Hi all, For those of you not fighting the fire, you might be interested in this: Carol in Tucson >H-NET BOOK REVIEW >Published by [email protected] (October 2003) > >Lon Kurashige. _Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of >Ethnic Identity and Festival in Los Angeles, 1934-1990_. American >Crossroads Series. Berkeley and London: University of California Press, >2002. xxii + 274 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00 >(cloth), ISBN 0-520-22742-5; $18.95 (paper), ISBN 0-520-22743-3. > >Reviewed for H-California by Scott Tang <[email protected]>, Department >of American Studies, California State University, Fullerton > >Constructing and Contesting Japanese American Identity > >In _Japanese American Celebration and Conflict_, Lon Kurashige uses an >ethnic community celebration in Los Angeles known as Nisei Week as a prism >for viewing the changing and contested meaning of Japanese-American >identity. Festivities such as public parades, beauty pageants, fashion >reviews, and talent shows promoted the ideal second generation Japanese >American. The celebration not only conveyed positive images of Japanese >Americans to the world outside of "Little Tokyo" but also defined >appropriate behavior for those living within the ethnic community. > >Kurashige begins his narrative with descriptions of the Japanese American >community and of the economic, social, and political forces that led to >the creation of Nisei Week in the decade prior to the Second World War. >The planners of the first celebration in 1934 hoped that the events would >undermine anti-Japanese sentiment and foster a more positive race >relations environment. In addition, they wanted to create community >consciousness and ethnic consciousness among the Nisei. According to >Kurashige, the Issei merchants behind Nisei Week stressed the importance >of ethnic solidarity to encourage younger Japanese Americans to shop in >Little Tokyo at a time when they could purchase similar goods outside of >the community. Leaders from the local chapter of the Japanese American >Citizens' League (JACL) became involved in the planning process as well. >They envisioned the festival as an expression of Nisei identity that not >only emphasized how the Nisei were thoroughly American but also reinforced >the Nisei's role as ethnic representatives to the rest of the nation. The >Issei and Nisei leaders believed that the Nisei had to assume a bicultural >position in order to protect and to promote the ethnic community. These >leaders put together a program to celebrate both Japanese and American >culture and to commemorate the immigrant pioneers who achieved economic >success after years of struggle. Building upon existing studies that >treat the Issei and the older Nisei as a generational block, Kurashige >reveals that these leaders had similar perspectives and values, and that >they frequently engaged in inter-generational alliances. > >Those who attended the festival watched kimono-clad women performing a >Japanese folk dance and parades displaying costumes from different periods >in Japanese history. The planners promised tourists an authentic Japanese >adventure and tried to promote a greater understanding of Japanese history >and culture. However, as tensions between the United States and Japan >increased at the end of the decade, Americanism eclipsed biculturalism as >the dominant articulation of Japanese American identity. Nisei Week >events then became a demonstration of civic virtue and political >allegiance. > >Kurashige exposes the ways in which these articulations of ethnic >identity, including the constructed ideal Nisei, obscured the diverse >opinions and social cleavages within the community. Editors for a leftist >ethnic newspaper, for instance, criticized festival organizers for >ignoring working class experiences and even labeled a few local >businessmen as opponents of labor and supporters of Japanese imperialism. >Another part of Kurashige's argument against Nisei homogeneity offers a >group profile of the JACL to show the differences between the community's >political elites and rank-and-file Japanese Americans. After confirming >that those in the JACL generally possessed more cultural capital and >enjoyed higher socioeconomic status, he describes the limited occupational >choices available to less privileged Nisei and shares examples of juvenile >delinquency among Nisei youth. The festival's positive images of the >Nisei and the narratives of ethnic success and social acceptance >undoubtedly hid from view the realities of marginalization and >frustration. JACL leaders may have provided the dominant Nisei voice, >first one of biculturalism and then one of Americanism, but they never >represented the views of all Japanese Americans. > >During the Second World War, some of the aforementioned social cleavages >played a role in the protest at the Manzanar Relocation Center. In >December 1942, over three thousand Japanese Americans held a demonstration >to protest the arrest of several Kibei accused of beating up a JACL >informant.[1] The protest led to violence later that night: angry >internees physically assaulted several alleged collaborators, and military >guards fired their rifles into the assembled crowd, killing two protestors >and wounding many more. Kurashige portrays the Manzanar protest as a >challenge to the ethnic orthodoxy maintained by the JACL and argues that >class, education, and cosmopolitanism influenced whether one was against >or for the protest. By analyzing the social backgrounds of those >involved, he claims that the pro-WRA faction included college-educated >urban Nisei who had the skills, the opportunity, and the cultural capital >to succeed in the world outside the ethnic community. The protestors, on >the other hand, remained detached from white America and tended to come >from the farming classes. Kurashige also suggests that white racism's >persistence embittered the Nisei and led some of them to criticize those >who implemented and supported wartime internment. Kurashige's >interpretation thus revises earlier studies that characterized the >Manzanar protest as primarily a struggle between the Americanized Nisei >and the Issei and Kibei, two social groups which were thought to have >stronger cultural ties with Japan. > >Nisei Week in the 1950s and 1960s only vaguely resembled the celebrations >of the prewar era. Raising funds for community organizations replaced the >goal of bolstering Little Tokyo's businesses. In addition, >Japanese-American chapters of mainstream veterans' organizations, women's >groups, and civic clubs played a more prominent role in planning the >festival. Even outsiders such as the mayor's office and the local media >gave vital support to the celebrations. Furthermore, the inclusion of a >swimsuit competition in the beauty contest signaled acceptance of >mainstream America and suggested a move away from an ethnic beauty >standard. According to Kurashige, these developments reflect both the >postwar integrationist orthodoxy and the improving social conditions and >race relations experienced by Japanese Americans. At the same time, >cooperation between the United States and Japan in the war against >communism permitted Japanese Americans to identify with Japan without >endangering their position at home. Nisei Week parades began to feature a >Shinto ritual and floats advertising Japanese businesses. By the end of >the 1960s, Japanese corporations such as Toyota, Japan Airlines, and >Mitsubishi Bank represented the festival's largest financial contributors. > >Beginning in the 1970s, the integrationist orthodoxy and the anticommunist >partnership came under fire. Energized by the social movements of the >1960s, Asian-American youth criticized Anglo-conformity and asserted a >cosmopolitan identity that acknowledged their minority experiences and >connected them with the oppressed in America and abroad. For instance, >the Van Troi Anti-imperialist Youth Brigade interrupted the 1972 Nisei >Week parade to proclaim their support for the Vietnamese people struggling >against Japanese and American imperialism. The Van Troi protestors also >disparaged the beauty pageant for using white beauty standards to judge >contestants and for inviting white Americans to serve as judges. They >called for ethnic pride and for community control. This and other >challenges to integration may have touched off an ethnic revival, but they >failed to force the community to address racial, gender, and class >inequalities. In the end, the dominant articulation of ethnicity merely >shifted from integration to an innocuous form of cultural pluralism. >Kurashige punctuates this point with brief examinations of Asian-American >car culture and beauty contests. > >The final chapter of the book focuses on the movement to protect the >Japanese American community from "Japanization." Increasing Japanese >investment in Nisei Week and plans to allow Japanese corporations to fund >the redevelopment of Little Tokyo generated accusations that Japanese >Americans were losing control of their community and allowing it to fall >into the hands of outside interests. Japanese Americans representing >different generations and different political perspectives came together >to protest the redevelopment plans. Their efforts led to the promise that >redevelopment projects would be committed to both preserving ethnic >community and promoting international trade. Kurashige views the creation >of the Japanese American National Museum as a project that simultaneously >addressed the community's desire to preserve their heritage and the >corporations' desire to defuse anti-Japanese sentiment. > >_Japanese American Celebration and Conflict_ is a carefully crafted and >elegantly written history resting upon a solid foundation of community >newspapers, archival records, and personal interviews. Kurashige >creatively reveals the generation and class distinctions within the prewar >and the wartime community and how they shaped expressions of ethnic >identity. He suggests the constructed nature of Nisei masculinity and >Nisei femininity as well but does not provide many examples of the ways in >which these gendered identities are contested. Kurashige gives more >attention to gender in the postwar era by relating the various debates >concerning the beauty pageant. In my estimation, the investigation of >postwar ethnic community and identity formation is a thoroughly original >contribution. These later chapters are also the more challenging ones to >fully comprehend since a larger number of individuals and organizations >are introduced and since the presentation occasionally becomes a series of >themes rather than a chronological narrative. > >Despite this minor shortcoming, Kurashige's book remains an admirable work >of historical scholarship. It not only enriches our understanding of the >Japanese American experience in Los Angeles but also represents an >important addition to the growing body of literature shedding light on the >diversity within Asian-American communities. > >Note > >[1]. Kibei were Nisei who had been sent to Japan for education. American >authorities suspected that the Kibei were loyal to Japan and posed a >national security threat because they had been indoctrinated abroad. > > Copyright (c) 2003 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits > the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, > educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the > author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and > H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For other uses > contact the Reviews editorial staff: [email protected] >-- Carol De Priest <mailto:[email protected]> Honest Intellectual Inquiry <http://www.dakotacom.net/~depriest>