Aisan American Literature

MONICA SONE , NISEI DAUGHTER

In Nisei Daughter , author Monica Sone likens her dual identity as a Japanese-American to having two heads . Not only is she distinctly different from other Americans (at a far less racially tolerant time but her life brings together two radically different cultures which require her to wrestle with each aspect of her identity , which she finally resolves in adulthood

From the outset , Sone (then named Kazuko Itoi ) makes clear that she feels American and found her Japanese identity embarrassing or inconvenient as a child . At age six

, her first encounter with her heritage is negative forced to attend Japanese school after her regular schooling , she laments : Terrible , terrible , terrible ! So that 's what it meant to be Japanese - to lose my afternoon play hours (Sone 4 Generally accepted in her clamorous , working-class waterfront neighborhood , Kazuko makes clear from the start that racial identity matters little , and she does not understand racial identity until it is imposed on her

Japanese school underscores the duality of Kazuko 's life by teaching not only Japan 's language but also its behavior , requiring her to act one way there and another way elsewhere . She explains , I found myself switching my personality back and forth like a chameleon . At Bailey Gatzert School , I was a jumping , screaming , roustabout Yankee , but at the stroke of three . I suddenly became a modest , faltering , earnest little Japanese girl with a small , timid voice (Sone 22 . She considers herself an American and chafes at the strict Japanese discipline , claiming that I was too much the child of Skidrow (Sone 28 her rowdy American behavior clashes with her ancestral culture which mandates silence and deference

She and her family , which operates a Skid Row hotel , are already outsiders because of their Japanese ancestry , but living on Seattle 's rough waterfront (replete with itinerant laborers and hard drinkers during the 1920s and 1930s further underscores this . While her father has assimilated to some degree in to run his business - Sone claims , being oriental had never been an urgent problem to us , being in Skidrow (Sone 113 ) - her mother has not . She speaks only minimal broken English and occasionally embarrasses Kazuko , such as when she has an awkward conversation with Kazuko 's teacher and when she accidentally ends up at a party for the Japanese consul instead of at the theater to meet her children . In addition , they hear occasional racial slurs from neighborhood drunks , and Seattle 's corrupt police try to frame Kazuko 's father for bootlegging simply on a white drunkard 's word

In addition , the Itoi family is outsiders in Japan , despite being ethnically Japanese , because their language and manners are foreign While visiting her paternal grandparents (who , because of strict immigration laws , are barred from entering the United States , Kazuko finds her ancestral land foreign (her father admits they are not real Japanese ) and people there treat her as an alien . She comments , I had been impressed . but I had felt I...