Although the United States is a nation of immigrants, few Americans are familiar with the ethnic community mother-tongue schools that nurtured and maintained the immigrants' language and culture. This book records the history of the schools of Americans of Japanese ancestry, focusing on the efforts of the Japanese community in California to maintain their linguistic and cultural heritage. The main focus of the book is on the period from the early 20th century to World War II, but it also surveys conditions during the war and in the postwar era up to the present. The coverage examines the difficulties experienced by the ancestors of the model minority, from the San Francisco Japanese school-children segregation incident in the early part of this century to private school control laws in the 1920s. The book also surveys the lives of Japanese Americans as college students in Japan in the 1930s, as well as looks at Japanese communities in Hawaii and Brazil.

Immigration and racism are contentious issues in many societies. This book deals, in part, with these two controversies through the experiences of the Japanese Americans. No other second-generation ethnic group is given the kind of recognition achieved by the Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans). But it was a perilous journey, fraught with endless discrimination, questioning of loyalty, and even confinement in concentration camps. Yet they were able to achieve remarkable success in politics and made significant advances in American society. Although thoroughly assimilated, they kept alive their rich cultural heritage. America is a country with diverse cultures, and this diversity is to be celebrated and not feared, for herein lies the strength of America. The narrative begins with a historical perspective and ends with an observer-participant view of recent events. This is a story that needs to be told. Minoru Yanagihashi was brought up in the multicultural Hawaiian environment. Early on, he developed an interest in learning about his Japanese heritage and a desire to share this knowledge with others. He hold degrees from the University of Hawaii Manoa (BA), University of Washington (MLS), University of California, Berkeley (MA), and University of Michigan (PhD). His interest includes Japanese electoral politics and foreign policy. In recent years, he has focused on the role of Japanese Americans. He is a charter member of Pan-Asian Community Alliance, Japan-America Society of Tucson, and the Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition. OTHER BOOK BY AUTHOR Kumu Hula: Challenging Journey of a Hula Master, published by Xulon Press, tells the story of one aspect of Hawaiian culture-the hula. The Japanese embracement of hula is an example of the globalization of this dance form and reveals how cultural interchange takes place.

Discusses the history, culture, and religion of the Japanese Americans, their problems and their place in American society.

"Slim, well-researched, and readable, this is not only a social history of an ethnic community but a gateway into the ancient psyche of the Japanese." --The San Francisco Review of Books "... straightforward... informative... " --Contemporary Sociology "The Japanese American Experience... will be used with profit by professors and students in sociology and ethnic studies courses, for it is the best general text on Japanese Americans currently in print."--The Journal of American History "... a succinct and insightful account of the community's early struggle for survival in a racist society... " --American Historical Review This concise history of three generations of Japanese Americans focuses on their collective response to the challenges of discrimination and to the strikingly different historical circumstances each generation has faced.

Japan, like the rest of the world, has undergone enormous changes in the last few years. The impact of the end of the Cold War has combined with a worldwide recession to create a fluid situation in which long-held assumptions about politics and policies no longer hold. A classic, short history of Japan, this book has been brought up-to-date by Marius Jansen, now our most distinguished interpreter of Japanese history. Jansen gives a lucid account and analysis of the events that have rocked Japan since 1990, taking the story through the election of Murayama as prime minister. About the previous edition: With the two-thousand-year history of the Japanese experience as his foundation, Edwin O. Reischauer brings us an incomparable description of Japan today in all its complexity and uniqueness, both material and spiritual. His description and analysis present us with the paradox that is present-day Japan: thoroughly international, depending for its livelihood almost entirely on foreign trade, its products coveted everywhere--yet not entirely liked or trusted, still feared for its past military adventurism and for its current economic aggressiveness. Reischauer begins with the rich heritage of the island nation, identifying incidents and trends that have significantly affected Japan's modern development. Much of the geographic and historical material on Japan's earlier years is drawn from his renowned study The Japanese, but the present book deepens and broadens that earlier interpretation: our knowledge of Japan has increased enormously in the intervening decade and our attitudes have become more ambivalent, while Japan too has changed, often not so subtly. Moving to contemporary Japanese society, Reischauer explores both the constants in Japanese life and the aspects that are rapidly changing. In the section on government and politics he gives pithy descriptions of the formal workings of the various organs of government and the decision-making process, as well as the most contentious issues in Japanese life--pollution, nuclear power, organized labor--and the elusive matter of political style. In what will become classic statements on business management and organization, Reischauer sketches the early background of trade and commerce in Japan, contrasts the struggling prewar economy with today's assertive manufacturing, and brilliantly characterizes the remarkable postwar economic miracle of Japanese heavy industry, consumer product development, and money management. In a final section, "Japan and the World," he attempts to explain to skeptical Westerners that country's growing and painful dilemma between neutrality and alignment, between trade imbalance and "fair" practices, and the ever-vexing issue of that embodiment of Japanese specialness, a unique and difficult language that affects personal and national behavior.

An attempt at a final summary of much of my work in anthropology has been divided into two separate volumes, Status Inequality: The Self in Culture, 1990, published by Sage Publications and this present volume, Social Cohesion and Alienation: Minorities in the United States and Japan. Many of the themes touched upon in both volumes have appeared in a series of writings that stretch through a period starting in the early sixties through the late eighties. Some of these efforts resulted in books; others appeared separately as invited contributions to symposia, as special issues of journals, or as parts of edited volumes.

This book provides a comprehensive story of the complicated and rich story of the Japanese American experience-from immigration, to discrimination, to adaptation, achievement and contributions to the American mosaic. Japanese Americans: The History and Culture of a People highlights the enormous contributions of Japanese Americans in history, civil rights, politics, economic development, arts, literature, film, popular culture, sports, and religious landscapes. It not only provides context to important events in Japanese American history and in-depth information about the lives and backgrounds of well-known Japanese Americans, but also captures the essence of everyday life for Japanese Americans as they have adjusted their identities, established communities, and interacted with other ethnic groups. This innovative volume will become the standard resource for exploring why the Japanese came to the USA more than 130 years ago, where they settled, and what experiences played a role in forming the distinctive Japanese American identity.