Japanese Americans who emigrated to the United States after the 1880s concealed that they were Japanese while they endured difficult circumstances such as internment camps, poverty, and discrimination. They compelled their children to speak English and tried to assimilate into American society. As a result, they have established a social status as “successful minorities.” Conversely, the inheritance of Japanese language and culture is not common, and it is said that they exhibit an Americanized behavioral style. Furthermore, the number of exogamies with Asians is expanding, and they are increasingly considered as Asian American.

Under such circumstances, some 4th generation Japanese-Americans have become interested in exploring their roots and studying Japanese language and culture at university. In this paper, interview surveys were conducted with six 4th-generation Japanese-Americans in order to clarify the meaning of their roots-searching. The results indicate that their identification as Japanese-Americans becomes ambiguous because they are free from discrimination and indulge in wide-ranging exchanges. From this, their consciousness as individuals wanting to explore their roots through Japanese language and culture is revealed. Within this background, the society aims to restore diverse voices by promoting multicultural education. Such education emphasizes individuals and recognizes and respects identities that are formed historically, socially, or in relation to each other and gives young people a positive feeling when speaking a language besides English and expressing their roots.

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This paper examines the courage in the 1950s of Hisaye Yamamoto, one of the most well-known Nisei writers. While other Japanese American writers mentioned atomic bombing only after 1980, Yamamoto voiced protest against the use of nuclear weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in "The Streaming Tears" in 1951. In this story, she criticized the low level of US public awareness concerning atomic bombing. At the time of publication, anti-Japanese sentiments had not yet been suppressed, and the US and Russia were competing in a nuclear arms race during the Cold War. Yamamoto may have fully recognized that her works would not be accepted in the US, which boasted a strong military force. However, she was intolerant of atomic bombing, which disregarded the laws of humanity. By describing the suffering of an A-bomb pilot, she protested against the use of nuclear weapons justified by the US government.

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 This study is focusing on the race structure and the space structure of old Japantown, the role of Japanese American business and Japanese American community in Walnut Grove, Northern California.

 There are 2 Japantown and 25 old Japantown in Northern California. 9 old Japantown are concentrated on Sacramento Valley. The old Japantown in Sacramento County are developed at Sacramento, Florin, Walnut Grove and Isleton along Sacramento River. From 1860‘s, Chinese migrant workers, who hired on the reclamation of Sacramento River and the construction of Southern Pacific Railroad, moved to Walnut Grove. Afterwards, Japanese migrant workers moved to work at farm and farm products processing factory from 1890‘s.

 The racial segregation existed across Sacramento River at Walnut Grove. The east side of Sacramento River was the Asian residence area where Chinatown and Japantown were located. And the west side of Sacramento River was the White residence area for Italian and German. However, many Chinese had moved to Locke, because Chinatown burned away by fire in 1915 and 1937. Many of Japanese who burned out from Chinatown in 1915 had moved and rebuilt Japantown, so the scale of Japantown was expanded to the Northern part next to Chinatown.

 Japantown was divided into "Front Town" and "Back Town" across Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1940, Front Town was accumulated with commercial, business and public facilities. Back Town was accumulated with many detached houses and few public facilities. In 2014, the commercial and business facilities, owned by Japanese American, were closed and many buildings were vacant at Front Town. White and Mexican have been maintaining the vacant buildings and business in recent years. At Back Town, Mexican and Filipino were inflowing, instead of Nisei's aging and Sansei's outflowing, Christian church and Japanese language school were closed and only Buddhist Church were maintaining activity. Japantown, registered with "Walnut Grove Japanese American Historic District" in 1990, were preserved while maintaining the exterior of buildings and the name of tenants.

 Japanese American business had targeted on Jananese migrant workers who were hired at farm and farm products processing factory owned by White. In 1940, many kinds of the commercial facilities and the business facilities were provided for the male single migrant workers. Especially, some of roomings and ryokans were juxtaposed with restaurant and cafe to combine board, also with bath and barber. In 2014, because those roomings and ryokans were closed, all buildings owned by Nisei and Sansei are left unoccupied. In buildings sold to other races such as White and Mexican, commercial facilities targeting tourists to the historic district are running.

 As Japanese American community, Japanese Association and Kenjin Kai had played the important role for employment and living support, mutual aid and interaction between Japanese. In 1940, Christian church and Buddhist Church were the activity bases of Japanese American community, in addition to Japanese Associtation Offfice. Moreover, Japanese Association and Buddhist Church supported Kawashimo Gakuen to teach Japanese language for Nisei and Sansei. In 2014, the activity bases of Japanese American and Kenjin Kai were lost, Christian churches and Kawashimo Gakuen were closed, and only Buddhist Church have been continuing their activities. While receiving support from nearby Buddhist Churches and Japanese American Citizens League, Buddhist Church regularly hold events of Japanese culture and interactive meetings with Nisei. The role of Japanese American community in recent years is important for supporting the life of aging Nisei.

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　日系アメリカ文学は一般的に無視されている。これは他のアジア系アメリカ文学、例えば中国系アメリカ文学についても同様な事が言える。たとえ無視されなくてもそれは文学としてではなく、ドキュメンタリーとして考えられがちだ。それは

のイメージと密接に関連している。

　

は戦前は「ジャップ」として排斥され強制収容所に入れられた。しかし、戦後は市民権を渡得し「少数民族の模範」とされている。最初に移民者がアメリカの土を踏んで以来約百年が過ぎたものの、日系人の歴史や西部開拓への貢献は長い間十分評価されていない。日系人そのものの評価が不十分な中で、日系アメリカ文学も一般的に文学的価値に乏しいという評価しかなされていない。しかしそういう状況に対してアジア系アメリカ文学の選集である「アイー！」が出版された。それは叫びというよりも、むしろアジア系アメリカ人もアングロアメリカ人と同様にアメリカ人であるという人種的平等の主張であり、又アジア系アメリカ文学の存在の主張でもある。

　日系アメリカ文学を定義するとすれば、それは日本文学でもなく、又アングロアメリカ文学でもなく、文字通り日系アメリカ文学であると言えよう。その日系アメリカ文学は、日本人でもなく、又アングロアメリカ人でもない

によって創造されたが、その文学を理解するには、そのものを彼らの生きてきた時代背景を通して理解する事が重要である。

　

の歴史は排日との闘いの歴史であり、社会的には人種差別問題が彼らの生活に大きくかかわっている。

　戦前においては経済不況の責任を日系人に転嫁し排日運動が起こった。一九二四年には排日法が通過し、排日運動が盛んになった。第二次大戦に入ると強制収容所に抑留されたが、その際アメリカに忠誠だった二世も含まれていた。しかし多くの二世はアメリカへの忠誠を証明するために自主的にヨーロッパで戦った。戦後収容所から出され、一九五二年についに市民権を獲得した。以後黒人等の少数民族と比べ、「よく働き教育水準が高く、おとなしい」等の理由で「少数民族の模範」とされている。一九七四年にはアジア系アメリカ文学選集が出版され、一九七七年にはアジア系アメリカ人作家の会議が初めてワシントン大学で開かれた。

　次に主な作家と作品にふれてみよう。一九一〇年から一九二〇年の間はアメリカにおける日本文学の黄金時代と言われている。その代表的作家として翁六溪があげられる。一世の作品の特徴は実生活を題材としていることだ。主題は実に様々であり、例えばアメリカへの夢、排日、幻滅、西部開拓の誇り、望郷等である。中でも望郷のテーマは代表的と言えよう。今日、あまり日本語の分からない二世や三世の世代に移っている中で、まだ地下室に一世の作品が眠っていると言われている。

　二世の作品の主題で重要なのは、「日本人かそれともアメリカ人かというアイデンティティの探究」である。その背景には、アメリカで生まれ育ったにもかかわらず、戦時中収容所に入れられた状況がある。代表的作品としては、ジョン・オカダの「ノーノーボーイ」という小説がある。それは二世の内面的葛藤を見事に表現している。この作品は英語で書かれているが、この作品のように二世の内面を日本語で描いている作品として阿部芳雄氏の「二重国籍者」がある。短編小説ではトシオ・モリの「ヨコハマ・カリフォルニア」がよく知られている。彼の作品は、一九三〇年から一九四〇年の頃の一世や二世の生活や感情を見事に描いている。一九七五年には二世の作家によるシンポジウムがサンフランシスコで開かれた。やっと

自身により日系アメリ力文学の存在が問われ始めたと言えよう。

　三世による作品のテーマで重要なのは、「

としてのアイデンティティの探究」である。代表的作品として、ローソン・フサオ・イナダの「戦前」という詩集がある。彼は、“Black is beautiful”に代表される黒人解放運動に影響されて、“Yellow is beautiful”という考えを詩の中に表現している。又彼の英語は黒人英語の影響が見られるが、内容的にはの声を表現している。その他の詩人として、ジャニス・ミリキタニがあげられる。彼女の詩は収容所における体験を基に創造されたものが多い。おもしろいのは作品の中に日本語が意識的に使われていることだ。そうすることにより、としてのアイデンティティを表現しようとしているようだ。

　劇にはモモコ・イコの「金の時計」がある。これは貧しいながらも幸せに生きる日系人の家族を描いているが、テレビでも放映された。又、一九七七年に第一回アジア系アメリカ人作家会議が開かれた時、“Nisei Bar Grill”という劇が上演された。

　最近の三世の作品は“Amerasia Journal”に発表されている。

　ところで日系アメリカ文学の特徴の一つとして、それがアングロアメリカ文学と対比されて創造されたという点があげられる。それは

が自分のアイデンティティを、アングロアメリカ人と比べる中で考えてきたからである。テーマに関して言えば、テーマそのものがの歩みをアングロアメリ力社会と対比させる中で物語っている。一世の望郷のテ—マの背景には、アングロアメリカ社会における排日がある。二世の「自分は日本人か、それともアメリカ人か、というアイデンティティの探究」のテーマは、アングロアメリカ社会においてアメリカ人でもなく日本人でもないという二世の中途半端な立場を表わしている。三世になってやっと自分をとして位置付けようとしているが、文学においても同様だ。日系アメリカ文学はアングロアメリカ文学と対比される中で創造されていると言っても過言ではなかろう。従って日系アメリカ文学を評価する際、アングロアメリカ文学における価値基準で評価するのは疑問だ。

　形式面においては、使われている言葉に特徴がある。一世は当然日本語で書いたが、二世は英語で書いている。その英語もアングロアメリカ人の使う英語ではなく、

が使う英語で書かれている。三世になるとたとえ間違っていても日本語を意識的に使っておもしろい。

　日系アメリカ文学は、少数民族の一つである

の視点から見たアメリカを表現している。それは日本人であれアメリカ人であれ自分のアイデンティティを考える場合何かを考えさせてくれる。現在は日系アメリカ文学のルネッサンスと言えるかもしれない。

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Minority students often have their campus organizations conduct events and activities that help enhance their ethnic ties, confront discrimination, and improve their social status. These activities focus not only on school-related issues, but also on community life in general. They are regarded as one kind of identity politics. This politics has come to signify a wide range of activities based on the shared experiences of injustice committed against certain social groups. The fundamental objective is for minority groups to acquire a positive self-understanding, because they have often been forced to accept a negative self-image imposed upon them by mainstream society.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the identity politics of a college student organization which identifies itself as the Nikkei Student Union (NSU) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to look into what Nikkei means in the US now. The result can offer us some clues to understanding modem Japanese Americans, a unique major Asian group which has much fewer immigrants and achieves a relatively higher social status than other major Asian groups in the US.

The UCLA NSU was founded in 1981 as the first Japanese descendants’ campus organization to engage in identity politics. The most important annual event on campus is “Cultural Night” whose main purpose is to showcase what the members’ culture is and who they are. It consists of a Taiko performance, Odori, skits depicting their lives in the US, and other modem cultural performances such as hip-hop. The club has also played an active role in the community by helping in local projects, such as providing mentors to underprivileged children living in a low-income housing unit in Little Tokyo.

These NSU activities deeply related to identity politics are based on the concept of “Japanese Americans.” It is a framework for Japanese descendants to understand themselves as an American group not Japanese, which has overcome terrible hardships in the US such as internment during World War 2. This concept, which was produced and spread during the Redress movement, promoted Japanese community cohesion.

But the current NSU consists of not only Japanese descendants who are related to internment and the Redress movement but also new Japanese offspring whose parents came to the US after World War 2 and non-Japanese members. After joining the NSU, they learn to understand the differences between Japanese and Japanese Americans and produce a narrative to connect themselves to Japanese American culture and history, influenced by the concept of “Japanese Americans.” Each of the diversified members reconstructs the concept of “Japanese Americans” respectively. That is why Nikkei has several meanings in the NSU.

The NSU has played important roles in identity politics on the basis of a flexible concept of “Japanese Americans” not just for Japanese Americans but for people from other ethnic or racial backgrounds. This case may offer hints about how to surmount the essentialism that identity politics often causes.

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 This study is focusing on Japanese American in Stockton, Northern California, where old Japantown exist, as a case study of Japanese immigration in the world. Through the interview and housing research on Nisei and Sansei of Japanese American, it aims to clarify the feature of Japanese American housing and living situation. And also it aims to clarify the role of Japanese American community and local facility for their own history and culture.

 From 1868 to 1941, about 340,000 people had emigrated to the United States from Japan. The hometown of Japanese immigration had inclined to the western part of Japan, mainly from Chugoku and Kyushu district. And the settlement place in the United States of America had inclined to the State of Hawaii and California. Before the World War II, many of Japanese American had been engaged in the unskilled work, mainly consisting of agriculture and housekeeping. After the World War II, their work have shifted to service industry, manufacturing industry, commerce and professional.

 Harbor city Stockton, developed as the transport hub from inland, has the richest farmland in California. Many of Japanese immigrant had moved to Stockton for the work at farms and agricultural products processing plants. Near the Port of Stockton, there was one of largest Japantown in Northern California. In 1930s, the peak of Stockton Japantown, 150 species of Japanese business and 31 Japanese community had been active. After the World War II, because of highway construction and redevelopment project, the function of former Japantown had been completely dismantled.

 Nisei houses located in the south side of old Japantown. Along with the aging and the security deterioration of old residential area, Sansei had moved to the north side of new residential area. But Nisei remains in the old residential area because of the attachment to the community. At Nisei and Sansei houses, many of Japanese ornaments and articles have been arranged as interior elements. Most of those elements have been inherited from Issei to Nisei and Sansei. Moreover, the spatial elements of Japanese garden have been used at the front and back yards. And “KAMON”, inherited from Issei, have been used for the ornaments and articles, as the symbol to show their family root.

 The local facilities in Stockton, related to Japanese American history, have been functioning as the important role for cultural exchange with Nikkei community and local society. Stockton Buddhist church and Calvary Presbyterian Churchare are especially functioning as the important facilities for not only members but also fellows. The historical landmarks, Nippon Hospital and Stockton Assembly Center, registered by the State of California have been utilized as local resources to share Japanese American history and culture. With the transition from community aggregation to human network, Nikkei community activities have been maintained beyond the generations.

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This article investigates how Asian Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area began forming a movement in the 1990s and early 2000s that demanded the Japanese government to issue an apology and reparations to the victims of the war crimes committed by the Japanese military in the 1930s and 1940s.

In the early 1990s, protesting the Japanese government’s revision of history textbooks and some Japanese leader’s denial of the Nanjing Massacre, Chinese Americans in the San Francisco Bay Area began commemorative events for victims of Japan’s invasion of China in the 1930s and 1940s. These activities of collective remembrance led to the formation of an organrzation called the Alliance for Preserving the Truth of the Sino-Japanese War. As its name straightforwardly indicates, the organrzation aimed to excavate, maintain, and educate “the truth” of the Japanese invasion in China, while another goal was to demand that the Japanese government issue an apology and reparations to the victims. The members who had experienced or whose parents experienced the atrocities committed by the Japanese military during the war actively engaged in public education and support of academic research, and created a global network among organizations with the same goals by forming the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia in 1994.

The organization’s endeavors for public education bore fruit in the political arena when a conference by the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of World War II in Asia inspired California State Assembly member Mike Honda to introduce Assembly Joint Resolution (AJR 27), which urged the Japanese government to formally issue an apology and reparations to the victims of the war crimes. Honda, a Sensei who experienced the Japanese American internment during World War II, explained that based on the success of the Japanese American redress movement he had learned that an apology and reparations would heal victims’ wounds. He also emphasized the significance of this process of healing to the Asian American community in his district, which was divided by divergent memories of the war. Similarly locating AJR 27 within the history of Asian American activism, such as the Asian American movement and the Japanese American redress movement, other members of the community, including those who formed the “Rape of Nanking” Redress Committee (RNRC), supported Honda and his resolution. AJR 27 was passed in both California State Assembly and Senate in 1999.

Formed by Japanese Americans and Chinese Americans and emphasizing its Asian American panethnicity, the RNRC not only demanded the Japanese government to issue an apology and reparations to the victims of the war crimes, but also criticized U.S. foreign policy for blocking the demand toward the Japanese government based on the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Its criticism was clearly articulated when it organrzed with the Asian American studies program at the University of California, Berkeley a counter-conference against the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the treaty supported by both the Japanese and U.S. governments in 2001. Whereas Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka and Secretary of State Collin Powell celebrated the treaty for providing peace and prosperity in Japan and the Pacific alike, the participants at the conference posed an opposite view that the treaty had harmed international relations in the region. In addition, they demanded that the Japanese government issue an apology and reparations to the victims and the U.S. government to stop supporting the peace treaty.

Thus, Asian American in the San Francisco Bay Area advanced a movement to demand the Japanese government to issue an apology and reparations for war crime victims by placing their endeavors in the tradition of Asian American activism and developing a panethnic Asian American identity.

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