Second-Generation Japanese-American Women's Strategic Exoticism in Toshiko Tamura's “California-monogatari”

Abstract

First-generation Japanese-American women were generally represented as “women of meritorious deeds,” “poor victims,” or “sexual degenerates.” But in “California-monogatari” (1937) Toshiko Tamura offered a new image of immigrant women. The story is centered on a cultural gap between the first-generation mother and the second-generation daughter. While the mother is morbidly obsessed with the vision of her country, her daughter strategically takes advantage of exoticism such as Oriental beauty. Thus uniquely Tamura represented immigrant women as tactical survivors in the diaspora.