Nisei Daughter

With a new introduction by Marie Rose Wong

MONICA SONE
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Moni c a S one
With a new introduction by Marie Rose Wong
Uni versi ty of Washi ngton Press

Seattle & London
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To Father and Mother
1953 by Monica Sone
Originally published as an Atlantic Monthly Press Book by Little, Brown and Company
University of Washington Press frst paperback edition published
by arrangement with Little, Brown and Company, 1979
Introduction and preface to the 1979 edition 1979
by the University of Washington Press
Introduction to the 2014 edition 2014 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
1716151454321
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
University of Washington Press
PO Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145, USA
www.washington.edu/uwpress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sone, Monica Itoi, 19192011.
Nisei daughter / Monica Sone ; introduction to the 2014 edition by
Marie Rose Wong ; introduction to the 1979 edition by S. Frank Miyamoto ;
preface to the 1979 edition by the author.
pages cm
Originally published as an Atlantic Monthly Press Book by
Little, Brown and CompanyTitle page verso.
ISBN 978-0-295-99355-3 (paperback : alkaline paper)
1. Sone, Monica Itoi, 19192011.2. Sone, Monica Itoi, 19192011Childhood
and youth.3. Japanese AmericansWashington (State)SeattleBiography.
4. Seattle (Wash.)Biography.5. Japanese AmericansEvacuation and relocation,
19421945.6. Puyallup Assembly Center (Puyallup, Wash.)I. Title.
F899.S49J376 2014 979.7'772dc23
2013036826
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.481984.
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Introduction to the 1979 Edition vii
Preface to the 1979 Edition xv
Introduction to the 2014 Edition xviii
A Shocking Fact of Life 3
The Stubborn Twig 20
An Unpredictable Japanese Lady 43
The Japanese Touch 66
We Meet Real Japanese 87
We Are Outcasts 109
Paradise Sighted 125
Pearl Harbor Echoes in Seattle 145
Life in Camp Harmony 165
Henrys Wedding and a Most Curious Tea Party 190
Eastward, Nisei 216
Deeper into the Land 226
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I T has been over six decades since the release of Nisei
Daughter, Monica Sones autobiographical account of her experiences
growing up as a second-generation (Nisei) Japanese American in Se-
attles Skid Row neighborhood. Born Kazuko Itoi in 1919, Sone pub-
lished her memoir under her anglicized and married name in a book
that relates a poignant and personal story of cultural history as well as
her own personal journey of identity from childhood to young adult-
hood during the 1930s and the turbulent war years of the 1940s.
When the book was frst released in January 1953, reviews (which
included The Seattle Times Book Notes and the Christian Science
Monitor) were favorable. Nisei Daughter was noted for being humor-
ous, lively, and witty. It was also praised for its honesty as an ac-
count of a native Japanese Seattleite who did not exhibit long-lasting
resentment for sufering years of racial discrimination or for the per-
sonal loss of property that was part of the incarceration experience of
World War II. But in many respects, reviewers evaluated Sones book
on a surface level, simply as a story, and neglected to acknowledge the
miracle that the book had been published at all.
One appreciates the book more when one considers the signifcance
of its contents within the context of the state of Asian America at
the time of its publication. Nisei Daughter was one of the few books
written by an Asian American author in the 1950s and the frst book
written about the internment experience from the perspective of a fe-
male internee. The book is so widely read because it is a palatable and
detailed description of the forced incarceration that resulted from fed-
eral Executive Order 9066.
I nt roduc t i on t o t he 2014 E di t i on
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Introduction to the 2014 Edition xix
In 1953, when Nisei Daughter was frst published, Asian Ameri-
cans were referred to collectively as Orientals, and their identities
had been and were being formed more around their close association
with international political events in Asian countries than around
their lives as Americans of Asian descent. At the time of the books
release, the United States was still coming to terms with the aftermath
of World War II, which had ended less than eight years earlier. It was
the early years of the Cold War, and the country was still in the throes
of what would be the fnal year of the Korean War. All of these events
highlighted and reinforced anti-Asian sentiment and suspicion and cre-
ated a greater need on the part of Asian American communities to fnd
ways to diferentiate themselves from Asian nationals. In the public
arena, this was accomplished in part through invitations to the peer
community to participate in community cultural festivals such as Chi-
nese New Year or Bon Odori, through Asian American beauty pag-
eants whose contestants represented US values and Asian femininity,
and through autobiographical literature.
The federal immigration law that prohibited the naturalization of
Japanese Americans ended with the passage of the Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1952 (also known as the Walter-McCarren Act),
less than six months before Nisei Daughter was released. This fol-
lowed the rights of naturalized citizenship that were allowed to Chi-
nese Americans in 1943 and Filipino Americans in 1946. However,
national origin quota systems remained in force and limited the num-
ber of Japanese who were allowed to immigrate. Still, frst-generation
Japanese immigrants (Issei) were fnally able to apply for citizenship,
which granted the associated right of property ownership. It undid the
efects of previous discriminatory legislation, such as the Alien Land
Laws passed in individual states beginning in 1913, and federal pas-
sage of the Immigration Act of 1924. Sones account of housing own-
ers who refused to rent an apartment to her family or to the greater
Japanese community connects racial discrimination to residential
leasing. Throughout the book, Sone weaves her personal story into the
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Nisei Daughter xx
framework of these events, illustrating how being an American was
measured in light of ones Japanese ancestry and personal identity and
often came with a cost to human dignity.
Nisei Daughter was reprinted in 1979. The new reviews were simi-
lar to those of the frst edition, with some calling the book entertain-
ing. Surprisingly, none of the reviewers commented on the connec-
tion between this books serving as a foundation for understanding
the Asian immigrant experience and the new wave of Asian refugees
coming to America in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The voices
of pre-twentieth-century immigrants and those of the frst-generation
Asian American community became an important source of informa-
tion in considering and comparing federal policies addressing displace-
ment, settlement, and citizenship for incoming Southeast Asians.
Additions to the 1979 edition of the book included an introduc-
tion by sociologist S. (Shotaro) Frank Miyamoto and a brief preface
by the author. The books reissue paralleled the dramatic social and
political changes which led that decade, including the advent of the
civil rights and Asian American movements. The latter followed the
supposition that Asian Americans were the model minority and
served as a catalyst for an associated university discipline that began
to grapple with essential studies of immigration numbers, federal laws,
patterns of settlement, and organizational structures that helped build
the social and physical communities of Chinatown and Nihonmachi
(Japantown).
At the same time, studies of the built environment that had begun
in the 1960s were examining the contributions of ordinary people
in the production of extraordinary environments through the identi-
fcation of vernacular structures and the interactions in and between
cultural neighborhoods. An earnest appreciation for community devel-
opment and ethnicity was beginning to surface. In his introduction,
Miyamoto included a detailed description of Seattles Japantown that
noted its general geographic location in south downtown and consid-
ered its orientation with regard to the rest of the city, introducing the
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Introduction to the 2014 Edition xxi
subject of a geography produced by race and class. The location and
context of their neighborhood framed the lives of Seattles Japanese.
Sones view of home was one that she shared with the homeless men of
Skid Row, because her parents managed a residential hotel.
In the 1970s a group of young and aspiring writing students from San
Francisco State University were actively challenging the stereotype of
the Asian American as sojourner (one who comes to America with no
intention of staying), preferring instead to look beyond assimilation and
dual identities to the traditions created by American-born Asians such
as the Nisei. They looked for these traditions in the work of leading
Asian American authorsa new approach. The early literary works of
Fifth Chinese Daughter (1945), by Jade Snow Wong, and Sones Nisei
Daughter were recognized as important literary achievements by Asian
American women authors, the latter autobiography daring to give a de-
tailed and personal account of the incarceration experience.
Miyamotos introduction to Nisei Daughter was a far cry from the
1953 reviews. His commentary refected on the new feld of academic
study that was empowering Asian Americans. He acknowledged the
depth and complexity of Sones work by examining the debated theory
of the dual identities of that frst generation of Japanese Americans, as
well as the sophisticated organizational structures that supported the
immigrant and American-born generation. Miyamoto introduced no-
menclature and concepts that were previously known only in the inner
circles of Japanese America but were now becoming part of educating
readers and were broadening the awareness of Asian America. On a
rudimentary level, readers benefted from understanding the assigned
identities of Issei (frst and immigrant generation), Nisei (second-gen-
eration and American born), and Sansei (third-generation Japanese
Americans) that were coming of age with the second edition of Sones
book. Clarifying the distinctions between the generations revealed the
movement toward immigrant assimilation and explained the tension of
identity construction between Nisei and their Issei parents.
As Nisei attempted to pursue educations and careers, the sacrifces
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Nisei Daughter xxii
of the Issei became clearer, such as the compromise of their profes-
sional goals out of the economic necessity that came with raising a
family or from the lack of employment opportunities that were open
to them. For the immigrant population, their classifcation as resident
aliens reinforced a direct psychological connection with Japan and
helped them retain the traditions that sustained them and that helped
their Nisei children remain aware of their heritage. Nisei identifed
themselves as Americans, but like their parents, they struggled with
acceptance because of peer preconceptions that measured a Japanese-
ness that was largely based on physical characteristics.
On the surface, Nisei Daughter is clearly the story of an individual
coming to an understandingand celebrationof what it meant to be
a Japanese American at a time of great prejudice and discrimination.
It is also an account of a community in which Sone sets the scene of a
maturely developed Japantown and describes the richness of the day-
to-day life of children and their immigrant Japanese parents, who ran
the businesses, schools, and services in a largely closed community.
Transplanting and adapting cultural traditions and customs were part
of the complexity of identity for Japanese at the turn of the twentieth
century. Sone exemplifes this throughout the book through references
to her being of two worlds in her understanding of her elders and of
Japanese language, poetry, philosophy, festivals, and familial roles and
responsibilities. As the story unfolds and Kazuko considers the con-
tribution that race and gender make to the community outside Japan-
town, the interaction between these frst two generations of Japanese
Americans refects multilayered challenges to the search for personal
identity and its meaning.
There is a timeless quality to Nisei Daughter. In this new 2014 edi-
tion, the topics of Sones story can be visited, revisited, and understood
within the context of a maturing discipline of Asian American studies
that includes a growing body of literature and sociopolitical theories
of settlement. So much of the current scholarship embraces an inter-
disciplinary viewpoint and approach, some of which challenges, reas-
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Introduction to the 2014 Edition xxiii
sesses, and expands the themes that were central at the beginning of
the discipline.
At the time of Nisei Daughters frst release, acknowledgment of in-
terdisciplinary research on Asian Americans was in its formative years,
as was certainly the case with any accounts that looked at the intersec-
tion of ethnic community and the built environment, and the reader is
encouraged to explore what this book tells us about place and memory
in a multidisciplinary perspective. Nisei Daughter provides a detailed
look into Japantown via the lives of those living in the Carrollton Ho-
tel, one of hundreds of single-room-occupancy residential hotels that
served as the homes and businesses of the immigrant Japanese. This
setting provided a means of making a living in American cities and
served as an example of the interactive social organizational structure
that Miyamoto referred to in his introduction. Incarceration forced
the urban decay and loss of so many of these mature Japantowns, the
majority of which have never recovered, even with the valiant eforts
of cities and nonproft organizations to reconstruct them or to create
remembrance projects or dedicated memorials.
The Nisei are now an aging and fading population, and, sadly, we
are losing the wisdom of that generation. We are also losing the abil-
ity to learn frsthand about the cultural transitions and experiences of
the initial generation of Japanese Americans who distinguished their
understanding from that of their immigrant parents. Nisei Daughter
ofers us this opportunity. Today, Nikkei is more broadly used as the
word to defne Japanese Americans, regardless of the earlier genera-
tional distinctions. This description is more inclusive and allows for
fexibility as Japanese America redefnes itself through intermarriage
and the arrival of new immigrants.
The dual identity theory that was challenged at the second print-
ing of Nisei Daughter has seen a revival under the heading transna-
tional theory, which again examines the multiple connections of Japa-
nese and Japanese American cultures from a more holistic and global
viewpoint. Sones work ofers a critical perspective for understanding
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Nisei Daughter xxiv
the immigrants transitional experience and transformation to Japa-
nese American culture that is not limited by geographic or disciplin-
ary boundaries.
Sones brief preface in the 1979 second printing had a passionate
tone that was not present in the book itself. The preface surpassed the
self-realization of identity to refect a deeper commitment to complete
the story beyond the incarceration and the authors work toward the
legislative redress of Executive Order 9066. In Sones words, the ac-
knowledgement in 1976 that the mass incarceration was a national
mistake . . . was a small, but signifcant step toward righting a wrong. It
took more than another eleven years for the passage of HR 442 and SB
1009 to clear the US House and Senate and head to President Ronald
Reagan for his signature before a more meaningful recognition of this
social and political travesty was achieved. Another two years would
pass before the frst redress payment of twenty thousand dollars would
be made under the provision of the law that dictated remuneration to
begin with the oldest living survivors. In October 1990, the frst pay-
ment was made to Mamoru Eto, a 107-year-old Japanese American
minister in California. Seattles frst recipient was Frank Yatsu, who
was 106 when the frst checks were mailed by the federal Ofce of
Redress Administration. Sone lived to see this happen.
Kazuko Itois search for identity remains an important issue to be
addressed as America continues to deal with issues of immigration,
assimilation, and the formation of federal laws and their often unin-
tended sociopolitical consequencesall of which contribute to per-
sonal and community identity. Scholarship continues along the cur-
rent trajectory to seek to understand the cultural diversity and social
justice that was introduced in Sones landmark work. Nisei Daughter
serves as both a measure of our past and an indicator of what we have
yet to accomplish in our understanding of Asian America.
Mari e Rose Wong
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