Carrie C. Scott

Did the Japanese-American Internment Alter the Progression of that population’s Immigrant Narrative?

As I was browsing emails, news, and Facebook, and drinking coffee, like I do every morning, I happened upon an ad for “Allegiance – A New American Musical.”  This musical is based on the experiences of George Takei and his family during the Japanese-American Internment of World War II. The Takei family was moved from Los Angeles California to Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas and then Tule Lake, California. I started thinking about the Japanese Internment and its possible effects on the immigrant narrative and I wondered, “Would the process of internment and eventual reintegration have any effect on the stages of the immigrant narrative? Would the process be slowed, stalled or halted entirely?

          Imagining America features two stories by Japanese-American authors, “Japanese Hamlet,” by Toshio Mori, and “Seventeen Syllables by Hisaye Yamamoto. Coincidentally, both Yamamoto’s and Mori’s families were “relocated” as a result of Executive Order  9066 (EO9066)  Both Mori and Yamamoto were “Nisei,” the Japanese designation meaning “Second Generation.” 

          Toshio Mori was born in Oakland, California in 1910 to “Issei” or first generation parents. When he was young, Mori “dreamed of being an artist, a Buddhist missionary, and a baseball player” (Inada n.p.). He ended up working for his family’s nursery business until his family was relocated to the Topaz Relocation Camp in Utah. While interned there Mori edited the Japanese-American Literary Magazine Trek (Inada n.p.). After the war, he continued to voice the concerns of disenfranchised Japanese-Americans with works such as the novel The Woman from Hiroshima,  and many short stories. His biographical information, and his writing seem to support an argument of early assimilation (he wanted to be a baseball player) and later, disenchantment and resistance that would normally be the hallmarks of a less-assimilated individual. Is this regression of the immigrant narrative, or simply the acceleration of the minority narrative? 

          Hisaye Yamamoto was born in 1921 in Redondo Beach, California. Her family was moved to the Poston Relocation camp in Arizona. After the war, she went to work for an African-American newspaper. She also began writing short stories that are known for being very well-crafted and providing a “slice of life” (Woo n.p.). Her writing is known for confronting issues of racism and inequality. Like Toshio Mori, however, her writing seems to have a resistant quality that would be much more characteristic of minority narrative than immigrant narrative.

          I cannot assume, or make such a sweeping judgment that all post-World War Two Japanese- American Literature should be read in the context of minority narrative, rather than immigrant narrative. However, the two authors featured in Imagining America seem to fit this trend. Just in my very brief research, every Japanese-American poet, author, or playwright of note that I came across had one thing in common. They had all been interned or their parents had. Hisaye Yamamoto, Toshio Mori, Lawson Fusao Inada, John Okada, and Wakako Yamauchi are all Japanese-American writers of distinction and they were all interned. Their works, which span several genres, all seem to deal with resistance to assimilation by the dominant culture that seems much more characteristic of  minority narrative. It is my conclusion then, that Executive Order 9066 and the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II did not slow or halt the progression through the stages of immigrant narrative. Rather, instead, it seems to accelerater it to the degree that the Japanese-American population (or the segment I have been able to examine) self-identified according to the stages of minority narrative rather than immigrant narrative.

Works Cited

"Allegiance Press Page." Allegiance Press Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2012. <http://www.theoldglobe.org/pressphotos/allegiance.html>.

Burt, Ryan. "Interning America’s Colonial History: The Anthologies and Poetry of Lawson Fusao Inada." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 35.3 (2010): 105-30. Web.

Elliott, Matthew. "Sins of Omission: Hisaye Yamamoto’s Vision of History." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic   Literature of the U.S. 34.1 (2009): 47-68. Web.

"Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese Relocation." Executive Order 9066: The President Authorizes Japanese Relocation. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2012.     <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154>.

Inada, Lawson Fusao. "Unfinished Message: Selected Works of Toshio Mori." Unfinished Message:  Selected Works of Toshio Mori. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 July 2012. <https://heydaybooks.com/book/unfinished-message/>.

Song, Shenli. "Haiku: A Dance in Solitude --- The Separateness of Asian Americans in Hisaye Yamamoto's ''Seventeen Syllables"." Asian Social Science 6.12 (2010): 172-75. Web.

Woo, Elaine. "Hisaye Yamamoto Dies at 89; Writer of Japanese American Stories." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2011. Web. 04 July 2012.           <http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/13/local/la-me-hisaye-yamamoto-20110213>.