WWAD: Monica Sone

Monica Sone
Nisei Daughter
(New York: Little Brown, 1953)

Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, (born Kuzuko Itoi), is an autobiographical account by a Japanese-American woman that describes her childhood, adolescence, and young womanhood while growing up in a Japanese immigrant family in Seattle, Washington in the 1930's. She traces her growth from her early childhood days in Seattle to the interment camps of Idaho, where her family was relocated by the United States War Department during World War II.

However, it is more than a warm and humorous account of her and her families trials and tribulations during this period. It is an autobiography that shares many common threads with other immigrant groups that arrived to America. Regardless of what circumstances brought them to America, on which coast they settled or cultural differences, certain similarities in obstacles and prejudices that they encounted were almost universal. Although she shares these encounters with the reader that she and her family faced, it was not the message of the book.

As the title suggests, Nisei is a Japanese compound work composed of Ni meaning second and Sei meaning generation, for it is her story about growing up as a second generation Japanese daughter. The struggle between herself and her parents/community who were Issei, first generation. It is a conflict between Issei and Nisei, or more commonly known as a generation gap. This generation gap is present in some measure in every parent-child relationship, however, circumstances conspired to give special prominence to generational distinctions amongst the Japanese community at that time in history. Besides the wide differences between the language, customs and culture of the parents and the children, the most critical factor was the condition that the parents were by law ineligible for citizenship. In contrast the children were citizens by birth in this country. Because of this and culturally to their homeland while the children sort assimilation into American society, the culture of their birth. This conflict of tradition and culture was a struggle between home exposure and outside exposure. What was acceptable actions and behaviors in American society was not acceptable at home, and vice versa.

It is written within this inner struggle of these two worlds of tradition and culture that she was growing up in and around that the second theme of the book unfolds, that being her search for self-identity.

Both themes are interwoven with her story, through the retelling and accounting the numerous stories around herself and family members. It is through these experiences we see her grow and flourish from a confused young girl to an understanding young lady, in regard to who she is and where she came from. It was not an easy path, her inner struggle was one of confusement and resentment in her early years.

It is best summed up in her own words, just two pages from the end of the book when she is speaking to her parents who are about to leave the inernment camp and return to Seattle. She is to continue her studies at Wendel College in Indiana: "If only you knew how much I have changed about being a Nisei. It wasn't a tragedy, I don't resent my Japanese blood anymore. I'm proud of it, because of you and the Issie who've struggled so much for us. It's really nice to be born into tow cultures, like getting a real bargain in life, two for the price of one…I use to fee like a two headed monstrosity, by now I find that two heads are better than one."

She has learned to merge her two cultures within herself, for she is a product of both cultures. Which does not make her any less American or any less Japanese just a product of what she is…a responsible, caring and productive Japanese American woman.