“Kenji” is an American native with Japanese-born parents. In America, he’s considered Japanese but in Japan, he’s considered American. With both sides rejecting him, no one wonder he feels he can’t find a place to call home -- so where does he belong?
For many American-born people with mono-ethnic immigrant parents, there is an underlying sense of pride, identity and love for their parent’s birthplace. Many of those (whom I’ve met in my life) that have parents that were raised in other countries, have this sense of obligation to their parents’ motherland. I suppose, since we’ve grown up with their own customs, we’ve come to learn the identity of our people and carry with us a sense of belonging and devotion to that country.
A friend of mine, who will be called X, is an American-born Japanese and was raised in NYC. She is the prime example of someone who has almost full devotion to their parents’ homeland; someone who will cheer for the Japanese national baseball team when up against team USA. Why is this? When I asked her what the significance is of her attachment to Japan, she said that it was her way of upbringing. Sure she was raised in America but she grew up watching Japanese tapes of television shows and ate mostly Japanese food at home and spoke only Japanese to her parents and nothing else. Everything un-Japanese was done outside her home, at school, at work and with most of her friends.
But not everyone like her can share the same experience or reason for having this kind of rooted loyalty for their parent’s motherland. Does the upbringing alone determine which place an individual can call home or is it because of the way society pushed us in a way that caused this feeling of belonging elsewhere?
In that sense, many may have gone through extreme prejudice from the “American” society, or were ostracized for being different; thus, feeling a sense of belonging in a place where they weren’t born or raised in. Sometimes our society can push us to a place where we weren’t meant to be and don’t have enough strength to fight back.
Unfortunately, it gets worse for some. For example, the intolerance may continue for an American-born Indian man living in India. Because of what makes him American, those around him will fail to see him as someone with the same ethnic blood, adding to the pressures of cultural discrimination. He will be ostracized by his Indian society where he’d hoped to call his home, after facing prejudice in his homeland. So then if he can’t call American home and if he can’t call India home, where can he go to?
Sometimes the color of your skin or the blood is not enough in determining who are you as an ethnic identity; sometimes it’s what you wear on your back; or what faith you practice or what your accent sounds like that allows others to perceive who you are and how you relate to them, even with the same blood. What’s sad about our society is that because of the ethnic bigotry, we’re easily influenced into believing that we don’t belong in a certain place when many of us don’t have enough fight to stay in one spot and call it home. I dream for the day where we don’t have that difficulty any longer; where we don’t have to face the pressures of society trying to box us into something we don’t specifically relate to.
Hope you all have a place to call home.
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written by Nicki Hanson , September 24, 2009
I think you're very much so right in the way some people feel. There has always been a push for diversity here but not a push to integrate that diversity properly. America isn't as great as some people proclaim, it has its flaws like any other country out there.
Does your Japanese friend feel fully integrated when she goes back to Japan?
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written by Jin Zhu, September 25, 2009
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written by Smooth Lady, September 25, 2009
US is no different from no other nation out there. We just so happen to be more racially conscious because we have the most diversity here.
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written by td, September 27, 2009
- Just one thought out of billions..
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written by Shane, September 27, 2009
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written by Elizabeth ST, September 28, 2009
Kenji will most likely feel most comfortable at the nearest Japanese American community. If that translates to belongingness (word?) then that's where he should be if he can't handle the pressure.
I also wanted to ask the author Takeru a question. I am an EA half white and half Chinese. I noticed most of what you write revolves around the Japanese community. I think it would be more beneficial to readers if you stepped beyond that included other Asian ethnicies like Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans and so forth.
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written by Chameleon, September 29, 2009
not in much of a good mood but i just felt like answering back some of your questions and thoughts.
Nicki, as a matter of fact, yes; my friend fully blends in and feels right at home, according to her. She misses it dearly, has some family there, made tons of friends and often talks about moving there someday in her life.
Elizabeth; right on. But first let me say that these blog post stem from personal experiences and because so, many of my posts seem to center around the Japanese community but all I'm really trying to encourage is a relation with other ethnicities and mixes. It's not my intention to leave out other communities. i have written other posts (uncredited) in the past that were more broad but since u can only do so much talking about a broad topic, i decided to get a lil more specific with my entries.
Also, since I'm the lead writer for M&M weekly, where I write articles based on current events, I find solace in writing more personal things for the chameleon. of course, i'll try to touch on things that i haven't put my foot into but also, if you feel like you want to say something The Chameleon is open to accept guest writers!
Thanks to all for your generous comments and thoughts!
Tak
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written by Joey, September 29, 2009
I know the day I visit China, they will call me "jook sing." (Well, at least in Guangdong, where they speak Cantonese. I don't know what they'd call me in Mandarin.) It translates to "hollow bamboo," sort of like how we use banana or twinkie. The metaphor is while I may be biologically part Chinese, I am still not Chinese, because I am "empty" of Chinese culture and values to them, to which I have made considerable efforts to *rediscover* from the depths of assimilation.
The only place I have ever felt like I belonged/fit in was when I went to Hawaii, and I long for that feeling I had there. It shouldn't be like that...but that's the sad truth.
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written by http://www.canadagoose-expedition.com/, October 04, 2011
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