N§U /to. GENERATIONAL AND TRANSGENERATIONAL ISSUES OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY Karen A. Mayeda, B.A., M.Ed. Denton, Texas August, 1995 N§U /to. GENERATIONAL AND TRANSGENERATIONAL ISSUES OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY Karen A. Mayeda, B.A., M.Ed. Denton, Texas August, 1995 Mayeda, Karen A., Generational and Trans generational Issues of the Japanese American Internment: A Phenomenologicai Study. Doctor of Philosophy (Counseling and Student Services), August, 1995, 179 pp., references, 70 titles. This study utilized a qualitative/phenomenological research methodology to examine the generational and transgenerational issues of five identified Japanese American families. To be included in this study, families were identified to contain at least one member who was interned during World War II or who had parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents who were interned. Semistructured interviews, including Adlerian lifestyle assessments, were conducted with the 28 research informants who represented the second, third, and fourth generations of their families. The major findings of this study were as follows: 1. Certain acculturational lifestyle goals emerged from data analysis. Acculturational lifestyle goals were influenced by the generational and family values that governed a generation's or an individual's response to various experiences. 2. Informants from the three generations studied identified several ways that the internment experience directly affected their current lifestyle goals. 3. Communication within families regarding the internment experience was described as cryptic and vague. A discrepancy was noted between the information Sansei and Yonsei sought about the internment experience and the information they received. 4. Two major coping strategies were interpreted from the interviews—Avoidant and Confrontive, both expressed through either external or internal means. Generational and family coping patterns were noted. Social and emotional repercussions resulting from the World War II internment were experienced by the Japanese American informants interviewed in all of the areas explored. Copyright by Karen Ann Mayeda 1995 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I. INTRODUCTION Statement of the Problem Synthesis of Related Literature Japanese American Generational Characteristics and Responses to the Internment Adlerian Lifestyle Investigation Purposes of Qualitative/Phenomenological Research II. PROCEDURES 23 Purpose of the Study Definition of Terms Limitations of the Study Research Questions Selection of Informants Informant Demographic Information Pilot Study Methodology Data Collection Methodology Data Analysis and Interpretation Procedures III. RESULTS 39 Findings Discussion Supplemental Data Conclusions and Interpretation Recommendations APPENDICES 161 REFERENCES 172 IV CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION During 1942, the United States witnessed the removal of 120,000 men, women, and children from their homes to be placed in concentration camps behind barbed wire. Although the majority were United States citizens, both citizen and alien alike were treated like cattle and herded off to desolate corners of the country. Their only "crime" was their Japanese ancestry (Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians [CWRIC], 1992; Davis, 1982; Nagata, 1991; Weglyn, 1980; Williams & Coleman, 1992). Wartime hysteria gripped the nation following the nightmarish Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed the fateful Executive Order 9066 which gave General DeWitt the authority to declare the entire West Coast as a military zone and remove all persons of Japanese ancestry from it. Japanese Americans were ordered to evacuate their West Coast homeland under the guise of national security even though there was never any evidence to support the need for such action and no formal charges were ever brought against them (CWRIC, 1992; Davis, 1982; Fukei, 1976; Hosokawa, 1969; O'Brien & Fugita, 1991; Williams & Coleman, 1992; Wilson & Hosokawa, 1980). Allowed to take only what they could carry and given little more than a few days to sell or dispose of personal property, Japanese Americans were removed to 2 what has been euphemistically referred to as "relocation centers." Here they spent between one to five years of their lives sharing abhorrent communal living conditions while being watched by armed guards. Housing consisted of cramped barracks made out of tarpaper covered planks and much of the day was spent waiting in line for meals, toilets, or laundry facilities (CWRIC, 1992; Gesensway & Roseman, 1987; Kawakami, 1991; Nakano, 1990; Tomine, 1991; Weglyn, 1980). At the time, Secretary of the Interior Ickes recognized the costly toll being paid by the internees when he pointed out to President Roosevelt that "the psychology of the Japanese Americans in the relocation centers becomes progressively worse. The difficulty which will confront these people in readjusting to ordinary life becomes greater as they spend more time in the centers" (cited in Weglyn, 1980, p. 220). The internment was a time of extreme fear, confusion, and apprehension (Mass, 1991; Nagata, 1990a). Through it all, the Japanese American internees experienced a foreboding sense of trepidation and uncertainty about what was going to happen to them and what the future would bring. As a result of the constant anxiety and loss of control, the internment can be seen as a traumatic event "or series of events which is sudden, overwhelming, and often dangerous either to self or significant others" (Figley, 1985, p. 400). Clearly, the magnitude of the internment and subsequent victimization felt by many Japanese Americans suggests the possibility that the impact of such an experience may also extend into subsequent generations (Mass, 1991; Nagata, 1989; 1990a; 1990b; 1991; 1993; Tomine, 1991; Weglyn, 1980). A multitude of studies which focus on the aftermath of the Holocaust on survivors and subsequent generations (e.g., Phillips, 1978; Rosenthal & Rosenthal, 1980; Russell, Plotkin, & Heapy, 1985) have established the precedent for examining the multigenerational effects of trauma. In his study which explored the multigenerational effects of the Holocaust upon survivors' children, Heller concluded that the "stressful events of concentration camp survivors greatly influence the lives of their children through a heightened sensitivity to culture and to the primacy of ethnic survival" (cited in Nagata, 1990a, p. 49). While clear differences between the Holocaust and the Japanese American internment exist, similarities relating to transgenerational effects have been noted (Nagata, 1989; 1990a; 1990b; 1991; 1993; Tomine, 1991). Tomine (1991) stated that "implications of the internment experience on subsequent generations of Japanese Americans need to be addressed...including the intergenerational effect of cultural coping mechanisms with respect to the trauma of internment" (p. 103). Nagata (1991) added that exploring the "possibility that positive coping strategies have been transmitted from Nisei parents to their Sansei children" (p. 128) would also be beneficial to examine. Nagata (1991) noted that "each [individual] will present a unique response to the internment theme depending on personal history, the age and circumstances under which parents were interned, and the manner in which parents have responded to their experience" (p. 128). Her conclusions correspond with many of the theoretical underpinnings proposed by Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology. 4 Adler believed that a person is holistic, phenomenological, teleological, creative, and social. Individuals are involved in consistently moving toward self- selected goals that they believe will gain them a place in the world. Heredity and environment do influence an individual's personality; however, Adler did not believe that individuals were determined by these factors. Both provide only a skeleton from which individuals creatively fill in their future course depending on the style of life they have chosen (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956; Ansbacher, 1983; Dinkmeyer, Dinkmeyer, & Sperry, 1987; Manaster & Corsini, 1982; Mosak, 1989). Additionally, Adler delineated that an individual's style of life is the characteristic way in which one operates in the social field. Lifestyle includes basic convictions concerning self, others, and the world which form the person's schema of biased apperception. The lifestyle is developed in earliest childhood and conveys the creative side of the development of the unique individual including one's meaning of life, goals to pursue, style of approach, and emotional disposition (Adler, 1931; Eckstein, Baruth, & Mahrer, 1982; Griffith & Powers, 1984; Manaster & Corsini, 1982; Mosak, 1989). Given the unique, phenomenological basis from which Japanese Americans have responded to the internment, a qualitative/phenomenological research approach is best suited for exploring perceptions and understanding the subjective reality of participants. Tesch (1990) stated that phenomenological research places the "emphasis on the individual and on subjective experience. Its aim is to