Americans in Process

This page has two important points on it. The first, number 1, shows the importance of loyalty to the family. Notice he says “...filial piety became the supreme virtue.” With a society set up that way, it is no wonder it was easy to make the Emperor the ultimate object of filial piety, a god. Since gods can supposedly do no wrong, it's no wonder that the people followed the Emperor, and the Japanese military acting through the Emperor (or in place of, depending on which view you subscribe to.)

In relation to note 2, a major change came over the structure when the Japanese emigrated to Hawaii or the U.S. They were many people who were around them who were not Japanese and who lived their life differently. They had more opportunities for financial advancement and the raising of their status. There was less influence from the Japanese schools, and so the immigrants slowly became to internalize American concepts. This was accelerated with the Nisei, the second generation.

Traditional Japanese custom was male superiority in all things. What the male head of the family said was the law, period. Women who “kept in their place,” as the old saying goes. Again, when the immigrants came to live in the U.S., this concept was put to the test and, as women gradually realized they had more possibilities financially and socially, the concept lost a lot of its strength.

Note 3 is about how there was much, much less prejudice in Hawaii than on the mainland U.S. The prejudice that was there was more oriented to social status/wealth than to anything else. There was a great mix of types of people in Hawaii, and they had learned, pretty much, how to live with other and get along.

Note 4, though, shows how different things were on the mainland. There, prejudice was extremely strong against the Oriental, Chinese or Japanese. I think part of the reason is related to how, at that time, Hawaii was basically under the control of a small group of corporations who had a great vested interest in keeping things working smoothly. The mainland, on the other hand, was not in the same situation at all, so it was easier for prejudice to take root and grow.

Another difference. In relation to the prejudice the one guy trying to get a haircut ran into, this part of the book notes that most of the barbers in Hawaii were actually Japanese. The section talks more about the lack of prejudice.

Another direct comparison. On the left, in Hawaii, whites don't get in trouble for being friendly with the Japanese. On the right hand side of the page, it's noted that, on the mainland, whites get in trouble for being friendly with the Japanese.

Note 5: Intermarriage was considered okay in Hawaii. Consider: when you have an intermarriage, you are blending both cultures. Although it doesn't always happen, at least sometimes this is a harmonious result that helps to bind the two cultures rather than tearing them apart.

Note 6: A child of mixed blood is not hated or an object of scorn. He or she is just a mixed-blood child, nothing more important than that.

Note 7: The Japanese in Hawaii retain more of their original customs.

This page examines the philosophical attitude of the two areas, Hawaii and the Mainland, and again Hawaii comes out on top.

It was not perfect in Hawaii, of course.

The Hawaiian schools played a major role in all of this. They were working to help raise the status of the children, helping them to see there were no opportunities open to them than to their parents. The schools emphasized democracy, while those in Japan at the time were becoming more and more propaganda tools of the military.

These pages talk about some of the jobs the Japanese had on the mainland. The Nisei were trying to branch out occupation-wise, not strictly following in their father's footsteps. Just how far they could go, though, was strongly controlled by the prejudice they ran into.

Some of the immigrants were Eta. That is a class of people in Japan which is very similar to the Untouchable class in India. Their ancestors did work that was considered impure and unclean (like tanning hides), and their social status became bottom-of-the-barrel. Some of this prejudice is still around, unfortunately.

Another important function of the schools was their extracurricular activities, in which all races took part. This was a great way of lowering any potential prejudicial stands. On the mainland, though, there was no such mixture of races. Blacks were segregated from whites, there were very few Orientals except on the West Coast, and in that area the prejudice against them was just as strong as the anti-Black prejudice in the South.

A statement that is, I think, as true today as it was then, maybe even more so.

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