Tartar family

[b]ut they certainly do not all have the Tartar complexion or physiognomy” (Hawks

10). The Japanese proved to be a source of inquiries and wonder as will be further demonstrated in the following paragraph.

Hawks writes about the Japanese duality when dealing with strangers: “We allude to the systematic falsehood and duplicity exhibited, and often without shame, by the high Japanese officials and public functionaries in their negotiations and intercourse

with strangers” (17). On the other hand, “as private gentlemen, they are frank, truthful, and hospitable” (Hawks 18). He calls this “the system of espionage” as “the officials are placed in a false position by the wretched system of spies, and dare not act openly and frankly” (Hawks 18). Similarly, the Japanese “[possess] … a very high sense of honor” (Hawks 17). It is interesting to see that while the Japanese are seen as

“primitive”, they are also “a people of very ingenious and lively minds, possessed of shrewdness, of great personal bravery, as their history shows, and [are] far superior ... to any other civilized eastern nation” (Hawks 18). This degrading while praising is yet another example of what the concept of Orientalism results in: it cultivates both contempt and fear as well as admiration. It is clear that the country, its people and culture remain mysterious to the Americans.

Narrative of the Expedition can be viewed as a mere book of travels for those who are bound to the (particularly U.S.) mainland, but nevertheless it offers a valuable insight into the mind of the author who wanted to introduce a newly accessible land and its culture. The result is, however, that the Japanese are portrayed in a way that renders them clearly different or inferior to the American readers which, in regard to the year of publication, only sows the seed of American superiority, as is discussed in the rest of the thesis.

1.4. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture

Written with the intention to reassess the stereotypes and clichés about the

Japanese from the pre-World War II and World War II eras and to describe the country so that the victorious United States knew what to expect after Japanese capitulation,

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) by Ruth Benedict became one of the sources for Western (the Occidental) public to become familiar with Japanese culture. The popularity of Chrysanthemum was partly due to the fact that “[i]n the 1950s ... there were too few books on Japan” and therefore “everyone read Benedict” (Vogel x). This fact gave the book a great power and potential to influence the minds of the Americans, and its influence was even greater because the book was published in the post-Pearl

Harbor period, a period already deeply shadowed by anti-Japanese sentiment.

Given the nature of Benedict’s sources – Japanese prisoners of war or the

Japanese living in the USA (at least some of whom must have gone through an internment camp), thus individuals already “stained” by Western ideals and culture, the book lacks critical first-hand and authentic experience. There is no acknowledgement of diversity (which is present in every culture) which precisely embodies the Oriental idea that all Asia (in this case it is specifically aimed at Japan) is the same, therefore The

Chrysanthemum and the Sword presents a rather stereotypical image of the Japanese and cannot be regarded as dogmatically representative (Freesen 39-46). However, even though it was written during World War II and is quite controversial as it has received both high praise and strong criticism (Freesen 46-49), The Chrysanthemum and the

Sword is still very popular even in the 21st century. Ryang states that “to this day

Chrysanthemum continues to be read and admired” (88). Additionally, Ryang also claims that in 1992 “David Plath and Robert Smith emphatically placed

Chrysanthemum as one of the most (if not the single most) influential books in the western anthropology of Japan” (88).

First, it is obvious that Benedict did not manage to write the book without prejudices in her mind and the Occidental sense of superiority, which is a shame since she was a renowned cultural anthropologist who should have been able to at least to some extent distance herself from the circumstances (her being an American whose country had been, when the study commenced, at war with the studied “subject”) to see clearly and objectively. On several occasions throughout the book, anything that is different from the Occidental norm is regarded as “nonsensical” (35) or “outrageous yarn” (25). The Japanese reliance on the spiritual rather than on the material is something that, according to Benedict, the West should ridicule (22-26). The distinction of the Occidental “Us” and the Oriental “Them” is very prominent in the narrative, as

Japanese customs are often put in direct contrast to American ways and conventions.

Furthermore, the narrative sometimes implies that the American ways are superior, not only by Benedict’s inexplicit usage of “Us” (“the Americans”, “the American’s view”…) and “Them” (“the Japanese”, “Japanese ways”…), but also by stating things such as “As Americans, we can completely discount these Japanese excesses as the alibis of a poor nation or the childishness of a deluded one” (26).

Benedict writes that the Japanese are a nation of paradoxes and contradictions.

Benedict’s title of the book, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword captures that notion precisely:

The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and

unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite,

rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around,

loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to

new ways. (2)

Because of this, Benedict regards the Japanese as unpredictable by stating that

“whatever [the Americans] do [the Japanese] do the opposite” (10). Because of their unpredictability, the Westerners cannot trust the Japanese since their behavior is outside the accepted Occidental manners.

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword also presents Japanese culture as “shame culture” (Benedict 222-226). The Japanese have a very strong sense of honor and dread being ashamed, which for them is very humiliating (Benedict 155-157). This explains what Hawks writes about the Japanese “system of espionage” and that the people thus cannot “act openly and frankly” in public (18). They would rather commit suicide to clear their name than to live in shame. Every step should be carried out with the utmost care and with consideration to the consequences it might have: “The Japanese avoid occasions in which failure might be shameful” (Benedict 157). This apparently indicates Japanese politeness: by being extremely polite, one avoids creating a situation which would result in shame for any party (Benedict 157-158). Benedict concludes that the Japanese live in constant “fear” of the other people’s opinion (222-227). It is important to bear this in mind as the following paragraphs are closely tied to the substance of “shame culture”.

According to Benedict, the Japanese are driven by a sense of obligation, constant indebtedness to the emperor, a fellow Japanese, to the world, etc (98-176). The system includes on, ko, giri, gimu, chu, which the Occidental can understand only with difficulties because the Occidental “owes nothing to no one” (Benedict 98). Benedict sums the essence of this system as follows:

The rules of giri are strictly rules of required repayment; they are not a

set of moral rules like the Ten Commandments. When a man is forced

with giri, it is assumed that he may have to override his sense of justice

and they often say, ‘I could not do right (gi) because of giri’ [, because

of this feeling of indebtedness]. (140-141)

The implications of this statement are explained by Freesen who argues that “[this] gives ammunition to the assertion that the Japanese have no guilt-consciousness and therefore cannot sympathize with democratic ideals. It also serves as a convenient excuse for Japanese ‘misconduct’ before the eyes of the non-Japanese” (44). It may seem to the Westerner, whose culture could be in contrast called “guilt culture” as distinguishing right from wrong is a matter of one’s own consciousness, that the

Japanese lack morality as this concept does not fit within the Occidental generally accepted idea of justice.

Benedict also claims that the Japanese are a proud and defensive nation which is heavily influenced by the concept of giri. Giri does not allow one to admit fault because it would undermine one’s standing and inevitably bring criticism from others: “The businessman … in giri to his name as a businessman cannot let anyone know that his assets are seriously depleted or that the plans he made for his organization have failed”

(Benedict 152). Due to their defensiveness, the Japanese cannot be trusted since what they claim might be just a mask, as Lyman argues that “… the Japanese presentations of themselves to white Americans were, in fact, calculated deceptions” (699). These characteristics fueled the American fear that all Japanese are spies (Lyman 689-699).

Benedict observes that what the Americans consider taboo subjects, it is not so with the Japanese. “[Sex] is an area about which they are not moralistic and we are”

(Benedict 183). While in the USA it is frowned upon to be unfaithful in marriage, in

Japan it is not uncommon to have a mistress while married. Benedict claims that “if [a man] can afford it he keeps a mistress” (Benedict 184). It is even customary that a wife helps her husband prepare for his trip to a brothel or a geisha house and pays the bills for these services. “She may be unhappy about it but that is her own affair” (Benedict

185). Such depictions of Japanese women only aid in creating images such as those that they are passive, submissive and that they humbly accept male dominance. It can thus be concluded that from the Western/American point of view, given this “licentious behavior” the Japanese are “an uncivilized people” (Wei 169) and yet again immoral and treacherous since the Western impulse for marriage is shared love between man and woman and infidelity is a sin.

Freesen doubts that Benedict succeeded “in deconstructing the popular cliches

[sic] and stereotypes” about the Japanese (47). To a certain extent, she might have just strengthened them in the already prejudiced Occidental society by offering a different perspective. Furthermore, because of her being an anthropologist – a respected authority, Benedict’s claims and findings have even more weight and in Benedict’s time must have been taken seriously and perceived as “true”. Given what has already been stated about the book’s popularity even in the present day, the combination of the claims and her authority is a rather dangerous one because if this popularity trend keeps going on, the Japanese will continue to be portrayed in this way. However, with all this criticism, there is not one person who would be able to capture and describe another culture completely objectively, without any prejudice or assumptions, as personal and collective experience must always be taken into account. Similarly, not even a native can take on the task of describing their own culture and produce its exact portrayal or description as there inevitably are elements which are inherent to the individual and therefore do not strike the individual as specially worthy of much attention.

1.5. The Four Categories from The Idea of Japan

While Benedict’s approach in Chrysanthemum is more of a study which tries to offer new findings and explain them, Littlewood’s The Idea of Japan: Western Ideas,

Western Myths (1996) is more in the form of commentary reflecting on the existing stereotypes which he presents as “images” – visualized ideas. He divides the book into four sections, each dealing with a popular image of the Japanese in the West. First and foremost, like Benedict he acknowledges that the Japanese are a nation of paradoxes, but adds a very important observation: the Japanese will continue to be perceived by the

West as perplexing and peculiar and will continue to raise questions because

“[w]hatever challenges the categories by which we understand the world is likely to make us uncomfortable” (Littlewood ch. 1). Subsequently, the Japanese and their customs are regarded as anomalies because many sources which deal with and try to present Japan in some form put the Japanese ways in contrast to the American ways, thus create binaries, and the world is seldom binary (Littlewood ch. 1).

The first category Littlewood presents contains images of the Japanese as subhuman monkeys yet superhuman ninjas (Littlewood ch. 1). He writes that since the half of the 19th century the Japanese have been described as animals or savages and that

“monkeys are the most popular point of reference” mostly because of their primitive development and their “kinship with the ape” (Littlewood ch. 2). This reminds of the

U.S. propaganda during WWII when the Japanese were portrayed as “rats” or other

“vermin” (Littlewood ch. 2). Furthermore, the Japanese are perceived as “stubborn and tenacious” like animals (Littlewood ch. 2), belonging to the jungle. Litlewood’s comparison to cattle blindly following orders hints at the Japanese and their great sense of loyalty or indebtedness (here to the emperor) of which Benedict writes.

However, as has been common in the West, Western images of the Japanese are often accompanied by their respective contradictory images, or the image contains both admirable and condemning aspects. Littlewood presents the image of ninja as a phenomenon both superhuman and subhuman. It is the image of “a creature who does not conform to our laws, either moral or scientific” (Littlewood ch. 3). The subhuman part comes from the Japanese resemblance to a monkey while the superhuman part from the extensive physical training ninjas undergo. Again, the Japanese are presented as complex sets of contradictions which only perplex the Occidental mind.

The second category presented by Littlewood is the image of the Japanese as

“Aesthetes”. Japan is according to him a “picturesque fairyland” (Littlewood ch. 6), consisting of silk-clad geishas drinking tea in tea-houses, breathtaking landscapes with

Japanese gardens, and “living” art. Littlewood claims that “[c]entral to the idea of picturesque Japan is the belief that its people are not just figures in a work of art” but that “they are themselves artists” (ch. 6) sensible to everything around them. Such notion is what captured the eye of the Occidentals at the turn of the 19th century and subsequently Japonisme became a trend. This aesthetic sensitivity only reinforces that the Japanese focus on the spiritual rather than the material as has been presented earlier.

On the other hand, Littlewood argues that the most used word in connection to

Japan is “little” (Littlewood ch. 9). Whether “little” refers to the Japanese appearance

(the Japanese are usually portrayed as of small height), to something beautiful or cute, whether it is used as a compliment, “the language of size reflects the hierarchy” where the Japanese are inferior to the Westerner. The word is essentially “patronizing” and demeaning (Littlewood ch. 9). Littlewood uses the example of a bonsai tree to illustrate this: “However much we may admire the bonsai, there is a sense ... that it is less worthy

... than a full-grown tree” (Littlewood ch. 9), precisely because it is of small stature. As

with children, the Japanese do not tend to be taken seriously. However, the difference in this comparison is that children will grow up and become adults, thus the way they are treated will change, whereas the Japanese cannot possibly grow up from “being

Japanese”.

In the third category, Littlewood deals with images of Japanese women. For a

Westerner, the image of geisha is probably the most common image of a Japanese woman. Given her elaborate training in traditional Japanese arts, geisha might be considered on the one hand as an example of the “living art” mentioned above thus a source of wonder, but on the other can be presented as a “damsel trained to please men” or as “sexual wanton” (Littlewood ch. 11). This is connected to Japanese patriarchal system where women are expected to be obedient, subservient and submissive, while men are the dominant ones deserving respect. Littlewood further suggests that the

Westerner’s “slave-girl fantasies [of sexual nature but mostly of dominance] … are legitimate here” (ch. 11). Littlewood claims that Japanese women are portrayed with similar characteristics to children: “The smallness of the women, their diminutive features, their seeming fragility is a common theme” (ch. 11). It is almost self- explanatory that because of these characteristics, Japanese women are can be viewed as an easy sexual target because they cannot refuse the dominant man and that they simply are not capable of objecting to their advances. In other words, the image presented here through the figure of geisha is that of a Japanese woman, even though passive from her behavior therefore inviting, being a sexual predator and seducer.

The last category of Littlewood’s images concerns Japanese masculinity and the image of samurai. Even though the real Japanese samurai caste was abolished in the

1870s, it is an image that the Occident world typically associates with Japanese men even today (Littlewood ch. 15). In this samurai image, the Japanese are vicious,

violent, ruthless savages which is “part of their heredity, part of their culture”

(Littlewood ch. 15). Furthermore, they are treacherous, deceitful, their friendliness is just a mask and from this their untrustworthiness stem and this notion corresponds with

Benedict’s and Hawks’ notions. The Westerner cannot truly see what is going on in the

Japanese mind: “[I]t is considered a matter of honour and wisdom not to disclose the inner self … they are trained to this from childhood; they are educated to be inscrutable and false” (Elison qtd. in Littlewood ch. 15). Such statements reinforce the previous claims that the Japanese cannot be trusted.

Not only cannot Japanese men be trusted, they are also off-putting to the

Occidental females. On the account of male sex-appeal, Littlewood writes: “The

Japanese male is not much associated with sex, since that would trespass on the westerner’s fantasised rights over the Japanese woman, but when he does show any sexual indications they are usually perverse” (ch. 16). While Japanese women are perceived as submissive and passive, men are viewed as dominant and need to exercise power. The Westerners therefore regard the Japanese men as a danger to their Western women, only strengthening the feelings of Japanese aggression (Littlewood ch. 16).

2. The Japanese in The Man in the High Castle

Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle (1962) offers an alternate, or

“counterfactual” history, as Huang suggests (31). The novel is set in 1962 where the world is divided into the spheres of influence between the World War II victors, Nazi

Germany and Imperial Japan. The East Coast of the former USA is under German rule and West Coast under Japanese, where Japan has established the Pacific States of

America (PSA) and the Japanese are the ruling class there. Between the two areas,

Rocky Mountain States have formed a neutral, buffer zone. This chapter deals with

Dick’s portrayal of the Japanese mostly through the eyes of Robert Childan, a “native”

American living in the PSA and one of the novel’s main characters, with respect to the evolution of his attitudes towards the Japanese.

Robert Childan is a man in his late thirties, who grew up in, and therefore remembers, “the prewar days, the other times ... the former better world” (Dick 2), where Americans approached the Far Eastern countries and their people in a traditionally Oriental manner – America was the powerful superior colonizer and Asia the primitive and inferior land of conquest (Freedman 168; Carter 334). Therefore, these “purely Orientalist [and] racist views” are deeply embedded in his mind (Carter

334). A clash of two kinds of experience is inevitable: memories of superiority from the

“other times” versus the feeling of resentment originating from his current inferior position. This clash is clearly visible throughout the course of the plot, more precisely in the nature of his relationship towards the Japanese, which is rather contradictory and paradoxical: one moment they are “so graceful” and “polite” (Dick 94), the next they are “like monkeys dolled up in a circus” (Dick 100). This clash, however, happens only on the inside, in his mind – as far as his outside behavior is concerned, it is identical to all American characters in the High Castle. They just live under the given conditions,

no matter how much they wish these were different. However, their ability to cope with the situation is very individual – Childan’s relationship reminds a roller-coaster, while the attitudes of other characters (e.g. Frank Frink and Juliana Frink) are more or less stable (Dick 6-7; 26).

Evans argues that Childan’s attitude towards the Japanese is “a combination of emulation and resentment characteristic of a colonized people” (368). Carter correctly points out that “[h]istorically, the Japanese have been subjected to the full force of

Western [mostly American] colonization” (333); in the High Castle, however, it is the other way round: the Japanese are the colonizers, who, through their superior position, impose certain elements of Japanese culture on Americans – for example, English in the

PSA becomes “a kind of Japanized pidgin English” (Evans 369), or the introduction of the I Ching7, which becomes a very important element in the lives of the colonized

Americans. Since this kind of influence is a characteristic feature of colonialism, Carter argues that “the PSA represents an America occupied and ‘oppressed’ by a simulation of itself” (333). This Japanese superiority is bitterly felt by Childan, who loathes them for imposing their culture on Americans. Furthermore, his loathing is presented in the

7 The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is “both a book of magic and a book of wisdom, … one of the most influential and popular of the Chinese classics … [It] played an important role at different stages in the development of [Japanese religion]” (Ng 568). It “has served for thousands of years as a philosophical taxonomy of the universe, a guide to an ethical life, a manual for rulers, and an oracle of one’s personal future and the future of the state” (Weinberger). In the High Castle, all characters (Japanese and

American) ask the oracle for advice. More often than not, the characters’ actions and decisions are based on the oracle’s advice. In fact, Philip K. Dick supposedly used the oracle himself when writing The Man in the High Castle (Mountfort 287).

way he views them: “the Japanese ... are – let’s face it – Orientals. Yellow people. We whites have to bow to them because they hold the power” (Dick 21). Childan’s contempt is obvious, and his inferiority bitterly felt. On the other hand, he admires Nazi

Germany (traditionally seen as an Occidental, thus superior country even in Dick’s science fiction) and Germans “for their love of work [and] their efficiency” and, in comparison to the Japanese, “we see what can be done where whites have conquered, and it’s quite different” (Dick 20-21). Evans suggests that “[Childan’s] acceptance of

Nazi ideology is motivated, at least in part, by his resentment of Japanese hegemony”

(370); his mind is so clouded with his racism and his memories of the “better times” of

American superiority that he finds ethnic genocides acceptable (Dick 19-20) and thinks that the Japanese are the evil ones because they rule “his” part of the country and make him inferior.

Furthermore, he rejoices in every occasion where he can apply the privilege of being Occidental, specifically when interacting with Chinese or African Americans.

“Chinks”, as the Chinese are called, drive pedicabs. Childan finds it “pleasurable to be pedalled [sic] along by another human being, to feel the straining muscles of the chink

... to be pulled instead of having to pull” and “to have, if even for a moment, higher place” (Dick 18). This brings forth the memories of his Occidental upbringing, which later results in the idea of revolting. “Blacks” are enslaved in the High Castle, unloading ships at the docks and living in “shacks under the wharves, above the waterline” (Dick 19). If there is nothing to unload, they work as bellboys in the city center.

Similarly to Childan’s feelings about the Chinese, “it was out of the question to let a slave see him carrying something” (Dick 19), in his case a suitcase with antiquities which he brought with him to a meeting with a Japanese customer of a high position.

“A mistake of that kind would cost him dearly; he would never have place of any sort again, among those who saw [him carrying something]” (Dick 19). However, he immediately starts pondering over whether to carry his suitcase himself, even if the

Japanese saw him because “[he] could endure those above [him] seeing it, their scorn – after all, they scorn [him] and humiliate [him] every day. But to have those beneath

[him] see [him], to feel their contempt”, was unacceptable (Dick 19).

Childan tries to revolt against the Japanese hegemony in the PSA when, paradoxically, not long before he gets this idea of revolting, he is anxious and worried to step into a building owned by the Japanese government: “Was he absolutely properly dressed to enter the Nippon Times Building?” (Dick 18). While he resents Japanese hegemony and his subsequent inferior position (Evans 370), he keeps trying to impress the Japanese and keeps questioning if he is good enough for them. Such paradoxical ways of thinking are not uncommon for Childan and can be compared to the way

Americans have treated the Japanese and their culture – contradictory and paradoxical.

It might be thus argued that Childan, at least to some extent, embodies the concept of

Orientalism – he fights with how he should perceive them and behave towards them, which is similar to the way the United States have approached Japan since the 1850s as

Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan by

Francis L. Hawks and other discussed works in the thesis show. Other aspects of

Orientalism can be found elsewhere in the novel as the following paragraphs show.

Despite Japan’s colonialism and rule over the Pacific and Oceania, the country is portrayed in the novel as developing, as opposed and inferior to industrialized

Germany. Moreover, Nazi Germany is portrayed as “the true evil” – perpetrating genocides, while Japan is in comparison “benign” (Brown viii) as the Japanese influence things such as American architecture or lifestyle (e.g. the I Ching). Germans

have a clear idea of how to treat its subjugated territories and its people, but the

Japanese (and the colonized inhabitants of the PSA) still heavily rely on the I Ching,

“the oracle” (Dick 10), a more than 5,000-year-old book, to decide about their next moves (Simmons 264). This points to their inability to make decisions for themselves which is a general attribute of backwardness.

The upper-class Paul Kasoura says that “the Orient [including Japan – its Home

Islands]” is a poor place where “most of the masses still believe in magic” or “in good luck charms. Spells. Potions” (Dick 157). Furthermore, it is a place “where there is cheaper labour”, people are “uneducated” (Dick 156) and use “natural fibres such as wood ... and the ubiquitous pot metals” (Dick 16). In contrast, another character, this time a German, suggests that Germany had “created world monopoly in plastics ... By this means, Reich trade had kept an edge over Pacific trade, and in technology the

Reich was at least ten years ahead” (Dick 16). It comes, therefore, as no wonder that

the Pacific had done nothing towards colonization of the planets. It was

involved – bogged down, rather – in South America. While the Germans

were busy bustling enormous robot constriction system across space, the

Japs were still burning off the jungles in the interior of Brazil, erecting

eight-floor clay apartment houses for ex-headhunters. By the time the

Japs got their first spaceship off the ground [Germany is already trying

to colonize Mars] the Germans would have the entire solar system sewed

up tight. (Dick 8)

Childan cannot help but think that he is “stuck here on the West Coast, where nothing is happening. History is passing [him] by” (Dick 103). This is another of Dick’s attempts to turn the table and show the Occidental reader what it is like to be an object of colonization, thus maybe provoke in the reader a deeper reflection on their own history.

It has already been mentioned that Childan admires the Germans “for their love of work” (Dick 20). Moreover, he regards the Germans as noble – “nobility” is in his opinion something “the Nazis have” and “we [the Americans in the PSA] lack” (Dick

20). Given the opposing way Germany and Japan are described, it might be argued that, in juxtaposition, the Japanese are the opposite of “noble” – “lower-class”, “humble” or

“plebeian” (“Noble”); the Japanese are, in other words, savages. This correlates with the image of the Japanese as monkeys, about which Littlewood writes (ch. 2).

Furthermore, it reminds the way the Japanese were viewed by Hawks – “primitive” being the word he used (9), and treated at the turn of the century – the “coolies” were not even worthy of being called by their name, but just by a number instead (Takaki, A

Different Mirror 255). Even though Dick tries to turn the table and possibly show the other side of the coin (i.e., colonization), he still portrays the Japanese in a way which adheres to the historical portrayal of the Japanese. However, Evans suggests that by portraying Childan as a clearly racist character, Dick manages to hold a mirror up to the

Westerner and provide a certain image of them (370). Recognizing this image may result in a kind of awareness which might become disturbing and unpleasing, but no less true.

2.1. Representations of the Japanese in The Man in the High Castle

Several images have been presented in the previous chapters. Such images can also be found in The Man in the High Castle. For example, one of the images

Littlewood addresses is the image of the Japanese as monkeys, while being in some respects superhuman. La Bare points out that the Japanese, therefore, “find themselves

... somewhere between aliens and animals, oscillating wildly from one to the other”

(37). Eventually, this is the conclusion at which Childan also arrives, thus this process is discussed in this chapter, examined mostly from Childan’s dealings with a certain

Japanese couple.

Childan initially admires the “handsome” and “well-dressed” (Dick 2) Japanese couple, Betty and Paul Kasoura, that just came into his store – she is a “stylish”

Oriental beauty with whom Childan “could easily fall in love with” (Dick 3), he is equally worthy of admiration: “Pride showed on his face ... Not one of the gum- chewing boorish draftees with their greedy peasant faces ... No – this man was of the elite. Cultured, educated …” (Dick 3). Moreover, he yearns for their acceptance, for them to accept him as equal: “It [him being invited to Kasouras’ home to supply the right artifacts] was a chance to meet a young Japanese couple socially, on a basis of acceptance of him as a man rather than him as a yank …” (Dick 4). He then almost immediately starts dreading failure from his inferior position: “And yet he trembled with fear, imagining himself knocking at their door ... Would he do the right thing?

Know the proper act and utterance at each moment? Or would he disgrace himself, like an animal … ?” (Dick 4). It is clear he does not want further to humiliate himself – he already feels inferior enough.

Upon entering their home, Childan is struck with silent awe – the Kasouras, and by proxy all Japanese, are “[t]asteful to the extreme. And – so ascetic” (Dick 91). He

acknowledges what Benedict wrote about the Japanese focus on the spiritual rather than on the material. However, Childan does not ridicule it; instead, he admires this aspect of

Japanese culture: “Few pieces [in the room] ... The incredible Japanese sense of wabi. It could not be thought in English. The ability to find in simple objects a beauty beyond that of the elaborate or ornate” (Dick 91). By saying that “it could not be thought in

English”, Childan admits the lack of wabi in his own culture and degrades it; the

Japanese are the cultured, superhuman ones and he is the barbaric, inferior yank.

Moreover, thanks to wabi he feels calm and attributes this to the presence of Tao, the

“Confucian wisdom” (Dick 12). Similarly to the early American curiosity towards

Buddhism, Childan, too, upon attributing his calmness to Tao, becomes curious about

Taoism: “What would it be like,” asks Childan, “to really know the Tao?” (Dick 92).

Although admiring and being interested in the Tao, it does not take long for him to completely change his attitude as his visit at the Kasouras progresses.

Childan’s attitude begins to change when Paul Kasoura regards American folk jazz as “the most authentic American music there is” (Dick 96). Childan then replies that “[he is] afraid [he] know[s] little of Negro music”, but the Japanese “[do] not look exactly pleased at this remark” (Dick 95), which suggests that they do not share

Childan’s racist thoughts. Given that the PSA is a place where African Americans have been enslaved or “exterminated” (Evans 370) and that Childan “in keeping with Nazi ideology considers African Americans to be subhuman” (Evans 370), such fondness of

“Negro music” is for him just outraging. Childan thinks that “‘authentic’ American music … should reflect European folk roots” (Evans 370). This attitude transformation climaxes in the conviction that there is an “unbridgeable gap” (Dick 100) between the

Japanese and Childan (and therefore all “native” Americans) – “what words mean to

[Childan] is sharp contrast vis-á-vis them. Their brains are different. Souls likewise”

(Dick 98). Childan mentally frees himself from the inferiority which is involuntarily imposed on him and from trying to be accepted by the Japanese, starting to see himself as the superior Occidental: “Think how it would have been had we won! Would have crushed them out of existence. No Japan today, and the U.S.A. gleaming great sole power in entire wide world [sic]” (Dick 98). Empowered by this reignited sense of superiority, he realizes that the Japanese “mania for the trivial” (Dick 23) only speaks for their inability to be creative and original; they are only capable of imitating and consequently fetishizing other cultures:

[The Japanese] pilfer customs right and left … Even the I Ching, which

they’ve forced down our throats; it’s Chinese. Borrowed from way back

when. Whom are they fooling? … I can tell you; me least of all. Only the

white races [are] endowed with creativity … What they say is true: your

powers of imitations are immense … you could paste together out of tin

and rice paper a complete artificial America. (Dick 98)

Childan despises the Japanese for fetishizing not only American culture, for trying to be

“authentic” by “drinking from English bone china cups, eating with U.S. silver, listening to [the most authentic element of American culture –] Negro style of music”, yet he does not realize that this is exactly how Americans represented Japanese culture till World War II (e.g. Japonisme, Buddhism). Furthermore, Carter argues that “[t]he

Japanese colonizers are mirror images of Western ideals and values instilled by colonialism” (333), making Childan a hypocrite full of this newly regained superiority.

However, Childan goes even further, suggesting the Japanese are intellectually inferior to him because they are “stupidly unable to grasp alien tongue, the Western thought” (Dick 99), which, given the historical context presented in the previous chapter, might instill ideas into the mind of a contemporary American reader of the

Japanese inability to assimilate. Furthermore, Childan, in line with Littlewood, goes on to dehumanize and alienate the Japanese by saying “[t]hese people are not exactly human. They don the dress but they’re like monkeys dolled up in the circus. They are clever and can learn, but that is all” (Dick 100, original emphasis). La Bare correctly argues that “[b]y turning the Japanese into aliens we can accomplish an act of speciation, similar to the [historical] attempts to show that African-Americans were somehow biologically inferior to Caucasians” (37-38). This corresponds with the discourse of Orientalism – by alienating one race, another can be exemplified as the one and only standard, only feeding the false sense of superiority in members of this particular race. To conclude, Childan’s transformation might be explained by the fact that in his mind the suppressed Occidental thoughts and the need to be superior (to which he grew accustomed to during the “better times”) have finally won against the need to be accepted as a man instead of an inferior yank by the ruling Japanese.

Subsequently, he can finally come to terms with the present situation and be content with his position in the Japanese-governed American society.

Another similarity between Littlewood’s The Idea of Japan and Dick’s The Man in the High Castle lies in the portrayal of Betty Kasoura. Given that Betty is the book’s only prominent Japanese female character, Dick does not manage to refrain from stereotyping her. The way Dick portrays Betty is precisely how Littlewood characterizes Japanese women – they are passive, therefore inviting. It is therefore no wonder that Betty Kasoura attracts Childan so much that he even starts fantasizing of seducing her while her husband is at work: “Just she and I, midday in the apartment.

Husband off at work. All on up and up, however; brilliant pretext” (Dick 130).

Combined with Childan’s desire to be accepted by the superior Japanese, Fanon explains his infatuation with Betty as follows:

The look that the native turns on the settler's town is a look of lust, a

look of envy; it expresses his dreams of possession – all manner of

possession: to sit at the settler's table, to sleep in the settler's bed, with

his wife if possible. The colonized man is an envious man. (qtd. in

Carter 336)

Childan hopes to seduce her by presenting her with a jewelry gift: “Compliments of myself personally, in order to obtain high-place reaction” (Dick 130). Childan starts wrapping the gift while having her in his mind: “Dark, attractive woman, slender in her silk Oriental dress, high heels, and so on” (Dick 130). This statement embodies

American thoughts of the mysterious Orient – women are “dark,” meaning not white, therefore different, and this difference prompts curious Occidental questions about this perceived difference: “What exactly does their difference influence?”, “How else are they different?” This curiosity is then enhanced by the impression of sensuality which stems from their attractiveness, only heightened by Childan’s thought of Betty wearing high heels. Sensuality then provokes sexual thoughts towards Japanese women, targeting them as sexual objects rather than perceiving them simply as human beings, only of a different race and of the opposite sex. The “silk Oriental dress” then substantiates Japanese art and the Occidental craze for it (i.e., Japonisme).

Dick, to some extent, portrays the Japanese in accordance with the previously presented images and notions found in Hawks, Benedict, Littlewood and also throughout the U.S. history. However, he manages something unexpected: by juxtaposing Childan’s nationalist racism to the Kasouras’ multicultural liberalism he

“subvert[s] the expectations of American readers who expect Americans to be the ‘good guys,’ or expect the oppressed to be morally superior to their oppressors” (Evans 370) – here Americans are the oppressed and the Japanese are the oppressors; supposedly the

morally superior and morally inferior, respectively. This is just one example of Dick’s attempts to show that it is not always so. By this, he challenges the traditional

Occidental attitudes to other cultures.

3. The Japanese in Snow Falling on Cedars

Set in the Pacific Northwest in 1954, just eight years after the end of World War

II, David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars (1995) tells the story of the murder of

Carl Heine Jr., a fisherman from the local tight-knit community. The accused is Kabuo

Miyamoto, a fellow fisherman of Japanese descent. Even though there is a legitimate trial with witnesses, testimonies, attorneys and evidence, the fact that Miyamoto is

Japanese is enough for most of the inhabitants of the San Piedro island to make their decisions about his innocence, or rather his guilt; the memories of Pearl Harbor and the subsequent internment of the island’s Japanese, which was by many non-Japanese residents viewed as the right move, are so embedded in the minds of the islanders that they are unable to approach the murder and the accused objectively. As McKay points out,

[m]oments of courtroom cross-examination alternate with the memories

of witnesses, drawing our attention to the inconsistencies between past

events, their recollection in testimony, and their incorporation within a

legal framework skewed toward the exploitation or rectification of anti-

Japanese prejudice within audience and jury. Stereotypes and their

capacity to foster (mis)assumptions comprise the currency of exchange

in these moments. (652)

Snow Falling on Cedars shows how powerful and dangerous stereotypes and prejudices can be – decisions based on them and the inability to look past them may lead to terrible things such as convicting an innocent man of murder. The level of prejudice in characters varies across the novel: there is Helen Chambers who believes the treatment of the Japanese is unfair and the charges against Miyamoto are “travesty” (Guterson

301); then there is Ishmael Chambers who, like Robert Childan in The Man in the High

Castle, fights with his ambivalent feelings toward the Japanese; and finally, there is Etta

Heine whose bigotry runs so deep that it “colors [her] every perception of right and wrong, good and evil” (Neumann 112). However, many islanders’ attitudes can be found somewhere between Ishmael and Etta, leaning more towards the Etta-end of the spectrum which corresponds with the attitudes of the U.S. general public after World

War II. The following chapter examines how difficult it is to deal with the past and what role prejudices play in this process.

3.1. The Struggle of Coming to Terms with the Past

While The Man in the High Castle offers an alternate history and rather straightforward images of the Japanese, Snow Falling on Cedars is more subtle in presenting them. The novel deals with the “authentic” history of the Japanese in the

USA as well as with the collective struggle to cope with the post-WWII sentiments towards the American Japanese. The trial, the witnesses’ testimonies and characters’ flashbacks provide an insight into the conditions the Japanese had to live under before, during and after World War II, but most importantly they provide an insight into the process of creating prejudices. Furthermore, Snow Falling on Cedars illustrates how shockingly fast Americans were able to flip their attitude towards the Japanese after

Pearl Harbor, an event which none of the resident Japanese had nothing to do with; the conditions for the Japanese went from a quite symbiotic relationship with the other islanders (the Japanese working on berry fields owned by the white residents) to full animosity coming from the white neighbors in a matter of a day.

Such shift can be seen in Ishmael Chambers’ relationship towards Hatsue

Miyamoto, née Imada, with whom he fell in love with when they were teenagers. Their relationship had to be secret; “it had to be that way because she [is] Japanese and he [is] not” (Guterson 85-86), or, applying the same logic, the other way around: he is

American and she is (as perceived by the islanders) not. Although the Japanese and the

Americans work alongside each other on strawberry fields and sea and celebrate the

Strawberry festival together, it is an unwritten law that these two groups are kept separate. This explains why the island’s residents are not able to tolerate the relationship, even though Hatsue is American by birth. The perceived difference between Ishmael and Hatsue is Hatsue’s traditional Japanese education. As has been explained earlier, this cultural difference is exactly what alienates the Japanese in the

eye of the Americans. Combined with the notions of their unassimilability, the Japanese continue to be seen as foreigners who have no place in American society. Ishmael initially does not see this otherness that is perceived by others. He does not consider

Hatsue Japanese (Guterson 162). This, however, changes with Pearl Harbor, America’s entry into World War II and the Japanese internment.

In conversation about the attack on Pearl Harbor which happened two days before, Ishmael and Hatsue assure each other that they will not let war hurt their relationship. However, when Executive Order 9066 is issued, it is Hatsue who realizes that her relationship with Ishmael is wrong, that “[they] could never be right together”

(Guterson 311). If society’s opinion was not clear before, it is now. She tells him so in a letter he receives when fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. Naturally, Ishmael’s heart is broken and consequently, he feels anger. The letter and Hatsue’s rejection cause a sudden change in Chambers: if he, prior to joining the army, did not acknowledge the differences between him and Hatsue and did not consider her Japanese, he certainly does so now. Hating the fact that he has to kill people as well as loathing the Japanese for killing his soldier friends and causing the loss of his arm, and for the fact that if it were not for them, such things would not be happening, he directs all his negative feelings and frustrations towards Hatsue, blaming her for everything:

Somebody else pricked him once again with morphine and, Ishmael told

whoever it was that ‘the Japs are . . . the fucking Japs . . .’ but he didn’t

quite know how to finish his words, he didn’t quite know what he meant

to utter, ‘that fucking goddamn Jap bitch’ was all he could think to say.

(Guterson 220, original emphasis)

He internalizes this hate towards the Japanese, projects it on Hatsue and, as Paul comments, “he returns bitter from the war and the heartbreak” (253). McKay argues

that during the trial, Chambers, contrary to other characters, does not express racial hostility towards the accused, but rather reflects on and contemplates about his past and the unrequited love for Hatsue which has kept him from moving on and living a fully- fledged life (653).

While the island’s community struggles to cope with the war trauma and the painful memories which the trial inevitably brings to the surface, Chambers struggles with dealing with a trauma of his own – he cannot let go of the past yet he cannot adapt to the present: he struggles between the love he once felt for Hatsue and the “strain” and “hostility” he now feels between them. The biggest and deciding struggle, however, comes when he finds evidence about the real cause of Heine Jr.’s death – the fate of

Hatsue’s husband is in his hands now. He cannot decide whether he should be the bigger man and step forward with the evidence and clear Miyamoto’s name, or whether he should conceal its existence and sentence Hatsue’s husband to years in prison as a means of revenge, a means of getting back to her for all the hurt she caused him.

Thinking about Hatsue and the past, he takes a walk to the hollow cedar tree where the two of them spent time together and where their romance bloomed, away from the hateful opinions of the public. As he sits there, he realizes that “he [has] no place in the tree any longer. Some much younger people should find this tree, hold it tightly as their deepest secret, as he and Hatsue had” (Guterson 389). Finally, he is gradually able to reconcile with the past, overcome his offended ego and subsequently he decides to come forward. The conversation with Hatsue that follows this decision results in the completion of his journey towards reconciliation: grateful Hatsue kisses him “so softly it [is] like a whisper against his cheekbone” and says to him, “Find someone to marry

… Have children, Ishmael. Live” (Guterson 392). The kiss and the words at last free

Ishmael who can now move on and start living in the present. However, moving on and

reconciling with the past is not common for other characters as is discussed in the following paragraph.

Etta Heine, Carl Jr.’s mother, is arguably the novel’s most bigoted character.

Paul argues that Etta serves as “the mouthpiece of those Americans, here islanders, who

(still) harbor racist sentiments against the Japanese-American population” (257). It is particularly true because the novel focuses on the struggle of dealing with the past. In fact, Etta is “the only person in the novel to directly accuse and confront [Miyamoto] as a murderer” (Paul 258) and this only confirms that Etta voices the sentiments of the older generation which is further discussed later. Furthermore, as Paul suggests, it can be argued that Etta uses the Japanese as “scapegoats for personal loss and failure”

(257). First, she was forced to switch Seattle, which she “found to her liking” (Guterson

99), for a “damp” and “tough” San Piedro island where “she developed a cough, and her lower back began to bother her” (Guterson 99). Second, she had to keep doing what she disliked: “Etta grew tired, gut weary, of strawberries” (Guterson 100), which only added to her general bitterness. She needed to find an outlet for her disappointment stemming from her unfulfilled dreams and hopes. Precisely as Paul argues, the Japanese proved to be the easiest target simply because they were different from and following different customs than her which she simply was not able to accept (257):

They lived in one of the pickers’ cabins … she could smell the perch

they cooked there. She saw them some evenings sitting under a maple

tree eating rice and fish off of tin plates. They would have their laundry

strung between two saplings in a field of fireweed and dandelions … In

the mornings, early, two or three of their children went down to Center

Bay with hand lines and fished from the pier or swam out to the rocks

and tried for cod … They walked barefoot; the kept their faces down. All

of them wore woven straw pickers’ hats. Oh, yes, she remembered them

well. How was it she was supposed to forget such people? (Guterson

101-102)

Her thoughts suggest that she views the Japanese as someone or something lesser – the straw hats and no shoes indicate their backwardness – their savagery, as does their laundry strung among wild flowers. As has been presented earlier, the image of a savage and monkey has proved to be an evergreen among the stereotypes about the

Japanese and Guterson’s portrayal of Etta confirms it.

Furthermore, in line with the claims from the previous chapters, Etta, too, thinks the Japanese are inscrutable:

The Japanese man [Zenhichi Miyamoto] nodded. He was always

nodding, thought Etta. It was how they [the Japanese] got the better of

you – they acted small, thought big. Nod, say nothing, keep their faces

turned down; it was how they got things like her seven acres.

(Guterson 111)

Their behavior is thought to be just a mask, put in place to deceive the Americans, which is another popular opinion that the Americans have harbored about the Japanese.

This supports Paul’s claim that Etta Heine is a character “who can incorporate the evil of the recent past (discrimination and racism) as a way of thinking still alive with an ‘older’ generation” (257). While young people are generally more open minded, the elderly have the tendency to be “stuck” in the attitudes they had formed during their active years and are reluctant to deviate from the opinions which time has rooted or even engraved in them. Heine is almost an exemplary case of this tendency.

Paradoxically, her contempt is laced with certain inquisitiveness about some aspects that make her wonder about and sometimes even admire the Japanese. First, it is

the Japanese industriousness. In acknowledging that they are “hard workers” (Guterson

101) she consolidates the notion of the Japanese being a “model minority”, a stereotype which first occurred in relation to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Second, she expresses further admiration when she thinks about the Miyamotos’ lifestyle, which she, as has been shown, on the one hand condemns: “They [have] no automobile for getting about, she [does not] know how they [do] it” (Guterson 101). Since the

Miyamotos belong to the island’s minority working on rented strawberry fields, they simply do not have any other choice but to manage without things such as an automobile. However, Etta cannot understand therefore must inevitably admire them for this because she does not have to (and since her arrival to the USA never probably has had to) face the same challenges the Miyamotos do. This is a matter of a very noticeable discrepancy in the historical approach of the Americans to certain groups of immigrants as is explained in the following paragraphs.

The conflict between Etta and the Miyamotos can be viewed as a parallel to the historical imbalance between the U.S. approach to certain groups of immigrants (Paul

257-258). In Snow Falling, there are European immigrants on one side – here they are represented by the Heine family, with the Japanese against them on the other side. From the viewpoint of origin, the Heines (Carl Sr. and Etta) and the Miyamotos (Zenhichi and Mrs. Miyamoto) are equal: all four are immigrants, neither of them is a citizen. Yet in practice, as has been discussed in the first chapter, the rights they could enjoy within the boundaries of law differ to an alarming extent: since the Japanese were “clearly of a race which is not Caucasian” (Ngai qtd. in Imai, “Ozawa”), therefore they could not own land and furthermore there was at the time virtually no chance of them obtaining citizenship. Europeans on the other hand did not face such obstacles. They were free to do as they wished. And so the Heines came to the possession of several acres

of strawberry fields and participated in sharecropping – the “Indians and the Japanese

… yearly picked on the Heine farm” (Guterson 99). This, in contrast, naturally puts the Heines in a certain position of superiority which Etta clearly acknowledges: when

Carl Heine Sr. thinks out loud over whether to sell seven acres of his strawberry field to

Zenhichi Miyamoto and by doing so make some extra money, Etta is angered by this proposition as she “[stands] at the sink with her back to him [doing] her dishes hard”.

(Guterson 103). Furthermore, she considers it below them to sell to the Japanese:

“We’re not such paupers as to sell to the Japs, are we? For new clothes? For a pouch of fancy pipe tobacco?” (Guterson 104). It does not matter that the seven acres in question are located in the worst and the most demanding part of the whole field. She cannot bear the possible embarrassment it would bring if she and Carl Sr. were to sell to the

Japanese.

Similarly to their parents, Carl Heine Jr. and Kabuo Miyamoto are on equal terms: both are second-generation immigrants with foreign-born parents, both are

American citizens by birth. Yet they are portrayed and treated very differently: Carl, known by most members of the San Piedro community, is presented as “a salmon gill- netter with a wife and three children” now “buried now in the Lutheran cemetery up on

Indian Knob Hill” (Guterson 1). Such portrayal (a dead, possibly murdered married man and a father of three with a respectable job) evokes sympathetic feelings towards the victim and in contrast condemning feelings towards the accused. Miyamoto, on the other hand, is described as a “proud man sitting upright with a rigid face” which

“show[s] nothing – not even a flicker of his eyes”, and therefore he “[does] not appear moved at all” (Guterson 1), even when sitting at his own trial where he faces murder charges. Such portrayal supports Benedict’s claims of the Japanese absence of

consciousness and their consequent inability to feel guilt, therefore they cannot be considered human (140-141).

The reason for this stark contrast is that Carl’s family comes from Germany,

Europe – Carl is therefore part of the Occidental “Us”, the familiar and predictable.

Kabuo’s family comes from Japan and therefore belongs to the Oriental “Them”, the unfamiliar and unpredictable. Subsequently, while Carl’s immigrant history is not an issue precisely because his lineage comes from Europe, the fact that the Miyamotos are

Japanese brings many hardships for them. This points to the dual treatment of the immigrants in the U.S. history: generally, European immigrants could quite easily pass for an American as their appearance was almost the same as that of any other American and were therefore accepted because they successfully assimilated, the Japanese

“otherness” which was clear at a mere glance provoked in turn the notions of their inability to assimilate.

On the other hand, full assimilation cannot be achieved if the group that is supposed to assimilate is continuously excluded from the ordinary life or from parts of it. It is similar with the Japanese community in Snow Falling on Cedars. Because of the reasons stated above, the Germans have successfully integrated into American society and are considered part of the island community as Art Moran, the island’s sheriff, asserts that “[a]ll in all … Carl Heine was a good man” (Guterson 13). The Japanese, on the other hand, are directly and intentionally, locally and globally8 excluded. It does not matter if the exclusion is caused by their lack of automobile for the reasons stated above, by following Japanese habits or by being pitted against a team of whites in a

8 “Globally” meaning across the USA.

softball game (Guterson 68). If the society is not willing to overcome its fears and prejudices towards certain group and subsequently if it is not willing to accept the members of this group as they are, the group will never succeed in assimilating.

Furthermore, it is not fair to hold it against its members if the general public is not willing to meet them halfway. But then again, history has never been fair to the marginalized. It is a vicious circle and quite a tough one to break out of because as has been presented in this chapter, collective history, memories and trauma cannot be so easily forgotten or overcome.

Just as some images from Littlewood’s The Idea of Japan can be applied to the way the Japanese are portrayed in The Man in the High Castle, certain matching images from The Idea of Japan can be found in Snow Falling on Cedars. It has been shown that Etta’s opinions are paradoxical. For all her loathing and blaming them for personal misfortune, she cannot but notice a certain thing about the Japanese, which baffles her:

Etta watched Zenhichi. It occurred to her that he had not grown old …

For ten years he’d been working these very same fields, his eyes were

still clear, his back was straight, his skin was taut, his belly remained

lean and hard. Ten years he had worked in the same fields she had, and

yet he hadn’t aged a day … his head was erect, his complexion brown

and healthy. And all of this was part of his mystery, his distance from

what she was. Something he knew about kept him from aging while she

… grew old and weary – something he knew about yet kept to himself,

bottled up behind his face. Maybe it was Jap religion … or maybe it was

in his blood. There didn’t seem any way to know. (Guterson 115-116,

original emphasis)

In this trail of thought, Etta addresses the notion of Japanese superhumanity, an image which Littlewood describes with relation to their simultaneous beastliness. However, the way she contrasts Zenhichi and herself only suggests that she has just found one more thing by which she can hate the Japanese a bit more. She is envious but cannot let this envy show, so she turns it into contempt instead.

Another image that can be found in Snow Falling is specifically the matter of the upbringing, or rather the result of, of the Japanese boys and girls. Girls, as Mrs.

Shigemura’s instructions to Hatsue hint, are brought up to be gracious, beautiful and aesthetic – Hatsue was taught “how to sing with composure and how to sit, walk, and stand gracefully” (Guterson 72). Guterson too implies the Japanese focus on the spiritual as girls must still themselves and overcome their egos in order to be tranquil

(Guterson 73). Furthermore, this disregard of one’s ego teaches them that whatever hardships they may face, they must always stay composed. This resonates with

Benedict’s claims about the Japanese wife: if she is unhappy about what her husband does, it is her problem and hers only to deal with (185). Simultaneously, Japanese girls are brought up to be submissive and silent, as Mrs. Shigemura stresses that Hatsue

“must never look at a man directly” (Guterson 72). This corresponds with Littlewood’s interpretation of the Japanese woman: she is submissive and must obey her husband.

Guterson, through the character of Mrs. Shigemura, acknowledges that since the beginnings of the U.S. interest in Japan, Western men have fantasized about the mysterious women of Japan (74). But contrary to this awareness, Hatsue is portrayed in such a way that she still “exemplifies … an exotic grace and beauty” (Neumann 112) which underlies the image of the Japanese woman as an Oriental beauty, leading to

Littlewood’s assertion that they are, in their submission, in fact predators.

The fact that Hatsue, a Nisei, receives education in traditional Japanese arts and

(female) behavior echoes the narrative of Takaki and CWRIC about the efforts of the

Nisei to prepare their children for life in both countries, the USA and Japan (274-276;

38 respectively). In Hatsue’s case, it was her Issei parents’ fear that “living among the hakujin9” would become “living intertwined with them” (Guterson 177, original emphasis); Hatsue must not forget that “she [is] first and foremost Japanese” (Guterson

74). Hatsue eventually internalizes this and on these grounds ends her secret relationship with Ishmael Chambers, and marries “a boy of her own kind whose heart is strong and good” (Guterson 74), Kabuo Miyamoto.

While girls are brought up to become silent and aesthetic, graceful women, it could be said that boys are, on the contrary, brought up to become ninja- and samurai- like figures. It is specially through their training of kendo. As the local coroner Horace

Whaley explains, kendo is “stick fighting” and “Japs are trained in it from when they’re kids”, adding that they know “[h]ow to kill with sticks” (Guterson 50). Horace Whaley is an example of how powerful prejudices are and what role personal experience plays in creating them. He is on the one hand a coroner leading Carl’s autopsy; therefore he has a certain authority over the judgements, and on the other he is a WWII veteran who has seen the way the Japanese fight. This leads to a clash when assessing Carl Heine

Jr.’s wounds. What he sees first is a hole in his skull and immediately thinks of its resemblance to the wounds the Japanese inflicted on their enemies during the war:

“‘[Heine Jr.] got hit pretty hard with something fairly flat … Puts me in mind of a type of gun butt wound I saw a few times in the war. One of those kendo strikes the Japs

9 Hakujin means “white person” or “Caucasian” in Japanese (“Hakujin”).

used.’ (Guterson 50).” Even though he later considers that the laceration in Carl’s skull might have been caused by, for example, a fall after a heart stroke, he still says to the sheriff that “if he was inclined to play Sherlock Holmes he ought to start looking for a

Jap with a bloody gun butt – a right handed Jap, to be precise” (Guterson 52). It is his commentary that makes Art Moran specifically suspicious of Kabuo Miyamoto. Given what notions the image of a Japanese warrior entails (lack of consciousness, morals etc.) and that Heine Jr. was a member of the island’s community, it seems only logical that Whaley associates the wound on his skull with a member of the excluded minority whose style of upbringing, or rather its result, matches Whaley’s war experience with the Japanese. It is easier to blame someone who stands out from the majority: the

Japanese are unassimilable for so many reasons and different in so many ways, so why should it be a problem for them to kill since they are trained to do it since childhood anyway?

Racial prejudice and war trauma shadow the whole trial. However, it is in the attorney’s final speeches and in what comes after them that the prejudice is most visible: Alvin Hooks, the prosecutor, ends his speech by these words:

We’re talking about convicting a man of murder in the first degree.

We’re talking about justice, finally [(original emphasis)]. We’re talking

about looking clearly at the defendant and seeing the truth self-evident in

him and in the facts present in this case. Take a good look, ladies and

gentlemen, at the defendant sitting over there. Look into his eyes,

consider his face, and ask yourself what your duty is as citizens of this

community. (Guterson 365)

Hooks’ name, as McKay correctly points out, characterizes his opinions and mind-set: he “seeks to conjoin or otherwise affix his interpretation of Kabuo’s actions to

memories of war and propaganda images of the Japanese” (658). This is apparent from the words he chooses in his final speech. When talking about justice, not only does he mean justice for the victim, but also for the whole country. He strips Miyamoto of individuality and projects the events and the results of the past on Miyamoto. In convicting Miyamoto of the murder of the “good man” Carl who “stopp[ed] to help his enemy” (Guterson 364), but who in doing so found his death, Hooks offers the jurors a means of reconciliation with the past. By convicting the Japanese man, the community might finally be able to deal with the trauma. Hooks appeals to the jurors to see the war enemy in Miyamoto, he even calls it the jurors’ duty to consider his Japanese origin.

Nels Gudmundsson, the defendant’s attorney whose name “recalls lineage, wisdom, and fatherly guidance, evoking a paternalistic expectation of upright behavior”

(McKay 658), correctly exposes Hooks attempts to convince the jury to act on prejudice from the war times (Guterson 366). Furthermore, Gudmundsson stresses that Miyamoto served in the U.S. Army and fought against the Japanese which has been, as history showed, conveniently ignored. What Hooks and the island’s community see as animal- like features , specifically his lack of emotions and his expressionless face which make him cold and “not like [the residents] at all” (Guterson 362), Gudmundsson ascribes this to the effect war had on him and appeals that the jury must look past this. Yet still, the jury finds it hard to do so (Guterson 377-381). The jurors’ discussions about the verdict remind of Reginald Rose’s play 12 Angry Men – eleven jurors have come to the conclusion that the defendant is guilty; one man tries to convince them otherwise and eventually succeeds. However, it is not known whether in this case the twelfth man succeeds but it seems that he is losing. When Chambers decides to come forward with the evidence and thus dismisses the jury, he spares them the consequences of convicting an innocent man on the basis of prejudice.

To conclude, in Snow Falling on Cedars, Guterson shows, on the one hand, how difficult it is to look past prejudices when personal and collective trauma and the memories of it are deeply rooted in the minds of the community. Through the character of Ishmael Chambers, “a narrative circle of character development reaches its completion, thereby end[s] the succession of persecutions in the community as well”

(McKay 658). Chambers, contrary to the majority of the islanders, finally manages to come to terms with the past. Through him, Guterson provides the nation with hope and shows that it is indeed possible to recover from the trauma. Furthermore, wallowing in the past never leads to anything but only worsens everything.

Conclusion

Having analyzed Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle and David

Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars and their respective representations of the

Japanese, it can be concluded that, even if the two primary sources are of different

genres and even if the motive is different, the images presented in them are more or less

identical. Despite that Dick had a chance to portray the Japanese any way he wanted

due to the High Castle being a work of science fiction and alternate history, he still

presents the Japanese in quite a stereotypical way. However, there is a reason for doing

so: he challenges the reader’s views which adhere to the stereotypical Western way of

viewing the Japanese (but also other races in general). Guterson’s Snow Falling on

Cedars reflects on the past and the way deeply rooted prejudices propel one’s behavior.

Similarly to Dick, Guterson too uses the typical stereotypes and images, but his reason

for doing so is different: he shows how powerful irrational stereotyping can be and

what dire consequences it can have. Through Etta Heine, Guterson shows the bigotry

that older generations still harbor towards the Japanese, and through Ishmael Chambers

he shows the contrary: moving on is possible, and that, indeed, is the way forward.

Wallowing in the past, however, leads nowhere.

Furthermore, having used Said’s concept of Orientalism as a way to introduce

the construction of images of the Japanese and having examined three popular

nonfiction narratives – Hawks’ Narrative of the Expedition, Benedict’s The

Chrysanthemum and the Sword, and Littlewood’s The Idea of Japan: Western Images,

Western Myths, it can be argued that the same images have, in fact, been occurring

since the mid 19th century. Given the respective periods in which all the books were

written (1850s-1990s), given the fact that the same (or at least very similar) images and

notions are present in them (e.g. the image of the Japanese as subhuman monkeys, the

notion of their untrustworthiness and deceitfulness, etc.) and upon combining these with the examination of the U.S. history and their treatment of the Japanese, it can be concluded that it is not likely that the Japanese will be viewed in near future in another way than in that which is presented in the discussed sources. It would seem that once established, there is no escaping these deeply rooted ways of thinking and perceiving other races, nationalities or cultures, even though these perceptions are based on a mere sense of entitlement, on self-attributed superiority of the white race and the western patterns of culture.

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Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to examine the way the Japanese are portrayed in two

award-wining novels by American authors, The Man in the High Castle (1962) by

Philip K. Dick and Snow Falling on Cedars (1996) by David Guterson. These primary

sources are examined with respect to the discourse of Orientalism, the history of the

Japanese in the United States and their portrayal in three different written works which

either introduce the Japanese for the first time (Narrative of the Expedition of

an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan, 1850), reassess the current

stereotypes about them (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, 1946) or aggregate and

present the images about the Japanese as a collection of popular images (The Idea of

Japan, 1995).

The Japanese are in American literature and culture often seen and portrayed,

for example, as animal-like creatures who lack any conscience and therefore, they lack

humanity. They are inscrutable and unreadable therefore treacherous and dangerous.

Japanese wives are seen as passive and submissive women but at the same time,

precisely because of their passivity, they are seen as sexual predators. It is found that

over the course of 150 years, the images of the Japanese have not changed, and it is

concluded that it is unlikely that they will ever change, certainly not for the better.

Resumé

Tato práce se zabývá zobrazením Japonců ve dvou amerických románech The

Man in the High Castle (1962) od Philipa K. Dicka a Snow Falling on Cedars (1994)

od Davida Gutersona. Cílem této práce je zjistit, do jaké míry odpovídá jejich zobrazení

v těchto románech tomu, jak je na ně nahlíženo napříč americkou historií a jak jsou

zobrazováni v jiných třech dílech, které buď seznamují s Japonci a japonskou kulturou

(Narrative of the Expedition to the China Seas and Japan, 1850), snaží se přehodnotit

stávající stereotypy o Japoncích (The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, 1946), nebo je

shrnují do jednoho populárního celku (The Idea of Japan, 1995).

Japonci jsou v americké literatuře a kultuře často zobrazováni, a tak je na ně i

nahlíženo, jako bytosti bez svědomí podobné zvířeti. Jsou nevyzpytatelní, nečitelní,

skrývají své emoce, a to je činí v očích Američanů nebezpečnými a nedůvěryhodnými.

Japonské ženy jsou pak zobrazovány jako pasivní a submisivní, ale zároveň je na ně

nahlíženo, a to přesně kvůli jejich pasivitě, jako na sexuální predátorky. Z analýz

vyplývá, že se způsob, jakým Američané nahlížejí na Japonce, za posledních 150 let

téměř nezměnil. Na základě toho je dospěno k názoru, že je nepravděpodobné, že se

tento způsob v budoucnu změní k lepšímu.