Becoming Nisei : Japanese American urban lives in prewar Tacoma

Tacoma’s vibrant Nihonmachi of the 1920s and '30s was home to a significant number of first- and second-generation Japanese immigrants to the United States, and these families formed tight-knit bonds despite their diverse religious, prefectural, and economic backgrounds. As the city’s Nisei grew up attending the secular Japanese Language School, they absorbed the Meiji-era cultural practices and ethics of the previous generation. At the same time, they positioned themselves in new and dynamic ways, including resisting their parents and pursuing lives that diverged from traditional expectations. Becoming Nisei , based on more than forty interviews, shares stories of growing up in Japanese American Tacoma before the incarceration. Recording these early twentieth-century lives counteracts the structural forgetting and erasure of prewar histories in both Tacoma and many other urban settings after World War II. Lisa Hoffman and Mary Hanneman underscore both the agency of Nisei in these processes as well as their negotiations of prevailing social and power relations. "As a key West Coast destination for Japanese immigration to the U.S., Tacoma's vibrant nihonmachi had a significant population of Issei and Nisei by the 1920s and 1930s. Prior to World War II, the Tacoma Japanese Language School served as a community hub for the Japanese American community in the city. Based on interviews with over 40 Nisei former students of the school, Lisa Hoffman and Mary Hanneman develop an interdisciplinary analysis of identity construction and negotiations over belonging by second generation Japanese Americans in pre-World War II urban America. With an approach both transnational in perspective and focused on urban space, the book explores the everyday lives of Japanese American children prior to incarceration, including the impact of their daily study at and participation in community events associated with the school. Drawing from interviews and archival sources, the authors illuminate the rich prewar cultural experiences of Japanese Americans in the city, a distinct social history often eclipsed by a focus on wartime incarceration. Additionally, the book underscores the role of the Japanese government and imperial Japanese educational traditions in shaping Tacoma's JLS, as Japan sought to emerge as an equal member of the international community."-- Provided by publisher Tacoma's vibrant Nihonmachi of the 1920s and '30s was home to a significant number of first generation Japanese immigrants and their second generation American children, and these families formed tight-knit bonds despite their diverse religious, prefectural, and economic backgrounds. As the city's Nisei grew up attending the secular Japanese Language School, they absorbed the Meiji-era cultural practices and ethics of the previous generation. At the same time, they positioned themselves in new and dynamic ways, including resisting their parents and pursuing lives that diverged from traditional expectations. Becoming Nisei , based on more than forty interviews, shares stories of growing up in Japanese American Tacoma before the incarceration. Recording these early twentieth-century lives counteracts the structural forgetting and erasure of prewar histories in both Tacoma and many other urban settings after World War II. Lisa Hoffman and Mary Hanneman underscore both the agency of Nisei in these processes as well as their negotiations of prevailing social and power relations.