Nisei Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics (Asian American History & Cultu) [Hardcover]

Jere Takahashi (Author)

Book Description

Series: Asian American History & Cultu | Publication Date: November 11, 1997

To talk about "political style" is to acknowledge a dynamic and somewhat improvisational approach to politics; it is to acknowledge the need to work within the limits presented by tradition, resources, and social context. To speak of "political style" in relation to a particular ethnic group is to recognize their agency in shaping their history. In "Nisei/Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics", Jere Takahashi challenges studies that describe the Japanese American community's essentially linear process toward assimilation into U.S. society. As he develops a complex and nuanced account of Japanese American life, he shows that a diversity of opinion and debate about effective political strategy characterized each generation of Japanese Americans. As he investigates the ways in which each generation attempted to advance its interests and concerns, he uncovers the struggles over key issues and introduces the community activists whose voices have been muffled by assimilation narratives. Takahashi's approach to political style includes the ways that Japanese Americans mustered and managed political resources, but also encompasses their on-going efforts at self-definition. His focus, then, is on personal and social action; on individual activists, power, and ideological shifts within the community, and generational change. In telling the story of the community's complex and dynamic relationship to the larger society, he highlights individuals who contributed to the struggles and debates that paved the way for the emergence of a distinct Japanese American identity. Author note: Jere Takahashi teaches Asian American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"On the ever fluid and elusive topic of political identity, Nisei/Sansei is one of the most important books to appear on this subject in the last decade. With a careful and yet engagingly written socio-historical analysis, Takahashi develops a compelling case for how the shifting economic and social context shapes the political options and strategies. In that sense, this is a book primarily about political theory and political mobilization-but with a substantive focus on the specific history of Japanese-Americans." --Troy Duster, Director of the Institute for the Study of Social Change, University of California, Berkeley "Jere Takahashi's ambitious exposition of Japanese-American politics from the 1920s into the 1970s is a major contribution to Asian-American studies. His attention to nuance and detail not only illuminates their political lifestyles but also gives us another vantage point from which to view post-World War II America." --Roger Daniels, Charles Phelps Taft Professor, History, University of Cincinnati "Nisei/Sansei is a timely study; it takes us beyond the rhetorical denunciation of 'identity politics' by giving us scholarly insights into the relationship between identity and politics for Japanese Americans." --Ronald Takaki, author of Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans "Nisei/Sansei makes an important original contribution to Japanese-American Studies. Past studies of the Nisei generation have been premised on the assumption of generational homogeneity. In contrast, Takahashi's study is premised on the existence of crucial subsets within the Nisei generation and presents those subsets in terms of different Nisei responses to racial subordination within a larger economic context. This is at once the strength and originality of Takahashi's work which explains the triumph of the accommodationist response among the Nisei during and after World War II and the emergence of Sansei militance in the late 1960's... Not only will this book be of interest to Japanese-Americans and other Asian Americans, but to anyone interested in the sixties and wartime internment of Japanese Americans." --Yuji Ichioka, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

From the Publisher

A fresh look at the many and diverse political strategies that forged a Japanese American identity

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 261 pages
• Publisher: Temple University Press (November 11, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156639550X
• ISBN-13: 978-1566395502
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,623,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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