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Familial, occupational, and social characteristics of three generations of Japanese Americans

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Familial, occupational, and social characteristics of three generations of Japanese Americans

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Content FAMILIAL, OCCUPATIONAL, AND SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS
Ü
OF THREE GENERATIONS OF JAPANESE AMERICANS
by
Yuki Yanagita
HI
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(Sociology)
June 1968
UMI Number: EP658P5
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UMI EP65825
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P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 - 1346
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 9 0 0 0 7
This thesis, w ritte n by
YUKI YANAGITA
under the directio n of h..BX..Thesis Com m ittee,
and approved by a ll its members, has been p re
sented to and accepted by the D ean o f The
Graduate School, in p a rtia l fu lfillm e n t o f the
requirements fo r the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
THESIS COMMirrTEE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES............... . iii
INTRODUCTION ........................................... 1
Chapter
I. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE: HISTORY OF THE
JAPANESE AMERICAN ......... . 3
Issei
Nisei
Sansei
II. DATA COLLECTION........... 29
The Method of Obtaining Data
Hypotheses of This Study
Characteristics of the Sample
III. DATA ANALYSIS : FAMILY SITUATIONS ..... 43
IV. DATA ANALYSIS: OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 65
V. DATA ANALYSIS: SOCIAL SITUATIONS ..... 83
VI. CONCLUSION.................................... 101
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................... 105
11
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Sex and Age by Generation................. 34
2. Religious Distribution among Generational
Groupings.............. 37
3. Question to Respondents: Where Were You
Brought U p ? ........................... 38
4. Educational Levels among Generational Groups 40
5. Occupational Distribution among Generational
G r o u p s ........................... 42
6. Average Score of Source of Influence on
Career Plans by Generation . 45
7. Source of Influence on Future Occupation . . 47
8. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Pressure to Follow Father's Occupation . . 49
9. 'Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Pressure toward Job ............. ..... 50
10. Distribution Regarding Child's Taking Over
Parent's J o b ........................... 52
11. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
the Awareness of Obligation to One's
Parents in Connection with Occupational
Success.................................. 53
12. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Responsibilities to the Parents ........... 56
13. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Pressure on Sons' Becoming Independent
from Par e n t s ............................ 57
111
Table Page
14. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Opposition from the Family ........ 59
15. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Wives Working Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
16. Distribution Regarding Satisfaction in
Life Situations ........................... 62
17. Attitude Distributions and Average Scores of
Japanese-American Responses to Education . 6 7
18. Distribution of Responses to Occupational
Success without a College Education .... 67
19. Distribution of Responses to Occupations
with a High Prestige V a l u e ................ 69
20. Distribution Regarding Factors in Job
Selection.................................... 70
21. Distribution of Responses Regarding the
Preference for Ownership .................. 72
22. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Being Given O r d e r s ......................... 74
23. Job Preference Distribution ......... 74
24. Distribution of The Occupations Where Few
Japanese Americans Have Been Employed . . . 76
25. Distribution and Average Scores Regarding the
Factors Which Affect Occupational Career
Objectives ........................... 78
26. Distribution Regarding the Feeling towards
Equal P a y .................. 80
27. Distribution Regarding Obtaining a Top
Position in American Society ............. 80
28. Distribution Regarding the Characteristics of
the Japanese Americans .......... 85
29. Distribution Regarding the Type of Person
That the Respondents Like.................. 87
iv
Table Page
30. Distribution Regarding the Feeling of
Advantage.................................... 87
31. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Careers Affected by Prejudice ...... 89
32. Percentage Distribution of Friend ............ 91
33. Distribution Regarding the Assimilation of
Japanese Americans............. 92
34. Distribution Regarding Pressure from the
Japanese American Community ................ 94
35. Distribution and Average Score Regarding
Influence by the Culture of Japan......... 96
36. Average Scores of Intergenerational Groups
Regarding Various Pressures ................ 96
37. Distribution Regarding Question of Best
F r i e n d .................................... . 98
V
INTRODUCTION
One undeniable fact about Japanese-American studies
is the scarcity of recent literature. The purpose of this
study is to help fill in this blank and to gain an insight
into familial, occupational and social situations of thq
Japanese American by comparing Issei, Nisei and Sansei.
This study is based on the data obtained from in
terviews conducted by this writer. A major portion of this
study presents interpretations of tables which contain re
sponses by generational groups. The implications of the
! patterns revealed by these data are important for an under
standing of Japanese Americans in Los Angeles and on the
West Coast in general. It is directly related to patterns
of social stratification of the ethnic strata concerned,
and this stratified sample is, in a sense, an outcome of
their assimilation process in the larger society.
While they may not reflect subtle individual dif
ferences, the data obtained from the interviews will never
theless give us an insight into a group of people who rep
resent an important minority group in California. Moreover,
it is a minority to which we should continue to direct our
attention in an ongoing attempt to discover the patterns of
1
2
culture which determine not only its own life but its
interaction with the majority culture which surrounds it.
For needless to say, this study necessarily represents only
one small segment in the larger ethos of minority-majority
relations.
CHAPTER I
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE: HISTORY
OF THE JAPANESE AMERICAN
The Japanese-American community is unique in that
each generational sub-group represents different aspects
of familial, occupational, and social life in terms of
acculturation and assimilation processes of the Japanese
American in transition in California. These sub-groups are
called Issei, Nisei, and Sansei, which mean the first,
i
! second, and third generation Japanese American respectively.
I
!
I
Issei
' Motivation for Coming
to the United States
Issei usually refers to the first generation immi
grants from Japan who entered America in the early 1900's.
It is important to note that most Issei came to America for
economic opportunity and really had no intention of settUng
on a permanent basis. According to a recent article in the
Nichibei Advertiser :
Those Japanese (Issei) who ventured to the U.S.
considered themselves "Birds of Passage," whose
object was to earn a thousand dollars and return
to Japan. However, the problems of prejudice they
ran into made it almost impossible for them to
survive, let alone save enough money for a return
trip to their homeland.^
Unlike those immigrants from Europe who came to the
United States to seek political or religious freedom, Japa
nese immigrants came to the United States strictly to make
money. In a study on acculturative factors influencing the
Japanese community in California, H. Befu concludes that
the intention of the Issei immigrants was to seek economic
opportunities in this country and then take back the monies
earned to improve their social standing in Japan.^ Their
primary concern, then, was to improve their standing in
Japan, not in the United States.
This economically derived motivation of the Issei
was clearly related to the fact that the majority of Issei
had failed to assimilate into American culture. Thus,
until the end of World War II, the majority of Issei had
maintained their intention to return to Japan with the
money they had accumulated. However, with Japan's defeat
in World War II, which most Issei had not considered, they
changed their plans and decided to remain in the United
^"New Study on Japanese American," Nichibei Adver
tiser , I, No. 3 (February, 1967).
^ Befu, "Contrastive Acculturation of California
Japanese," Human Organization, XXIV (Fall, 1965), 2 09-216.
5
3
States where their children and grandchildren were living.
Background of the
Issei Immigrants
There is considerable literature which describes
the background of Issei immigrants. Most writers agree
that the majority of the Issei immigrants had only an ele
mentary school education, and that they came from agricul
tural classes which tended to be the most conservative and
4
backward strata in Japan. One of the significant con
trasts in Japan was that of Western-influenced cities on
the one hand, and the backward traditional aspects of the
5
smaller town and rural communities, on the other. This
distance between cities and rural communities was so great
that it continues to exist in postwar Japan. As Takashi
Koyama put it in 1961;
There was a significant difference in attitude
between people in the cities and those in the
country, between workers in large-scale industries
and those in small workshops, between intellectuals
and manual laborers, and between men and women.^
^Befu, op. cit., p. 210.
^Masami Nakagaki, "A Study of Marriage and Family
Relationships among Three Generations of Japanese-American
Family Groups" (unpublished Master's thesis. Dept, of
Sociology, University of Southern California, 1964), p. 54
^J. F. Steiner, The Japanese Invasion (Chicago:
A. C. McClurg & Co., 1917), p. 101.
^Takashi Koyama, The Changing Social Position of
Women in Japan (New York: UNESCO, 1961) , p. 15.
6
In attempting to relate the low level economic
status of Japanese immigrants to their difficulties in as
similating into American culture, one writer, J. F. Steiner
expresses his feeling that if the Japanese immigrants had
been largely drawn from more educated classes, the tremen
dous differences between the two civilizations would have
7
been greatly minimized.
It is not difficult, therefore, to understand that
Japanese laborers with only an average grammar school edu
cation in Japan, wtih no exposure to American education and
values, would find English a very difficult subject indeed.
J. F. Steiner concludes that their inability to communicate
in English was one of the dominant factors which tended to
isolate the Japanese immigrant groups from their fellow
Americans.^
Family Situations
Considerable literature on the Japanese-American
family show that Issei families continue to maintain tradi
tional family patterns even after having resided in the
United States for a half a century.^ The Issei's socio
cultural values, his "Japanese spirit," were characterized
by the submergence of the individual to family and to
~^Ibid. , p. 101. ®Ibid. , p. 105.
é J. F. Steiner, Masami Nakagaki, op. cit.
rigidly defined social rules.
According to Masami Nakagaki, who studied genera
tional transition of the Japanese-American family in 1963,
the Japanese immigrant family was a "folk-societal fam- I
ily."^^ One of the chief characteristics of the folk soci
ety is that its culture is highly integrated, the separate
parts forming a strongly geared and functionally meaningful
12
whole. Thus the Issei can only function according to
well-defined values and expectations to which he has been
1 3
accustomed to since his formative years.
This tendency of rigidity of Issei was accentuated
by race prejudice. It was the outside pressure of a hos
tile environment, as well as the inner compulsion of common
interests, that forced them to live in segregated quaréters
in most of the cities on our western coast.
^^Rosalind Sakiguchi, "Japanese-American Young
Adults," term paper for Intergroup Relations, Education
. 437, California State College at Los Angeles, 1964, p. 4.
^^Ibid., p. 6.
Robert Redfield, "The Folk Society," American
Journal of Sociology, LII, No. 3 (1947), 293-308.
Devos, "Quantitative Rorschach Assessment of
Mal-Adjustment and Rigidity in Acculturating Japanese-
Americans," Genetic Psychology Monographs, 1950, p. 84.
14steiner, op. cit., p. 106.
Occaptional Situations'^
■ _ I
The Japanese immigrants who entered California and !
worked on the railroads, in the mines, and in industry,
began to decrease in number by the end of the nineteenth
century, while those who engaged in agriculture increased
markedly, and kept pace with population changes up to 1940.
According to Immigration Commission estimates,
about 40 per cent of the Japanese immigrants in the western'
states in 19 09 were engaged in agriculture. In the 1940
census, 42 per cent were still employed in agricultural
occupations. At the earliest date of immigration, only
one-sixth were owners of farm property, but later two-
fifths held managerial status, and eventually about one-
half of the farming group had moved up to become owners or
managers. This increase in the ownership, no matter how
small the business was, was one characteristic of the occu
pational aspect of the Issei immigrants.
In contrast, entrance to the urban labor force in
California was often achieved by way of domestic services,
i.e., "school boys"; others were cooks, butchers, and
houseboys for upper class families; they learned English
and something of the American life. But many entered
K ^^Factual data presented here are largely based on
Dorothy S. Thomas, The Salvage (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1952).
9
service on a contract basis as day workers for middle-class
households. Many had no exposure to higher education, nor
had they discovered the formula which would accelerate
entrance to white collar occupations.
There were few professionals, doctors, dentists,
lawyers, and the like, who served the needs of the Japanese
community.
The Issei's language barrier was a very important
factor which affected occupational mobility. Literally no
Issei spoke fluent English, although many spoke haltingly
with a distinct Japanese accent, but what is surprising is
that some Issei did not speak English at all after living
I in this country for a half a century.Therefore, one
I
j paramount characteristic of the occupational role of Issei
, was that no matter how small the business, many of the
'Issei sought managerial status in farming and commerce to
escape from the need to speak English.
The language barrier and the resulting sensitivity
toward American culture in general drove the Issei to tend
to their own business and to be courteous only when spoken
to.
^^During the interviews, this writer encountered
some Issei respondents who apparently did not understand,
nor spoke English at all.
17
Gretchen Tuthill, "Japanese in the City of Los
Angeles" (unpublished Master's thesis. Dept, of Sociology,
University of Southern California, 1924), p. 28.
I 10
I There is an abundance of literature dating before
I and during World War II, attesting to the strong anti-
IIssei and Nisei prejudice in the minds of Americans at that
I time. To cite one Lypical example of a common stereotypi-
I
Ical image of the Japanese American in California during
I the dark days of World War II :
I . . . the acquisition of land by Japanese and the
I subsequent introduction of Japanese tenants and
labor was detrimental to the best interests of
the American farmer and businessman.
This antipathy was based on the assumption that the
Japanese were culturally and racially different from Amer
icans, and that their assimilation into American society
was impossible. )
However, there were other far more favorable view
points toward Japanese immigrants. For example, it was
the position of M. Merle Davis that it was usually the
politician, workingman or small farmer or shopkeeper who
was opposed to Japanese immigrants. (Economic threats were
the dominant fear expressed by those who felt that the
Japanese should be kept inferior to them. On the other
hand, the landowner, the large rancher, the professionals
and the like who had no urgent sense of ethnic or economic
^^M, G. Pursinger, "Japanese Settle in Oregon,"
Journal of the West, V (April, 1966), 258.
11
I threat, were more friendly to Japanese immigrants.
j Social Situations
I The majority of the literature on the social as-
I
Ipects of Issei life seems to conclude that the Issei
I brought with them rural-based culture patterns from their
I
1 country to America, and retained these culture patterns,
despite great difficulties, in American society for nearly
a half century.
This situation is due to the lack of communication
and personal contacts with the "outside world." One excel
lent illustration of the Issei's maintenance of old country
values can be seen in the fantasy that Japan could and
should have won the war in the Pacific. Those who were
opposed to this militant view were sometimes ridiculed by
other Issei, as described by Leonard Bloom in the following
story :
. . . since Mrs. M's son (Nisei) volunteered, she
was the object of much criticism from her neighbors
and friends, although the direct attacks were made
chiefly by men. . . . Mrs. M who had been regularly
attending religious meetings stopped going in the
face of the heightened criticism.
The Issei only enjoyed associating with their own.
J. Merle Davis, "We Said; 'Let's Find the
Facts," Survey, LVI, 14 0.
^^Leonard Bloom, "Transitional Adjustment of Japa
nese American Family to Relocation," American Sociological
Review, XII (April, 1947), 204.
12
I and this national bias impeded their integration into Amer-
i ican society. A similar situation existed among immigrants|
I from Europe; the only significant difference was that in j
I
j the case of Japanese immigrants this isolation factor from i
I j
i the majority society was magnified as a result of race
j prejudice.
The following five items by Dr. Ukita, cited in
J. F. Steiner's book, well describes the social implica
tions of Issei;
Dr. Ukita, in an article in the Taiyo, May 1913,
said that the right of naturalization which the
Japanese were demanding could best be gained if the
Japanese immigrants would give due regard to the
following points;
(1) They must resolve to reside permanently in
America;
(2) They must not segregate themselves in separate
communities, but must associate with the
Americans ;
(3) They must try to adopt the manners and customs
of the Americans;
(4) They must have high regard for the American
form of government;
(5) They must endeavor to become faithful and
loyal Americans.21
Instead of associating with Americans, Issei formed
prefectural associations based on previous location of
residence in Japan, and this served to foster an in-group
22
feeling among co-prefectural immigrants.
^^Steiner, op. cit., p. 65.
^^Befu, op. cit., p. 211.
13
Buddhist and Christian religious affiliations
served as centers of social interaction for the Issei.
Certain Christian churches were only for the Japanese and
I
i Japanese was spoken during services. According to Leonard
i
; Bloom, Issei Christians seldom associated with American
j Christians.23
t
I
I
Summary
In Issei life, the assumption that farming is di
rectly correlated with conservatism^^ seems to be supported.
This Issei conservatism seems to have been reinforced by
the strong antagonism against Issei.
We could summarize the whole situation of Issei
life in terms of two strong factors: the resistance of
I the Issei to assimilate into American society and the ac-
I quired race prejudice exhibited by West Coast American
j society against the Issei.
i
1 Nisei
!
! Family Situations
i Edward K. Strong states in his book on the Japanese
in California that the second generation Japanese, like all
23Bloom, op. cit., p. 204.
24jv[amoru Iga, "The Japanese Socail Structure and
the Source of Mental Strains of Japanese Immigrants in the
I United States," Social Forces, XXXV (March, 1957), 272.
i 1 4 I
I other second generation immigrants, need guidance somewhat I
. . . I
I more than do the third and fourth generation youths, be- j
I cause their parents are unable to give them a proper under-!
j standing of American customs, institutions, and methods of |
I ‘
I earning a living. ^ A review of the literature on second
I
I generation immigrants tends to support the above statement.
Strong goes on to state that cultural difference between
school and the home life is inevitable, and often produces
serious behavioral conflicts. There also seems to be a
parallel between Japanese and European second generation
immigrants. Will Herberg describes ethnic conflict of
second generation European immigrants as follows :
It is in the American-born second generation
that ethnic existence if full of conflicts. This
second generation was already in part American,
but only in part. The children of immigrants
almost always spoke English as their first lan
guage and thought about things in American ways,
yet they also lived in their immigrant families,
spoke the old tongue at home, on occasion looked
into the foreign-language newspaper, and in gen
eral, shared the ethnic life of their parents.26
A similar situation obtains among second generation Japa-
; nese immigrants.
I The personal conflict of the Nisei stems from the
^ 2 5Edward K. Strong, Japanese in California (Palo
Alto: Standford University Publications, 1933), p. 183.
26wiii Herberg, Protestant, Catholic, Jew (Garden
City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1955), p. 28.
15
built-in incongruities between the two established and
functioning culture patterns. One writer, Mildred Sikkema,
describes this conflict in her study of Japanese American
families in Hawaii as follows :
Information is given indicating evidence of
personal conflict for the Nisei stemming from a
cultural pattern-reversal of parental attitudes.
This conflict appears most often at adolescence
in quite pronounced resentment against all au
thority (parents, school, and so on) at having to
assume so much responsibility for adult behavior
at adolescence without long-time preparation, and
in fact in complete contrast to early training.2 7
The literature describing the Japanese-American
family situation stresses parent-child conflict in the home
and the resulting problem of parental control over Nisei
children. Dennie L. Briggs found that larger number of
Japanese youths "talked back" to their parents than did
Caucasian youths.The Nisei tend to feel that they can
2 9
not look toward the Issei for models.
Thus, as Warner pointed out, the older and younger
generations become isolated and estranged from one another
in the (assimilative) process.This tends to deprive
2^Mildred Sikkema, "Observation of Japanese Early
Training," Psychiatry, X (April, 1947), 242
^ 2 8pennie L. Briggs, "Social Adaptation among Japa
nese-American Youths: A Comparative Study," Sociology and
Social Research, XXXVIII (1954), 299.
2^Sakiguchi, op. cit., p. 4.
^^W. Lloyed Warner, "Structure of American Life,"
(published in Edinburgh, Great Britain, 1952), p. 126.
16
both parents and children of the expected happy family life
situations possible under "normal" circumstances.^^ This
situation, in part, accounts for the complex personality
patterns of the Nisei generation of Japanese Americans in
general.
Occupational Situations
The literature on the occupational conditions of
the Nisei before and during the war often states that
Caucasian was able to get a good job if he were only a
high school graduate whereas for a Nisei, there was almost
no chance of upward occupational mobility even with a col
lege education. Many Nisei had really not considered that
such overt prejudice would markedly affect them until they
at least graduated from school, and had applied for a posi
tion. The conditions at that time were much worse than any|
young Nisei had really expected. Many with a college edu™ j
cation were%forced to retreat to blue-collar occupations
simply in order to make a living.
These conditions were very frustrating indeed to
Nisei who, unlike their Issei parents, were born and edu
cated in America, and had no doubt about their role as
American citizens. The Nisei, unlike the aging Issei, had
^^Tuthill, op. cit., p. 9.
n 17
to seek success within the American white, middle-class
world.
j However, there was no clear difference in the minds;
! of the larger society between an American-born Nisei and a
foreign-born Issei. Therefore, Nisei had to face a pecu
liar kind of difficulty in securing an occupation. The
following story illustrates this stereotype on the part of
Americans :
If it is so hard for us to get into suitable
vocations here, why don't we go back to Japan?
we are frequently asked. Only a few days ago, I
was walking across the Quad on our campus with an
American classmate, and he turned around to me and
said; "Gee 1 You fellows are lucky I Look at the
great advantage you American-educated fellows have
over the rest of your people when you go back to
the old country." I suppose his attitude reflects
that of most Americans. "Well," I should like to
ask, "what do you mean by going back to our old
country? We've never been there in the first
place." Most of us were born here, and we know
no other country. This is our old country right
here.33
This sort of hostile condition has been greatly
reduced in the postwar years, and white-collar jobs have
indeed been opened to Nisei, but the financial, psychologi
cal, and sociological effects are immeasurable. Their im-
'pact may never be rationalized by the Nisei.
22v^illiam Caudill, "Achievement, Culture and Per
sonality; The Case of the Japanese American," American
Anthropologist, LVIII (1956), 1112.
3 3
Kazuo Kawai, "Three Roads and None Easy," Survey
LVI (1926), 165.
18
In ,occupational terms, the Nisei was placed in a
very difficult situation between the expectations of their
Issei parents who were struggling to send them through col
lege, and American society which was not ready to accept
the Nisei.
Social Situations
The social situation of the second generation, as
well as family and occupational situations, were made
rather more complex by what Marcus Hansen calls "a strange
dualism of the second generation." According to Hansen,
The sons and daughters of the immigrants were
really in a most uncomfortable position. . . . The
source of all their woes . . . lay in the strange
dualism into which they had been born . . . whereas
in the schoolroom they were too foreign . . . at
home they were too American . . . how to inhabit
two worlds at the same time was the problem of the
second generation.34
The second generation of Japanese Americans were
no exception; the Nisei's social position in American
I society was made infinitely more complex by overt race
I
I prejudice much more so than those with European back
grounds. The fact that Nisei were physically different
I from the majority Americans reinforced the conviction that
most Americans of Japanese descent were Japanese and not to
3 d
I Marcus Hansen, The Problem of the Third Genera- |
I tion Immigrant (Rock Islands, Illinois; Augustana Histori-j
! cal Society Publications, 1938), pp. 6-7.
19
be differentiated into generations. Therefore, most writ
ers generally agree that the second generation of any immi
grant group do not like to be identified with their immi
grant parents. They feel that they are not fully accepted
by American society so long as they are identified with the
"foreignness" of their parents.
According to Will Herberg, many of the second gen
eration of immigrant groups tended to withdraw from the
religious affiliations of their parents, but though this
was a rather strange and psychologically self-defeating
method of accomodating themselves to American life, they
did not really recognize it as such.Many shifted to a
religious affiliation which would be considered more Ameri
can.
The Japanese American was no exception, and many
children of traditional Buddhist Issei parents converted
to Christianity. It is important to note, however, that
the acceptance of Christianity does not by definition mean
their assimilation into the culture of. majority Americans,
so long as they maintain separate churches from those of
the majority culture.
This in turn has helped to limit social contacts
^^Herberg, op. cit., p. 30.
^^Ibid., p. 32.
20
between Nisei and Caucasian Americans largely to those
forms of interaction which normally occur in school and on
the job. So, for example, William Caudill observes that
in social life Nisei tend to stay within their own group
and that as yet they had not achieved close and intimate
social contact with the white middle class.
The question emerges on this point as to what made
the Nisei withdraw from the Caucasian world? Many studies
conclude that it was race prejudice that led them to with
draw into their own circle, and to seek less interaction
3 8
with Caucasian counterparts.
Social conditions have been markedly altered since
the war, and Japanese Americans have gained a new accep
tance by Americans for the first time in their history.
However, from the point of view of the Nisei, it is still
doubtful that all Nisei could ever completely rationalize
those innumerable hardships of the past which were imposed
on them as a result of race prejudice, since, to the Nisei,
the loss was not only material, but psychological.
Summary
A review of literature on the Nisei generally re-
^Caudill, op. cit. , p. 1104.
^^Tuthill, op. cit., p. 11, and other studies.
21
veals that Nisei life is characterized by "cultural dualism
of part-American and part-Japanese."
In fact, a number of studies describe the cultural ;
conflict of Nisei at home, on the job and in other social
situations. The Nisei, unlike the aging Issei, must find
achievement and success within the American while middle-
class world, but at the same time, fulfill their Japanese
obligations to their parents.
This cultural dualism of the Nisei was made more
complex by race prejudice exhibited by West Coast American
society. Nevertheless, one writer concludes that social
distance was greater between the first and second genera
tion Japanese than between the Nisei and their Caucasian
age group.^^ In this respect it could be said that the
Nisei generation has been largely assimilated.
Sansei
Family Situations
Unlike the Nisei, who were thrown into major con
flict with their Issei parents due to cultural differences,
no single study so far has indicated the interlinking
39
Caudill, op. cit., p. 1112.
^^Leonard Bloom, "Familial Adjustment of Japanese
Americans to Relocation," American Sociological Review,
VIII (October, 1943), 551.
22
structural conflicts which existed between the Sansei gen
eration and his Nisei parents. When one considers the fact
that both generations were born and educated in America, it
is quite logical to speculate that there is no major cul
tural conflict between them.
There exists a body of literature, however, which
refers to the conflicts between Sansei and Issei genera
tions. This includes cultural, social, psychological dis
tance relationships between the two generations. One
writer, M. Nakagaki, remarks that a number of Issei respon
dents interviewed by him complained that raising a Sansei
son or daughter was far more complicated than raising a
Nisei, because a Nisei had more understanding and recogni
tion of the Japanese traditional role system in terms of
parent-child relationships than a Sansei through the con
tacts and communication with the Issei.The conflict
be'tween the Issei and Sansei generations is typified in
this quotation:
Following is an example of the way the Sansei
talks back to his grandparents. "You (Issei) are
Japanese style, but I (Sansei) am American style.
My generation has changed completely." Although
the older generation people hold on to their tra
ditional ways, in an expanding world they lack suf
ficient strength and prestige to combat the indif
ference or hostility of the younger generation.
41fbid., p. 94.
^^Nakagaki, op. cit., p. 20.
L_.
23
The Nisei parents appear to have adopted forms of
Western customs in terms of child rearing practices and
training, and these were considered to be somewhat more
strict than Japanese customs.Therefore those Sansei who
were reared by their Nisei parents tend to face far less
difficulties when they reach beyond the family environment
than do their Nisei counterparts, who had to adjust them
selves to an entirely different environment from that of
their family.
The Sansei's family pattern tends to demonstrate
that their attention is focused rather more on occupational
mobility, with less time and attention devoted to kinship
contacts.
Masami Nakagaki also supports the notion of chang
ing Sansei -attitude regarding the family, observing that
most Sansei perceive religion as rather a personal affair
while most Issei and some Nisei perceive it as a family
affair.Thus the Sansei have demonstrated their individ-
I
ualistic attitudes in a number of ways which tend to be
products of American conditioning and socialization which
"^^Sikkema, op. cit. , p. 432.
^^Ted T. Jitodai, "Migration and Kinship Contacts,"
The Pacific Sociological Review, VI, No. 2 (Fall, 1963),
54.
45
Nakagaki, op. cit., p. 172.
24
stress the virtues of free expression by the individual.
Occupational Situations
Available data reflecting the occupational role of
the Sansei are scarce since the majority of Sansei are at
present still attending school. The only possible method
is to compare the occupational aspirations of Sansei with
the attained occupations of Nisei and Issei.
Masami Nakagaki states in his study of Japanese-
American family behavior that the Sansei do not tend to
succeed to their fathers' occupation, but rather tend to
become white-collar workers.The United States census
reports of 1960^^ suggests that the occupational distribu
tion pattern of the Japanese American is closer to that of
the Caucasian population. This reflects, in part, the in
creased population statistics of native-born Japanese among
the adult worker population. In short, as the number of
Issei workers gradually decreases and the proportion of
Sansei workers gradually increases, the occupational pat
terns reflecting the Japanese Americans as a whole would
tend to become similar to. that of the Caucasians.
The primary focus the younger generation is on
46lbid., pp. 56-57.
i
I 4^Calvin Schmid and Charles Nobbe, "Socioeconomic
|Differentials among Non-white Races," American Sociological
[Review (December, 1965), 9 09.
I " ' '
25
educational achievement and occupational mobility--in the
words of Ralph Turner, stratification of destination is
more important than the stratification of origin among
4 8
youngster. Regarding the role development and idenLifi-
cation of a young adult with a certain occupation, Richard
Simpson writes.
One of the most compelling instances of personal
change and development in adult life is to be found
in the typical growth of an "occupationality" in the
young adult male, who as he matures, takes over an
image of himself as the holder of a particular spe
cialized position in the division of labor. Such
occupational identifications are internalized by the
individual in the course of socialization.49
Thus, the aspirations of the young adult within a
certain occupation reinforces his image of himself. How-
; ever, it is not yet clear how a member of the Japanese
American culture in this country would tend to affect and
re-structure the occupational aspirations of Sansei youths.
Social Situations
Marcus Hansen has graphically formulated what he
calls "the principle of third-generation interest" in these
terms : "What the son wishes to forget , the grandson wishes
5 0
to remember." Hansen describes the general characteris-
4^Ralph H. Turner, The Social Context of Ambition
(San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1964), p. 135.
Richard Simpson, Social Organization and Behavior
(New York; Wiley, 1964), p. 252.
^^Herberg, op. cit., p. 43.
26
tics of the third generation as follows':
[The members of the third generation] have no
reason to feel any inferiority when they look about
them. They are American born. Their speech is the
same as that of those with whom they associate.
Their material wealth is the average possession of
the typical citizen. When anyone speaks to him about
immigrants, he always makes it clear that he has in
mind the more recent hordes that have been pouring
through the gates and any suggestion that the onrush
be stemmed is usually prefaced with the remarks that
recent immigrants are not so desirable as the pio
neers . ^
In terms of upward mobility and assimilation, the
third generation could rid itself of the "foreignness" of
their grandparents: in language, customs, manners, folk
ways, poverty and the like, their life situation was so
unlike that exemplified in the strange dualism of their
parents that problems of the first and second generations
seem to have been solved at the level of the third genera
tion. Yet according to Will Herberg, its solution paradox
ically rendered more acute the perennial problems of "be
longing and self-identification." What group could they
belong to? One writer, Rosalind Sakiguchi, notes that one
of the most important questions facing the Sansei is ; "Am
52
I an American or a Japanese or both?"
It was this problem of "belonging" on the part of
immigrants that prompted Woodrow Wilson to observe that
I
' a man who thinks of himself as belonging to a
^^Ibid., p. 10 ^^Ibid., p. 5.
2 7
particular national group in America has not yet
become an American. Self-identification in ethnic
terms, while it was a product of the American en
vironment, was also a sign of incomplete integration
into American life.
Concerning the degree of racial self-consciousness
and identity and the degree of unconscious identity, the
study by Rosalind Sakiguchi states that more than two-
thirds of both the Nisei (70 per cent) and the Sansei (66
per cent) felt that other races viewed them first as a
Japanese.It is because of this feeling, the same study
concludes, that Japanese Americans socialize with other
ethnic groups on a general basis, but that close inter
personal relations are still reserved to the Japanese or
other Orientals.
; Summary
With some exceptions, including statements in cer
tain periodicals and newspapers, little has been written
which discusses the familial, occupational and social situ
ations of the Sansei in any detail. Nevertheless, in gen
eral the literature reflects a more favorable trend in the
attitude of the majority culture. Professor Gene n .
^^Oscar Handlin, The American People in the Twen
tieth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954)
p. 121.
54
Sakiguchi, op. cit., p. 13.
^^Ibid., p. 12.
28
56
Levine, for example, noted in a Japanese-American news
paper that American public opinion had undergone a remark-
5 7
able change in favor of the Japanese in the United States.
( J So far as the three categories — familial, occupational and
social— are concerned, the Sansei appear to have less dif
ficulty in the familial and occupational situations than
in the social one. This perhaps indicates to us that so
cial adjustment is the last step to be made by the members
of immigrant groups.
56principal investigator for the Japanese American
Research Project at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
"Issei, Nisei Image in Japan Valuable," Nichibei
Times, I, No. 176, September 15, 1966.
CHAPTER II
DATA COLLECTION
The Method of Obtaining Data
This study was first planned in the spring of 1966.
At that time, the sampling area was suggested by Mr. George
1 2
Saeki and Mr. Frank Hirata. The area chosen for this
3
study consists of two streets in the Crenshaw district of
Los Angeles, a residential area of middle-class Japanese
Americans. Each of the streets had a high percentage of
Japanese-American residents (32 per cent and 42 per cent,
respectively).
Then, the names of the Japanese Americans who were
interviewed in this study were selected from a special
telephone directory^ which lists telephone subscribers by
the geographical areas in which they live.
The interviews were conducted by this writer from
^A Nisei and administrative coordinator to Mayor
Sam Yorty.
2
A Nisei and executive secretary of the Japanese
Chamber of Commerce of Southern California.
3
Victoria Avenue and Somerset Drive.
^This telephone directory is available at the
Pacific Telephone Company.
29
I !
I 30 j
October 1966 through January 1967. Throughout, this writer|
received good cooperation from the respondents, especially |
I I
I from the Issei. !
I Hypotheses of This Study
I Mr. Frank Hirata, executive secretary of the Japa
nese American Chamber of Commerce of Southern California,
states in an article^ on Japanese Americans in Los Angeles
that generally speaking, assimilation is completed when
the descendant of an immigrant enters the fourth genera
tion. How, in fact, is this assimilative process carried
out? This is answered as follows by E. M. Boddy:
. . . assimilation means that process by which an
alien people are taught to adopt'the customs,
practices, and mode of living prevalent in the
country in which they reside. . . . Assimilation,
therefore, becomes a matter of culture rather than
a matter of physical difference.6
In terms of this cultural evolution, descendants
of Japanese immigrants are said to have been assimilated
into American culture more readily than other ethnic
groups. However, some social scientists also interpret
^"Japanese in Los Angeles and Suburbs," Shin Nichi
Bei (translation "New Japanese American," a Japanese news
paper of Los Angeles) December 22, 1965, p. 3.
^E. M. Boody, Japanese in Tknerica (Los Angeles,
California : E. Manchester Boddy, 1924), p. 124.
31
assimilation in terms of integration with the majority.^
In this connection, the assimilation of Japanese Americans
has been slow compared with those descending from European
o
cultures.
Basically, assimilation has nothing to do with
racial difference, as some social scientists have pointed
out.^ It seems, however, that racial difference has cer
tain psychological effects on those who are racially dif
ferent from the majority. One writer, Kenneth Little, con
cludes that what is important is not whether groups of
individuals do, or do not, ‘differ in actual biological
terms, but the fact that they conceive of themselves as
racially different.In part this race consciousness
derives from the fact that the majority society originally
viewed members of certain groups as racially different.
Nevertheless, we ..can speculate that Nisei are more
^Erich Rosenthal, "Acculturation without Assimila
tion," American Journal of Sociology, LXVI (November, 1960);
Gretchen Tuthill, "Japanese in the City of Los Angeles,"
(unpublished Master's thesis. Dept, of Sociology, Univer
sity of Southern California, 1924), p. 28; and others.
^David Stan Jordan, in a statement presented to a
Congressional Committee and reported in Hearings, Committee
on Immigration, U.S. Senate, 68th Cong., 1st Sess., 1924,
p. 60.
9
Kenneth Little, Race and Society (Paris; UNESCO,
1952); and others.
^^Ibid., p. 6.
32
assimilated than Issei, and Sansei more than Nisei. The
empirical hypotheses derived from the above speculation
are as follows:
1. Sansei boys have higher occupational goals than
their fathers, and their educational goals are higher than
their parents.
2. Vocational aspirations of Sansei boys include
a larger variety of occupations than that of their fathers.
3. The previously accepted stereotype, that only
certain and limited areas of employment were accessible to
the Nisei, has rapidly declined among the Sansei genera
tion .
4. The Sansei generation is not likely to follow
the father's occupation.
5. In choosing an occupation, the Sansei genera
tion has had far less pressure from the family than their
fathers had.
6. The Nisei generation feels more strongly than
the Sansei that occupational success is more of an obliga
tion to one's parents.
7. One of the greatest influences on occupational
aspirations among the Nisei is the family, while among the
Sansei it is the peer group and the school.
8. Issei and Nisei are affected by prejudice and
discrimination more than Sansei.
33
9. Sansei have more non-Japanese American friends
than either Issei or Nisei.
10. Issei and Nisei feel more pressure from the
I Japanese-American community in relation to occupational
I aspirations, peer group, and marriage than do the Sansei.
11. The Issei generation is more influenced by the
traditonal culture patterns of Japan than the Nisei and
Sansei, who were born in America.
Characteristics of the Sample
Sex and Age of the Respondents
This sample consists of eighty respondents of the
first (Issei), second (Nisei) and third (Sansei) generation !
iof Japanese Americans. |
Sixteen were Issei, forty-three were Nisei, and |
twenty-one were Sansei. All Issei respondents were born inj
Japan.
Among the forty-two Nisei respondents, one was born
! in Japan, four were born in Hawaii, and all others were
I born in the continental United States. Among the twenty-
I one Sansei respondents, one was born in Hawaii, and all
!
I others were born in the continental United States .
I In terms of male-female distribution, the ratio is
almost equal, there being forty-two males, and thirty-
Ieight females.
34
TABLE 1
SEX AND AGE BY GENERATION
Number of Number of Average
Generation Males Females Total Age
Issei 8 8 16 72.2
Nisei 22 21 43 41. 5
Sansei 12 9 21 24.3
Total 42 3 8 N=80
35
On one street chosen for sampling,the residences
consisted entirely of single dwellings. The other street!^
consisted of multi-unit apartment houses.
The rents were estimated to be between ninety and
one hundred and fifteen dollars a month, depending on the
size of the apartment. The Sansei living in the multi-unit
apartment houses were married couples, and as a result, the
average age of the Sansei respondents is somewhat higher
13
than that of the Sansei population as a whole in America.
Of the families interviewed, none were the extended lineage
type of family but rather were the nuclear type.
Distribution of Religious
Affiliations
j The percentage (50 per cent) of the Issei who were ,
jBuddhists was lower than anticipated. Since the percentage'
I of Buddhists was usually higher among those Issei who lived-
in predominantly rural areas, as contrasted with those who !
t I
lived in urban areas, the relatively lower percentage of ;
Buddhist Issei can be explained by the fact that the
^^Somerset Drive.
^^Victoria Avenue.
13
I According to the 196 0 Chamber Annual issued by
the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Southern California,
the average age of Issei, Nisei, and Sansei i s 77-79 years,
,45-47 years, and 15-17 years, respectively, in 1967.
36
majority of the respondents were socialized in an urban
culture.
As for the Nisei, contrary to expectation, fewer
Nisei showed Buddhist religious affiliations. This dif
ference and distribution demonstrate that the Nisei were
unexpectedly far less oriented toward traditional Japanese
culture, in contrast with their parents' strong attachment
to the culture of Japan.
On the other hand, among the Sansei generation the
percentage of Buddhists has increased, and the percentage
of Protestants has decreased. The Sansei were roughly
divided into three groups, namely, Buddhists, Protestants
and those who professed no religious affiliation. The fact
that 29 per cent of the Sansei had no religious preferences
is an important consideration.
Question to respondents : Where were you brought
up?
Table 3 shows that the respondents in more than
half of the sample were brought up in large urban areas
such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Educational Distribution
of Respondents
The educational level of the Issei generation was
as low as predicted. One interesting point concerning the
level of achievement of Issei men and women was that the
37
TABLE 2
RELIGIOUS DISTRIBUTION AMONG GENERATIONAL GROUPINGS
Religion
Issei Nisei Sansei
No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent
Buddhist 8 50 8 18 5 2 5
Catholic 0 0 1 2 1 5
Protestant 5 31 26 60 8 36
Other 0 0 4 11 1 5
None 3 19 3 7 6 29
Total 16 100 42 100 21 100
No
Information 0 1 0
38
TABLE 3
QUESTION TO RESPONDENTS: WHERE WERE YOU BROUGHT UP?
Place Issei Nisei Sansei
Farm 3 6 2
A Small Town 1 16 3
A Big City 12 21 16
39
educational level of the women was somewhat higher than
that of the men.
The Nisei's educational distribution gives us a
different picture from that of their parents'. Even though
those who graduated from high school had the highest rep
resentation (35 per cent) among their peers, more than one-
fourth (27 per cent) of the Nisei graduated from four-year
colleges or universities while not a single Issei had
earned a college degree.
The Sansei's level of educational achievement was
not as high as expected. However, this can be explained
by the fact that most of the Sansei had not yet completed
their education at the time the interviews were conducted]''^
Therefore, the only possible method was to compare the
Sansei's educational aspirations with the level of educa
tional achievement of their parents and grandparents.
When the Sansei's educational level is compared
with that of the Nisei's, we can conclude the following;
the Nisei who progressed as far as high school will have
their Sansei counterparts going as far as junior college,
and those who were satisfied with a four-year college
degree before are entering graduate school today. This
^^Age range of Sansei is 18 years-38 years. This
interview was conducted between October 1966 and January
, 1967.
40
TABLE 4
EDUCATIONAL LEVELS AMONG GENERATIONAL GROUPS
Educational
Level
Issei Nisei Sansei
Sansei
Aspirational
No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent
Elementary 7 46 0 0 0 0 0 0
Some High
School 6 36 2 5 1 5 0 0
Graduated
High School 2 12 15 35 4 18 0 0
Some
College 1 6 10 23 11 52 2 10
Graduated
College 0 0 12 27 3 15 2 10
Professional
or Graduate 0 0 4 10 2 10 9 43
No
Information 0 0 0 8 37
..... .
Total 16 10 0 43 100 21 100 21 100
41
can be understood in terms of the ever-increasing demand
for highly educated personnel created by recent and rapid
technical development in business and industry.
Occupational Distribution
The typical occupations of the Issei were farm-
owners, gardeners, and domestic laborers, while the Nisei
tended to be engaged in the professions, such as engineer
ing, pharmacy, and architecture. The women tended to be
employed predominantly as office workers.
Since one's occupational level is closely related
to the level of one's educational attainment in this soci
ety, we might speculate that the achieved level of educa
tion of the Nisei women was much lower than that of their j
male counterparts. ,
The occupational levels of the Sansei at the time ,
! of these interviews were of a temporary or part-time na-
I i
I ture, while those of the Issei and Nisei counterparts were |
permanent or full time, since those Sansei interviewed J
were, for the most part, attending school. Therefore, the ,
Sansei female office workers tend to differ from Nisei j
women office workers in that the former consider their j
employment as temporary while the latter tend to be per- j
1
manently employed.
42
TABLE 5
OCCUPATIONAL DISTRIBUTION AMONG
GENERATIONAL GROUPS
Occupational
Issei Nisei Sansei
Sansei
Aspirational
Levels*
No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent No
Per
Cent
Unskilled 4 25 1 2 0 0 0 0
Semiskilled 2 12 1 2 4 18 0 0
Skilled 0 0 1 2 2 10 1 5
Clerical,
Sales 0 0 12 28 10 48 1 5
Small Business
Owners 9 57 5 10 1 5 1 5
Semi-
Professional 1 6 7 16 3 14 1 5
Business Agent,
Managers 0 0 4 13 0 0 1 5
Professional 0 0 10 23 1 5 8
37
Large Business
Owners, Offi
cials 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0
No
Information 0 0 2 4 0 0 9 43
Total 16 10 0 43 100 21 100 21 100
Average Score 3.7 5.6 4.0 7.0
Note: 1.0 - unskilled to 9.0 - large business |
owners and officials. ,
*Cited from Ralph H. Turner, The Social Context of I
Ambition (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company, 1964)
p. 247.
CHAPTER III
DATA ANALYSIS: FAMILY SITUATIONS
The most significant aspect of family situations in
a minortiy group is that it reveals subtle information
about their culture. Due to the complexities inherent in
the analysis of cultural patterns among members of a minor
ity group, difficulties will arise regarding their behav
ioral patterns which tend to become distinctive to the eyes
of the host. The family plays a large role in transmitting
its own peculiar culture patterns to the next generation.
In the case of Japanese-American children, they
I first had contact with the so-called "Japanese-American
! culture patterns" which were transmitted through their
! parents and grandparents interaction. Later they learned
imost of the American culture patterns. The dominant family
attitudes toward the culture patterns of the host society,
exhibited by the members of the Japanese-American minori
ties, together with attitudes toward the members of the
host society are very influential in the formation of the |
child's prejudice, antagonism, cooperation, self-evaluation;
I
patterns and many other personality characteristics. These j
characteristics tend to be internalized gradually by the
43 !
44
child as by-products of interaction with other members of
his family. However, these learned cultural patterns may
also be in conflict with those of the larger society, es
pecially as the child is introduced to the public school
system, in particular, where the child stands in minority
status to his peers.
Source of Influence on
Career Planning
There was far less influence by the family on ca
reer planning of the Issei generation than on the Nisei and
Sansei, since the Issei arrived in America without their
parents. In addition to this. Table 6 indicates that there
^ was little influence upon the Issei by friends, teachers,
I and employers. It is interesting to note that, contrary to
I popular expectations, influences from outside the family
tended to be stronger on the Nisei than from inside the i
i j
family, while the reverse was true for the Sansei. We can :
assume that in spite of strong pressures from the family, I
the American-born second generation (Nisei) was in con- j
flict with its parents, who held strong attachments toward |
the culture of Japan. |
There is evidence that the second generation did
45
TABLE 6
AVERAGE SCORE OF SOURCE OF INFLUENCE ON
CAREER PLANS BY GENERATION
Source of Influence Issei Nisei Sansei
Father 1.2 2.2 2.1
Within
the Mother 1.1 2.2 2.8
Family
Brothers 1.2 1.8 2.0
Sisters 1.0 1.8 2.0
(4.5)* (8.0)* (9.5)*
Friends 1.3 2.2 2.1
Outside
the Teachers 1.1 2.3 2.2
Family
Employers 1.0 2.5 2.0
Other 1.0 1.0 2.0
(4.4)** (8.9)** (8.3)**
Note; 4.0 - great deal; 1.0 ■ “ not at all.
*Total of the average of the influence within the
family.
**Total of the average of the influence outside the
family.
46
not believe in what their Issei parents told them.^ They
rather considered their peers, teachers, and employers
more understanding than their parents, who came from Japan,
hence had a different socialization pattern.
Again, contrary to common belief, the third gen
eration reveals that they are far more influenced by the
family than by outside stimuli such as peer group members,
teachers, employers, etc. Perhaps American-born, American-
educated Nisei parents can give more meaninful advice and
suggestions than the Issei parents who, after all, never
really came to accept the American values. This is clearly
reflected in Table 7.
Question to respondents : Which of the following
has been most influential in your decision of a
future occupation?
From the data obtained, in the case of the second
generation, friends were most influential in terms of occu
pational planning than was the family. Presumably this is
due to the fact that their parents who were born in Japan,
were unable to give them support and proper guidance. As
for the third generation, the family regained its impor
tance, and the family, rather than peers, was more influ-
One writer, Rosalind Sakiguchi, states in her
study on Japanese-American youths that there is a conflict
between the Nisei and the Issei and that the Nisei cannot
look toward the Issei for models in social conduct.
47
TABLE 7
SOURCE OF INFLUENCE ON FUTURE OCCUPATION
Source of Influence Issei Nisei Sansei
Family* 3 13 10
Friends and School 6 19 8
Neither 7 11 3
Total 16 33 21
*Number of respondents
48
ential in terms of occupational planning.
Question to respondents: Was there pressure within
the family for you to follow your father's occupa
tion?
In all three generations, there had been almost no
pressure from the family to follow the father's occupation.
This is partly due to the fact that the fathers in each of
the generations have not held satisfactory upwardly mobile
occupations, which were really worth recommending to their
sons.
Question to respondents : Was there a great deal
of pressure from your family regarding any partic
ular job?
Table 9 indicates the tendency that as the genera
tion descends, the pressure from the family gradually in-
jcreases. The Sansei had slightly more pressure from the i
family than the Nisei, and this pressure was clearly di
rected toward certain desirable occupations in the case of
the Sansei. Among the forty-three second generation re-
Ispondents, only two could mention the jobs for which the
family exerted pressure, namely, "any professional job" and:
2
"gardener." For the majority of the Nisei there was no
strong pressure exerted to obtain a particular job, but j
there was much pressure to go to college to prepare for a '
"white-collar job." However, almost half of the third '
I ^His Issei father was a farmerj possibly he consid-
Iered gardening a more skilled job than simply farming.
I
49
TABLE 8
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
PRESSURE TO FOLLOW FATHER'S OCCUPATION
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
A Great Deal 0 0 0
Some 0 1 2
Very Little 0 1 2
None at All 16 35 17
No Information 0 6 0
Total 16 43 21 ;
Average Score* 1.00 1. 08 1.30
*Rating: 4.0 - a great deal; 1.0 - none at all. ;
50
TABLE 9
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
PRESSURE TOWARD JOB
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
A Great Deal 0 1 2
Some 1 2 7
Very Little 0 6 4
None at All 15 32 8
No Information 0 2 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 1.12 1.31 2.14
Rating : 4.0 - a great deal to 1.0 -none at all.
51
generation respondents could easily select the occupations
upon which the family placed pressure, namely, engineering,
accounting, optometry, medicine, dentistry, real estate
brokerage, music teaching, etc.
Question to respondents : Do you want your son or
daughter to take over your job when they are old
enough to do so?
Table 10 shows that the majority of the respon
dents, regardless of their generational and occupational
differences, had not expected their children to take over
their occupations. Some Issei farmers told the writer that
they had once hoped their children would decide on farm
work, since this occupation was common in rural areas of
Japan; however, they had had to reconsider, because of the
strong dislike of farming by their children.
Question to respondents : How strongly do you feel
that occupational success is one of the obligations
to one's parents?
It was hypothesized that the Nisei held a stronger
attachment toward their parents, and that they were more
obligated to their parents than the Sansei.^ However Table
11 belies this expectation. When the family and social
t
situations of the Nisei historically are considered, the i
contrary expectation seems logical. During World War II, [
"everything Japanese was considered bad," and the Nisei |
3Chapter II, Data Collection, hypothesis 6.
TABLE 10
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING CHILD'S
TAKING OVER PARENT'S JOB
52
Choice
Issei Nisei Sansei
No
Per
f Cent No
Per
Cent No.
Per
Cent
Yes 1 6 1 2 1 5
No 12 76 25 60 6 30
Not applicable 3 18 16 38 14 65
No Information 0 1 0
Total 16 100 43 100 21 100
*Respondents
53 I
TABLE 11
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING THE
AWARENESS OF OBLIGATION TO ONE'S PARENTS
IN CONNECTION WITH OCCUPATIONAL SUCCESS
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
A Great Deal 4 8 7
Some 6 13 10
A Little 1 5 1
None at All 4 13 3
No information 1 4 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score 2.6 2.4 3.0
Rating ; 4.0 - a great deal to 1.0 - none at all.
54
were strongly affected by this antagonism. They struggled
to prove themselves to be faithful and loyal Americans, and
under this pressure rebelled against their parents.
In general, the Nisei's attitudes tended to be in
opposition to their parents' attitudes. Their sentiments
toward the Issei parents were not so strong as heretofore
4
suspected.
One might also reflect on the fact that the Sansei
unexpectedly evinced higher scores than the first and sec
ond generations. It is surprising that many Sansei ac
cepted the term "obligation to parents," though some did
not. This was expressed by one Sansei girl who said, "I
do not feel one is obligated to anything." From this, one
i might speculate that the majority of Sansei with middle-
iclass backgrounds are more conservative than commonly be-
'lieved.
Question to respondents: Do you feel that children
I owe responsibilities to their parents in terms of
I 1. helping to support them when they are old;
2. seeing them often;
3. going into the jobs that the parents approve.
Responsibilities to
the Parents
The average score of 2.3 by the first generation
^This is based on the assumption that Japanese
people have stronger "family ties" than do the majority
Americans.
55
reveals the fact that they were reluctant to get financial
support from their children. However, they strongly pre
ferred the children and grandchildren to visit them as
often as possible. This kind of response pattern will lead
us to the assumption that what the parents expect from the
children is not material, but rather, psychological support.
The second and third generations somewhat agreed
that both psychological and economic help is important for
their aged parents. It is interesting, that contrary to
5
previously held expectations, the third generation youths
evinced higher ranking scores than the second generation in
Table 12. The responses to questions in Table 12 present
similar data, suggesting that the children's concern toward
the parents is stronger among the Sansei than among the
Nisei. All three generations responded negatively to the
third question, which asks them to go into the jobs their
parents prefer them to have.
Question to respondents: Do you feel that parents
should put pressure on their sons to leave home
and get a job immediately after graduating from
high school?
The three generations responded negatively to this
question. All agreed more or less that the parents should
take care of their sons to some extent until they graduate
The hypotheses in Chapter II are based on the
assumption that Nisei have stronger attachment toward
family than do the Sansei.
56
TABLE 12
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
RESPONSIBILITIES TO THE PARENTS
, -......... ..... . . ........
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
1. Helping to support them when they are old
Agree Strongly 0 16 10
Agree Somewhat 8 16 9
Disagree Somewhat 5 5 2
Disagree Strongly 3 6 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 2.3 3.0 3.4
2. Seeing them often
Agree Strongly 11 16 7
Agree Somewhat 4 26 14
Disagree Somewhat 1 0 0
Disagree Strongly 0 1 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 3.6 3.3 3.3
3. Going into the jobs that the parents want for them
Agree Strongly 0 0 0
Agree Somewhat 1 4 4
Disagree Somewhat 7 12 9
Disagree Strongly 8 27 8
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 1.6 1.5 1.8
*Rating : 4.0 -
strongly.
agree strongly; 1.0 - disagree
57
TABLE 13
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING PRESSURE
ON SONS' BECOMING INDEPENDENT FROM PARENTS
Choice Sansei Issei Nisei
Agree Strongly
Agree Somewhat
Disagree Somewhat
Disagree Strongly 32 11
No Information
No Opinion, or
Do not Know
Total 16 43 21
Average Score*
Rating: 4.0 - agree strongly to 1.0 - disagree
strongly
58
from college. This writer feels that this is not an atypi
cal response pattern by the Japanese American, inasmuch as
the parents are very much concerned about their children's
college education, and future occupational roles.
Question to respondents ; How important is the op
position from your family in your not attaining the
desired job.
Table 14 shows that although the Sansei had more
pressure from the family than the Nisei, the Sansei tend
to ignore family opposition to a lesser degree than do the
Nisei. This clearly shows the influence of the American
form of individualism on the Sansei, who are least affected
by the Issei's Japanese cultural heritage. The average
score of 1.2 by the second generation in Table 13 indicates
that the Nisei seem more Americanized than the Sansei, but
the Nisei's attitudes and behavior in real life situations
are not so affected as they think. Therefore, the Nisei
sometimes place themselves in difficult situations because
their ideas and behavior do not coincide.
Question to respondents : Do you think a wife should
have a job outside the home, regardless of the
family's needs?
In Table 15 the generational differences are unex
pectedly insignificant. However, the second and third gen
eration females evinced slightly hi^er scores than that of
their male counterparts. This may be interpreted to mean
that more and more women are dissatisfied with staying home
59
TABLE 14
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
OPPOSITION FROM THE FAMILY
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
Very Important 1 5 0
Somewhat Important 6 2 2
Not Very Important 0 9 3
Not Important at All 6 19 11
Not Applicable 3 8 5
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 2.1 1.8 1.4
* Rating: 4.0 - very important to 1.0 - - not impor-
60
TABLE 15
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
WIVES WORKING OUT
Issei Nisei Sansei
Choice
Male Female Male Female Male Female
Agree Strongly 1 0
Agree Somewhat 2 3
Disagree Somewhat 2 3
Disagree Strongly 2 2
Total 7 8
Average Score* 2.3 2.1
0
11
6
1
18 18
2.0 2.6
11 8
2.3 2.5
* Rating : 4.0 - agree strongly to 1.0 - disagree
strongly.
61
and simply doing housework. It would seem that today's
women demand outside stimuli and involvement away from
household duties. In contrast, some men proclaim that
their status as heads of the family is somewhat threatened
by this demand of the women.
However, it is interesting to find that the three
generations including both male and female respondents
thought that a wife should stay at home as long as she has
children to care for. This response pattern seems to indi
cate that some women are dissatisfied with staying at home,
while others strongly believe that women's place is in the
home, which seems a universal reaction to this writer. Al
though some women demand greater outside stimuli and in
volvement away from household duties, their role is usually
restricted, so that it could not be compared to the multiple
roles played by men in this society.
Question to respondents: Would you say that you
have achieved the kind of place in life that you
wanted for yourself and for your children?
Most Issei, and two-thirds of the Nisei and Sansei,
seem generally satisfied with their existence. To those
who answered "no" to the question in Table 16, another ques
tion, "What could have made the difference?" was asked.
Among the twelve Nisei who were not satisfied with their
life, seven mentioned lack of education, two, lack of money,
and only one mentioned prejudice. This is surprising.
62
TABLE 16
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING SATISFACTION
IN LIFE SITUATIONS
Choice
Issei Nisei
Per
No.* Cent
Per
No. Cent
Sansei
Per
No. Cent
Yes
No
Not Applicable
No Information
15
1
0
0
94
6
20
12
10
1
62
38
5
3
11
2
62
38
Total 16 43 21
*Respondents
63
because it is assumed that almost every Nisei might have
been negatively conditioned in his social life, simply be
cause he was a Japanese American. This, however, appears
to be a typical response pattern from the respondents.
They tend to be inhibited from recalling the prejudices
which existed before. Instead they mention lack of educa
tion. This response is misleading and therefore should not
be taken to mean that prejudice has not affected the Nisei' s |
careers.
Among the three Sanseis who were not satisfied with
their life, two mentioned lack of education and one men
tioned early marriage. For the Sansei, "lack of education"
means literally that, because the prevailing social condi
tions are entirely different from that of the Issei and
Nisei, now that they are socially acceptable.
Summary
The tables demonstrate that the family plays an
important role for the Sansei, while peers, teachers, em
ployers and others outside the family, are more influential
for the Nisei than influences of Issei parents, who main
tain traditional cultural values from the old country.
The conditions to which the Nisei were subjected
were rather unusual, but gradually developed to more normal
conditions in the case of the Sansei.
64
Bossard asserts that the child craves security as
a member of the family.^ It seems to be a characteristic
of human instinct to seek security, and the family satis
fies this need. Without the family, it is generally ac
cepted that any sort of normal socialization process is
highly unlikely.
The responses given by the young Sansei generation
support this assumption, despite the expectation that the
family is less important for the Sansei. On the contrary,
when the responses of the Nisei are compared with those of
the Sansei, we can assume that in spite of the strong pres
sure from the family, American-born and American-educated
Nisei were in fact in conflict with their Issei parents,
who had strong attachments toward the culture of Japan.
The data obtained in this study and previous materials^ on
Issei and Nisei support this conclusion.
^Bossard and Bell, The Sociology of Child Develop
ment (Harper and Row, 1966).
^Leonard Bloom, "Transitional Adjustment of Japa
nese American Families to Relocation," American Sociological
Review, XII (April, 1947) , 208-209; Mildred Sikkema, "Ob
servation of Japanese Early Training," Psychiatry, X
(April, 1947), 242.
CHAPTER IV
DATA ANALYSIS: OCCUPATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
One revealing characteristic of the Japanese Ameri
can is his strong emphasis upon educational achievement.
Education is an extremely important factor in upward mobil
ity in this culture, and the Japanese American has taken
full advantage of available educational opportunities af
forded to him in the public school system, and in particu
lar the college and university system in California.
To be more specific, according to the 1960 United
States census, the statistical relationship of Japanese-
American white-collar workers in America to their minority
counterparts is as follows : the proportion of Japanese-
American white-collar workers in 1960 was 56 per cent while
the Chinese white-collar workers was 50.7 per cent, the
Filipino ratio was 26 per cent while the Negro was 13.8 per
cent. When these data are compared to the dominant major
ity group in this country, the Caucasians ranked 42.1 per
cent of white-collar workers.^
Calvin Schmid and Charles Nobbe, "Socioeconomic
Differentials among Nonwhite Races," American Sociological
Review (December, 1965), 909,
65
66
The above census report also claims that increases
in white-collar employment among Orientals, in particular
I during the past ten years, have been quite pronounced in
the professional ranks, while the increase in white-collar
occupation among Negroes, for example, has been largely in
clerical and sales positions. This difference might best
be understood by examining the educational achievements of
Negroes as contrasted with Orientals.
Question to respondents : How important do you feel
education is, even if it is not directly related to
a job?
All of the Issei respondents, although their educa
tional attainments were of an elementary school level, and
the majority of the Nisei and Sansei, considered education
to be very important indeed. However, partly because of
today's far more favorable environment, those Sansei who
consider education less important are now slightly increas
ing. Table 18 shows a similar tendency among younger
people.
Question to respondents: Do you think young people
today can obtain suitable occupation without college
education?
Approximately one out of five Nisei and one out of
four Sansei thought that they could obtain a suitable occu
pation without the benefit of a college education. It is
interesting to compare this with the response given by the
Issei who, without exception, agreed that young people
67
TABLE 17
ATTITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS AND AVERAGE SCORES
JAPANESE-AMERICAN RESPONSES TO EDUCATION
OF
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
Very Important 16 40 15
Somewhat Important 0 3 4
Not Very Important 0 0 2
Not Important at All 0 0 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 4.0 3.9 3.6
*Rating: 4.0-
tant at all.
very important to 1.0 - not impor-
TABLE 18
DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONSES TO
SUCCESS WITHOUT A COLLEGE
OCCUPATIONAL
EDUCATION
Issei Nisei Sansei
Choice
No.*
Per
Cent
Per
No.* Cent
* Per
No. Cent
Yes 0 0 9 21 5 24
No 15 94 32 75 13 62
No Information 1 6 2 4 3 14
Total 16 100 43 100 21 100
*Respondents
68
today could not obtain suitable occupations without the
benefit of college training.
Question to respondents: What do you think are the
main characteristics of a job which make it a posi
tion with high prestige?
When the Issei left Japan a half-century ago, gov
ernmental jobs were considered the most prestigious role a
person should strive for in Japan, Consequently one-third
of the Issei respondents considered civil service employ
ment as the most prestigious job. This is evidence that
the Issei still maintain traditional values, however subtle,
which have survived for half a century from the old country.
The most representative responses offered by the
Nisei to the above question were "great responsibility" and
"education and experience," while that of the Sansei were
"education and experience" and "top income." Thus as the
generation descends the conception of a prestigious job
takes on a more materialistic nature in this culture.
Question to respondents: What factors should a
person take into account in accepting a job?
For the Issei, "if he likes the job or not" was the
most important consideration while for the Nisei "future
advancement" and "monetary rewards" were the most important
answers given. Among the Sansei, the combination of the
above-mentioned factors scored the highest valuation.
It is rather interesting that the Issei's response
69
TABLE 19
DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONSES TO OCCUPATIONS
WITH A HIGH PRESTIGE VALUE
Characteristics Sansei Issei Nisei Total
Great Responsibility
High Education
Experience 12
Ability
Top Income
Respect from Others
Governmental, Civic
Services
Hard to Get
Power, Influence
Prestige
Other : SeIf-dignity,
Environment, Pride, etc
No Information 16
70
I TABLE 2 0
! DISTRIBUTION REGARDING FACTORS IN JOB SELECTION
Factor Issei Nisei Sansei Total
Future advancement 1 24 10 35
Does he like the job? 8 13 10 31
Capability, knowledge,
experience, etc. 1 15 2 18
Monetary rewards 1 24 13 38
Employer 1 3 0 4
Educational requirements 1 4 0 5
Working conditions
(coworkers, etc.) 2 5 3 10
Benefits (retirement) 0 4 2 6
Other (stability,
conditions, etc. 1 3 8 12
7l
pattern was quite different from that of the Nisei's. This
response by the Nisei reveals the obvious influence of
modern American culture. Nisei being more self-indulgent
than the Issei, who consider "service to the country" as
one's prime role. Thus the responses given by the Nisei
were more of a materialistic nature while the responses
given by the Issei were rather abstract and idealistic.
It is also interesting to note that the Sansei's
responses tended to over-arch those given by the Issei and
the Nisei. This would seem quite indicative of genera
tional transitional patterns from Issei to Sansei.
Question to respondents : Do you want to be an owner
or employee?
The fact that all of the Issei respondents in this
study wished to be an owner reveals their lack of interest
in working with non-Japanese Americans. They feel uncom
fortable working under the direct supervision of anyone who
speaks English. This is partly due to their failure to
master the language; consequently, they are not at all com
fortable whenever English-speaking people are present.
Sources^ which describe Japanese Americans suggest
that many Issei were small business owners, and many were
farmers who struggled to own land in spite of the Alien
^Chapter I, "Review of the Literature," Occupa
tional Situations of the Issei.
72
TABLE 21
DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONSES REGARDING
THE PREFERENCE FOR OWNERSHIP
Choice Sansei Issei Nisei
Employee 17
10 16 21 Owner
No Information
Total 43 21 16
73
Land Act, which prohibited non-American citizens from buy
ing land. After some years, about one-half of the Japanese
farmers became owners or managers. This struggle to own a
business was one dominant characteristic of the immigrants
from Japan. This caused fear in the larger American soci
ety that their economy might be subjected to some really
undefinable threat by these new immigrants from Japan.
Since the Nisei and Sansei, unlike the Issei, preferred to
speak English as their first language, their preferences
for ownership were distributed more equally than the Issei
generation.
Question to respondents ; Does it bother you to be
given orders?
There were no significant differences among genera
tional groups. Most respondents did not mind being given
orders by their immediate supervisors, as long as these
orders were relevant and important to the job.
Question to respondents : Which type of job is more
appealing to you?
Table 23 presents a similar picture to Table 21.
This table indicates that the majority of the Issei prefer
owning their business, no matter how small it might be.
Question to respondents; Can you point to the
occupations where relatively few Japanese Americans
have been employed?
"Politician" is pointed to as the least accessible
among the Issei, the second choice was "glamorous jobs"
TABLE 22
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE
REGARDING BEING GIVEN ORDERS
74
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
Bothers Me Very Much 1 1 0
Bothers Me Somewhat 4 10 8
Bothers Me Little 6 11 7
Not at All 4 21 6
No Information 1 0 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 2.1 1.6 2.1
*Rating : 4.0 - bothers me very much to 1.0 - does
not bother me at all.
TABLE 23
JOB PREFERENCE DISTRIBUTION
Type of Job Issei Nisei Sansei
No
Per
Cent
Per
No. Cent
Per
No. Cent
Organization 3 10 20 56 7 37
Individual 13 81 16 44 12 63
No Information 0 7 2
Total 16 100 43 100 21 100
75
(such as entertainer, astronaut, sportsman); "politician"
land "big business executive," among the Nisei; and "politi
cian" and "glamorous jobs," among the Sansei. Politician
I obtained the highest frequency from all of the three gener
ations. The reasons given for having had very few politi
cians among Japanese Americans was that the Japanese Ameri
can lacks cooperation in addition to his minority status.
This is why the Japanese-American community is, in many
ways, diametrically opposed to that of the Chinese-American
community, which is close-knit and well organized. The
rationalization for having few Japanese Americans in so-
called "glamorous jobs" was that, according to one typical
answer, "probably we (Japanese Americans) are too reserved
and inhibited to go into a glamorous job."
Question to respondents; How important are the
following factors in your not attaining the desired
job?
1. Lacked prerequisite education or training
All of the three generations in this study consid
ered the lack of education as being important to some de
gree, although the Issei evinced a slightly higher average
score than the other two generations. This can be ex
plained by the fact that it was the Issei who suffered most
from lack of education.
2. Felt that jobs are not open to Orientals
It is assumed that the Nisei was the victim of race
TABLE 24
76
DISTRIBUTION OF THE OCCUPATIONS WHERE FEW
JAPANESE AMERICANS HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED
Occupation Issei Nisei Sansei Total
Educator 1 0 0 1
Engineer (chemical) 1 0 0 1
Janitor, Garbage
Collector, etc. 2 0 1 3
Politician 5 5 3 13
Big Business Executive 1 5 0 6
Glamorous (Entertainer,
Astronaut, Sportsman,
etc. ) 0 8 2 10
Law-Enforcement
(Policeman, etc.) 0 3 0 1
Public Relations 0 1 0 1
Other : Pilot, Top
Defense Force, etc. 0 1 2 3
Do Not Know 6 20 13 3 9
Total 16 43 21
77
prejudice and was more affected by the prejudice against
Orientals than the Sansei,^ hence they showed slightly
higher average scores than the other two generations. In
general, however, prejudice is greatly diminishing and most
I of the respondents evinced low scores in Table 25, Item 3.
Question to respondents : Do you think that the
Japanese American is paid less for the same service
than are members of the majority?
The majority of the respondents thought that Japa
nese Americans were paid at the same rate for the same kind
of work performed as the members of the majority, although
it is admited by the respondents that discrimination had
existed until the end of the war.
Question to respondents : Would you say that Japanese
Americans can obtain a top position in any field if
he is qualified?
It is revealing to discover that the more educated
a person was, and the more contacts he had with the members
of the majority society, the more pessimistic he was about
gettin a top position in the American social-class hier
archy. Those who, like the Issei, tend to live an alien
ated life, evinced an optimistic response. On the other
hand, those Sansei who have wider associations with the
majority community tended to be more realistic, and some
times more pessimistic about getting a top position than
study.
^Chapter II, "Data Collection," Hypotheses of this
TABLE 2 5
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORES
WHICH AFFECT OCCUPATIONAL
78
REGARDING THE FACTORS
CAREER OBJECTIVES
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
1. Lacked prerequisite education or training
Very Important 9 23 8
Somewhat Important 1 4 5
Not Very Important 2 2 1
Not Important at All 1 5 3
Not Applicable 3 9 4
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 3.3 3.0 3.0
2. Felt that jobs are not open to Orientals
Very Important 1 4 1
Somewhat Important 1 5 2
Not Very Important 6 12 4
Not Important at All 5 13 10
Not Applicable 3 9 4
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 1.7 2.0 1.7
’
79
TABLE 2 4--Continued
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
3. This is a job where
employed
few Japanese Americans have been
Very Important 1 3 1
Somewhat Important 1 6 3
Not Very Important 4 11 3
Not Important at All 6 14 10
Not Applicable 4 9 4
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 1.7 1.9 1.7
4.
Felt that Japanese Am^icans are not wanted in the job
Very Important 0 4 1
Somewhat Important 0 6 4
Not Very Important 5 11 3
Not Important at All 6 14 9
Not Applicable 5 8 4
Total 16 43 21
i Average Score 1.4 2.0 1.8
*Rating: 4.0 -
tant at all.
very important to 1.0 - not impor-
TABLE 26
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING THE FEELING TOWARDS EQUAL PAY
Nisei Sansei Issei
I
Choice
Per
Cent
Per
Cent
Per
Cent No No No
10 Yes
14 88 3 9 91 18 85 No
No Information
TABLE 27
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING OBTAINING A TOP POSITION
IN AMERICAN SOCIETY
Issei Nisei Sansei
Choice
Per
Cent
Per
Cent
Per
Cent No No No
75 36 84 13 62 Yes 12
No 19 12 33
No Information
81
the other two generations who had restricted contacts with
the larger American society.
Summary
Implicit in the tables in this chapter is the com
manding notion that the Japanese Americans reveal acute
awareness of the importance of education. In fact, the
Japanese American is rather unique to the American scene in
that even the lowly-educated laborer from Japan considers
education as very important in terms of obtaining upward
mobility in his new culture. This awareness separates and
ranks the Japanese American high up on the occupational
ladder in America as revealed by the respondents in this
study. Previous materials on the Japanese Americans^ as
well as the data collected in this study support this con
clusion.
As for racial discrimination in connection with
securing an occupation, most respondents report that the
occupational career of Issei and Nisei was greatly handi
capped by discrimination before and during the war, but
that the pressure has lessened since the conclusion of the
second World War. Yet it should be noted that many of the
Sansei still believe that being a Japanese American is a
handicap in terms of obtaining a top position in American
^Chapter 1, "Review of the Literature."
82
society. There are many occupational fields where only a
j few or virtually no Japanese Americans can be found.
!
I This sample found no respondent who achieved a top
I level occupation.^ The occupations of the Japanese Ameri-
I
I cans in this study tend to be centered round the middle
: strata.
^Ralph Turner ranks a top level occupation as
large-business owners and officials. Chapter 111, "Occupa
tional Distribution."
CHAPTER V
DATA ANALYSIS; SOCIAL SITUATIONS
Social situations are another important aspect of
Japanese American life. According to the 1960 United
States Census reports, Japanese Americans ranked at the top
educationally, economically and occupationally.^ However,
this writer doubts as to what extent the above-mentioned
structural assimilation accounts for the social status of
the Japanese American in American society. Much has been
written on the educational and occupational aspects of the
Japanese American, including the census reports, but there
have been very few studies which describe social conditions
of the Japanese Americans, especially in terms of their
associations with the majority Americans.
Compared with the Japanese Americans' relatively
rapid progress in education and occupation, their social
associations are thought to be relatively slow, partly be
cause of the immeasurable degree of social handicap caused
by World War II and partly because of their rather reserved
^Calvin Schmid and Charles Nobbe, "Socioeconomic
Differentials among Nonwhite Races," American Sociological
Review (December, 1965), 909.
83
m
attitudes toward the outgroup majority. Therefore, it
would be interesting and logical to start this analysis of
social situations by looking at the general characteristics
of the Japanese American.
Question to respondents; What characteristics do
Japanese Americans have as a group?
In Table 28, the respondents were allowed to men
tion a maximum of three items. Ranked first in the total
was "hard-working"; second, "clannishness" and "sincerity";
and third, "reservedness." These four values well describe
the general characteristics of the Japanese American. They
are "sincere and hard-working people, but are reserved and
tend to stay within their group." Several Nisei respon
dents pointed out that the Japanese American is not agres
sive enough, when one who would embrace this culture is
expected to show aggressive traits.
Owing to the "hard-working" characteristic, they
rank higher than any other minority group in terms of
structural assimilation. However, as for the "reserved
ness" and "clannishness," more effort should be made by the
Japanese American in the future to insure his active and
wider participation in social y political and business
fields of the majority society. It is not difficult to
understand how closely these characteristic patterns of
Japanese Americans are related to their occupational and
85
TABLE 2 8
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING THE CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE JAPANESE AMERICANS
Characteristics Issei Nisei Sansei Total*
Sincerity, honesty 13 17
Reserved, shy 14 12
Ambitious, emphasis
on education
Clannishness 17
Concerned about status
pride, etc.
Hard-working 12 18
Skillful
Clean
Other 10
*Total of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices
86
educational attainments.
Question to respondents ; Which type of person do
you like better?
The majority of the Issei preferred those who are
willing to sacrifice immediate pleasure in order to estab
lish long range socio-economic goals. As a matter of fact,
most Issei were busy struggling to achieve for themselves
a bright future. They little time to spare and money to
spend.
On the other hand, about half of the Nisei and
Sansei respondents preferred to enjoy life now. Here we
observe some of the influences of American culture patterns
on American-born second and third generation children of
immigrants. Their attitude toward life, therefore, is more
like that of the majority Americans.
This difference between Issei who were born in
Japan, and Nisei and Sansei who were born in America, is
something more than just a matter of spare time and money.
This writer thinks it comes from a different philosophy of
life.
Question to respondents; Do you think being a
Japanese American would be an advantage or dis
advantage in applying for a job?
The largest percentage of the respondents of the
three generations in this study arrived at the choice that
being a Japanese American does not matter, but almost
87
TABLE 29
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING THE TYPE OF PERSON
THAT THE RESPONDENTS LIKE
Type of Person Nisei Issei Sansei
One who enjoys his life now 21
One who is willing to sacrifice
immediate pleasure to live
better in the future 14 21 12
No information
TABLE 30
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING THE FEELING OF ADVANTAGE
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
Advantage
10 21 Does Not Matter
Di s advantage
Do Not Know
No Information
21 Total 16 43
88
everyone agreed that it had been a disadvantage from the
: early immigration days until the end of World War II.
Some, however, thought that being Japanese American was an
"advantage," because Japanese Americans have proven them
selves to be honest and hard-working people in the eyes of
the majority Americans.
Question to respondents : Aside from World War II
experience, do you feel that prejudice or dis
crimination ever affected your career?
Twenty-five per cent of the Issei replied that they
had experienced prejudice and discrimination a great deal
even before World War II, Since many of them were engaged
in agricultural activities, they could not buy land nor
could they obtain loans from traditional lending sources.
Compared with the Issei, who had experienced forms of race
prejudice since the earliest immigration days, the Nisei
were mainly affected by strong anti-Japanese feeling caused
by the outbreak of World War II. Most Sansei, however, did
not directly experience overt prejudice, although they are
aware of it.
The Average Percentage of
Friends among Intergen-
erational Groups
It is interesting to note that the percentage of
friends who are Japanese American and other Orientals de
creases as the generation descends, while the percentage of
89
TABLE 31
DISTRIBUTION AND AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
CAREERS AFFECTED BY PREJUDICE
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
A Great Deal
Somewhat
A Little
None at All
No Information
Total
Average Score*
16
2.4
4
5
8
25
1
43
1.7
0
2
1
17
1
21
1.2
■Rating: 4.0 - a great deal to 1.0 - none at all
90
friends who are non-Orientals such as Caucasian, Negro and
Spanish-American, are gradually increasing among the
younger generation. According to Table 32, more than half
of the friends that an average Sansei has are still Japa
nese Americans; however, their associations are widening
among those who are non-Japanese Americans, compared with
the Issei and Nisei, who had to live under the pressures
of race prejudice and therefore interacted in a narrower
social milieu.
Question to respondents : To what extent are
Japanese Americans assimilated into the majority
American culture?
All of the three generations answered favorably to
the question as shown in Table 33 and evinced rather high
scores in the three categories. According to the table,
Japanese Americans are to some extend assimilated into the
majority American culture, socially and residentially.
They evinced higher scores on occupational assimilation
than they did on social and residential assimilation. To
this writer, however, their evaluation on the three cate
gories seems too high. In fact, this writer gained an im
pression from the respondents, and indeed the tables show,
that those who were relatively low in education, occupation
and association with the majority, tend to score highly on
these questions. To them, ideal and reality are the same ;
they could not see the difference, hence it can be attrib-
91
TABLE 32
PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF FRIEND
Friends
Issei Nisei Sansei
Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent
Japanese American 68 60 56
Caucasian 18 23 26
Negro 1 3 6
Other Oriental 12 7 6
Spanish American 2 3 5
Other 0 0 1
92
TABLE 33
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING THE ASSIMILATION
OF JAPANESE AMERICANS
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
Socially
A Great Deal 2 16 4
Somewhat 13 20 12
A Little 1 7 5
Not at All 0 0 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score 3.0 3.2 2.9
Occupationally
A Great Deal 11 33 11
Somewhat 5 10 9
Little 0 0 1
Not at All 0 0 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score 3.7 3.7 3.5
Residentially
A Great Deal 2 16 8
Somewhat 9 22 9
Little 5 5 4
Not at All 0 0 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score 2.8 3.2 3.2
93
uted partly to their ignorance. On the other hand, those
who have a college degree, hence wider contacts with the
majority Caucasians, tend to report that they feel certain
limitations as a Japanese American. According to these re
spondents, they began to realize this at the time they
sought upward mobility occupationally and residentially.
They agree that there exists a white power structure, and
it would be difficult for them to gain entry on an equal
basis.
Question to respondents : To what extent do you feel
pressure toward your job, behavior, attitude from
the Japanese-American community.
All of the three generations agreed that they feel
little pressure from their community. However, partly be
cause of the close peer associations of young people today,
it is interesting to note that it was unexpectedly the
Sansei who evinced the highest score. This result is, no
doubt, contrary to the speculation that the assimilation
process is being accelerated during the third generation.
Instead of losing their ethnic identity and seeking to en
ter the majority community, the Sansei showed strong pref
erence for "their people" and their close associations are
still limited, therefore, to Japanese Americans.
Contrastingly, among some Sansei there is a ten
dency of assimilating into the majority Caucasian, Negro,
and Spanish-American societies. However, some seem to have
94
TABLE 34
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING PRESSURE FROM
THE JAPANESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Choice Issei Nisei Sansei
Great Deal
Somewhat
Little
Not at All 26
No Information
Total 43 21 16
Average Score*
Rating: 4.0 - a great deal to 1.0 not at all
95
been forming so-called "Japanese-American culture patterns"
I Table 35 shows that the culture which has influenced the
I younger generation was not that of traditional Japan, but
I rather that of the so-called "Japanese-Amerlean culture
patterns."
Question to respondents: To what extent would you
say that you have been influenced by the culture of
Japan?
It is logical that the Issei who were born in Japan
were most influenced by the culture of that country, but
the influence is gradually decreasing among the younger
people.
Question to respondents : Do you feel pressure from
the Japanese-American community to: (1) marry a
Japanese American? (2) have friends within the
Japanese-American group? (3) live in a Japanese-
American neighborhood?
Relatively higher scores on this subject by the
first generation tell us their lack of willingness to un
derstand American language and culture patterns, and their
resulting ignorance toward them. The second generation's
relatively low scores suggest their struggle to be assimi
lated into American culture. Again it is surprising to
find the third generation's considerable attachment to
other Japanese Americans, in spite of the fact that they
! have mastered the language and are familiar with American
culture. In fact, the Sansei are more like other Americans
in that they know little of the culture of Japan or the
96
TABLE 35
DISTRIBUTION AND
INFLUENCE BY
AVERAGE SCORE REGARDING
THE CULTURE OF JAPAN
Choice Tssci Nisei Sansei
A Great Deal 9 11 1
Somewhat 4 18 9
Little 2 12 7
Not at All 0 2 4
No Information 1 0 0
Total 16 43 21
Average Score* 3.4 2.9 2.3
* Rating ; 4.0 - a great deal
TABLE 36
to 1.0 - not at all.
AVERAGE SCORES OF
REGARDING
INTERGENERATIONAL GROUPS
VARIOUS PRESSURES*
Pressure Issei Nisei Sansei
Marry Japanese Americans 3.6 2.5 2.8
Have friends among the
Japanese-American group 2.4 2.1 2.4
Live in a Japanese-
American neighborhood 2.0 1.7 2.2
*Rating: 4.0 - a
no pressure at all.
great deal of pressure to 1.0 -
97
language. However, their associations are mainly among
Japanese Americans, with whom they share similar experi
ences and, according to a Sansei male respondent with whom
"they feel more comfortable." Some Sansei expressed their
frustration toward the dominant majority Americans, who the
Sansei allege do not understand their brand of sensitivity.
Throughout the three generations, the respondents felt more
pressure from their people when they married cross-ethni-
cally, than when they simply have friends outside their
ethnic boundaries. This indicates to us that the selection
of a marriage partner is something more than selecting a
friend when it cuts across ethnic boundaries.
Question to respondents; Is your best friend a
Japanese American?
Table 37 shows that the Nisei were far less "Japa
nese" in their attitudes and behavior than the Issei; how
ever, since they were brought up in a hostile anti-Japanese
environment, they were far from being completely assimi
lated with the majority American community.
According to Table 37, only 10 per cent of the
Nisei had non-Japanese American best friends and those were
all Caucasians. It would seem from the previous discus
sions that the third generation has been forming their own
associations, yet they have non-Japanese American best
friends at twice the rate of their Nisei counterparts.
DISTRIBUTION REGARDING QUESTION OF BEST FRIEND
Choice
Issei Nisei Sansei
No.
Per
Cent
Per
No. Cent No.
Per
Cent
Yes 15 94 34 83 15 75
No 1 6 4 10 4 20
Do Not Have 0 0 3 7 1 5
No Information 0 2 1
Total 16 43 21
99
According to Table 37, about one out of five Sansei have
non-Japanese American best friends, specifically Costa
Rican, Spanish, and Jewish.
Summary
The tables offer a great deal of support to our
expectation that the Issei had lived in self-imposed rela
tive alienation from the majority Americans. This was
partly owing to overt race prejudice by the majority com
munity, and partly to the fact that the Issei himself pre
ferred to remain isolated with his people. As a result,
the Issei are far from being assimilated into the larger
American cultural milieu.
The responses given by the Nisei respondents repre
sent a revealing picture. Their pattern of response was
greatly different from that of their Issei parents. Ameri
can folkways and mores intermingled with, and many times
replaced, the Japanese ways and attitudes of their parents.
Their problem has been that,rdespite their struggle to show
Americans as all other Americans, they still feel they were
not fully accepted by the majority Americans. Most Ameri
cans do not distinguish the Nisei from their Issei parents
who were still traditionally Japanese in outlook after
having lived in this country for a half-century. Thus the
Nisei has been greatly handicapped by this misconception,
100
hence their contacts with other Americans tend to be li
mited in many ways.
In spite of the indifference to the culture of
Japan, these data revealed that the Sansei showed more at
tachment toward the Japanese-American community than did
the Nisei. They seem to have been forming so-called "Japa
nese-American culture patterns," rather than trying to
enter rapidly the majority culture. Yet, more social con
tacts are being made by the Sansei than the Nisei. There
fore, we can conclude that though the process is slower
than those observable from European emigrant assimilation
in America, the social assimilation process of Japanese
Americans is, no doubt, speeding up as more and more Sansei
move into centers of business, social, civic, and perhaps
political involvemnt.
CHAPTER VI
CONCLUSION
The majority of the third generation Japanese-
American youths seem to have adopted American customs, lan
guage and ways of living, and their educational and occupa
tional distribution pattern is very close to that of the
dominant Caucasians in America. Yet, their interpersonal
relations, in particular close contacts, are still limited
to their people. If we interpret assimilation in terms of
integration with the host society, the assimilation process
of the Japanese American has not been completed in this
sense.
In fact, this writer found a certain degree of con
servatism in the responses given by the third generation
youths. This was indicated in that the Sansei have
stronger attachments toward parents than do the Nisei. An
other instance was that the Sansei feel more pressure from
the Japanese-American community than do the other two gen
erations, and thus instead of losing their ethnic identity
and entering the majority associations, the Sansei seem to
have been forming "Japanese-American culture patterns."
There is no indication, however, that this Japanese-
101
102
American culture pattern of the Sansei will be taken over
by the coming generation.
One explanation of their clannishness is the psy
chological security which they obtain by remaining together,
as one Sansei girl put it. In this connection, the problem
of assimilation depends partly upon the full acceptance of
the Japanese American by the majority society. In fact,
the interviews reveal that the more educated a person was,
and the more contacts he had with the members of the major
ity society, the more pessimistic he was about obtaining a
top position in American society. Therefore one task of
the Japanese-American youths will be removing these social
handicaps of the past. This will be partly solved by their
active participation in major business, political, social
and civic fields where only—few~or-~aTmost—no- Japanese Ameri-
can couT"d“be fdhhd'"“ ih” ” ~the past.
The hypotheses in Chapter 11 are treated as follows
according to the data obtained from the respondents :
1. Sansei boys have higher occupational goals than
their fathers, and their educational goals are higher than
their parents. (supported)
2. Vocational aspirations of Sansei boys include a
larger variety of occupations than that of their fathers,
(supported)
3. The previously accepted stereotype, that only
103
certain and limited areas of employment were accessible to
the Nisei, has rapidly declined among the Sansei. (sup
ported)
4. The Sansei are not likely to follow the
father's occupation. (supported)
5. In choosing an occupation, the Sansei experi
enced far less pressure from the family than their fathers
has. (not supported)
6. The Nisei feel more strongly than the Sansei
that their occupational success is more of an obligation to
one's parents. (not supported)
7. One of the greatest influences on occupational
aspirations among the Nisei is the family, while among the
Sansei it is the peer group and the s&èool. (rejected)
8. Issei and Nisei are affected by prejudice and
discrimination more than the Sënsei. (supported)
9. Sansei have more non-Japanese American friends
than the Issei and Nisei. (supported)
10. Issei and Nisei feel more pressure from the
Japanese-American community in relation to occupational
aspirations, peer group and marriage than do the Sensei.
(not supported)
11. The Issei is more influenced by the traditional
culture patterns of Japan than the Nisei and Sansei, who
were born in America. (supported)
B
104
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Boddy. E. M. Japanese in America. Los Angeles;
E. Manchester Boddy, 1924.
Bossard, James H. S. The Sociology of Child Development.
New York: Harper & Row, 1966.
Handlin, Oscar. The American People in the Twentieth
Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1954.
Hansen, Marcus. The Problem of the Third Generation
Immigrant. Rock Islands, Illinois : Augustana
Historical Society Publications, 1938.
Herberg, Will. Protestant, Catholic, Jew. Garden City,
New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 19 55.
Koyama, Takashi. The Changing Social Position of Women in
Japan. New York : UNESCO, 1961.
Little, Kenneth. Race and Society. Paris : UNESCO, 1952.
Simpson, Richard. Social Organization and Behavior. New
York: Wiley, 1964.
Steiner, J. F. The Japanese Invasion. Chicago :
A. C. McClurg & Co., 1917.
Strong, Edward K. Japanese in California. Palo Alto :
Stanford University Publications, 1933.
Thomas, Dorothy S. The Salvage. Berkeley : University of
California Press, 1952.
Turner, Ralph H. The Social Context of Ambition. San
Francisco: Chandler Publishing Co., 1964.
Warner, William Lloyd. Structure of American Life.
Edinburgh, Great Britain, 1952.
105
106
Journals
Befu, H. "Contrastive Acculturation of California Japa
nese," Human Organization, XXIV (Fall, 1965),
209-216.
Bloom, Leonard. "Familial Adjustment of Japanese Americans
to Relocation," American Sociological Review, VIII
(October, 1943), 551.
_________. "Transitional Adjustment of Japanese American
Family to Relocation," American Sociological
Review, XII (April, 1947), 204-209.
Briggs, Dennie D. "Social Adaptation among Japanese-
American Youths: A Comparative Study," Sociology
and Social Research, XXXVIII (1954), 299.
Caudill, William. "Achievement, Culture and Personality:
The Case of the Japanese American," American
Anthropologist, LVIII (1956), 1112.
Davis, J. Merle. "We Said : 'Let’s Find the Facts,'"
Survey, LVI (1926), 140.
Devos, G. "Quantitative Rorshach Assessment of Maladjust
ment and Rigidity in Acculturating Japanese-
Americans," Genetic Psychology Monographs, LII
(1950), 84.
Iga, Mamoru. "The Japanese Social Structure and the Source
of Mental Strain of Japanese Immigrants in the
United States," Social Forces, XXXV (March, 1957),
272.
Jitodai, Ted T. "Migration and Kinship Contacts," The
Pacific Sociological Review, VI (Fall, 1963) , 54.
Kawai, Kaxuo. "Three Roads and None Easy," Survey, LVI
(1926), 165.
Pursinger, M. G. "Japanese Settle in Oregon," Journal of
the West, V (April, 1966), 258.
Redfield, Robert. "The Folk Society," American Journal of
Sociology, LII (1947), 293-308.
Rosenthal, Erich. "Acculturation Without Assimilation,"
American Journal of Sociology, LXVI (November,
1960) , 275-288.
107
Schmid, Calvin, and Nobbe, Charles. "Socioeconomic Differ
entials among Nonwhite Races," American Sociologi
cal Review, XXX (December, 1965), 909-922.
Sikkema, Mildred. "Observation of Japanese Early Train
ing," Psychiatry, X (April, 1947), 432.
Pamphlets
Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Southern California.
1960 Chamber Annual. Los Angeles : Japanese
Chamber of Commerce of Southern California, 1960.
"New Study on Japanese Americans," Nichibei Advertiser, I
No. 3 (February, 1967).
Newspapers
"Issei, Nisei Image in Japan Valuable," Nichibei Times,
September 15, 1966.
"Japanese in Los Angeles and Suburbs," Shin Nichi Bei,
December 22,1965, p . 3.
Unpublished Materials
Nakagaki, Masami. "A Study of Marriage and Family Rela
tionships among Three Generations of Japanese-
American Family Groups." Unpublished Master's
thesis. University of Southern California, 1964.
Sakiguchi, Rosalind. "Japanese-American Young Adults."
Unpublished term paper, California State College
at Los Angeles, 1964.
Tuthill, Gretchen. "Japanese in the City of Los Angeles,"
Unpublished Master's thesis. University of Southern
California, 1924.
Other Sources
Jordan, David Stan. Statement presented to a Congressional
Committee and reported in Hearings, Committee on
Immigration, U.S. Senate, 68th Cong., 1st Sess.,
1924, p. 60.

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Creator Yanagita, Yuki (author)

Core Title Familial, occupational, and social characteristics of three generations of Japanese Americans

School Graduate School

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Sociology

Degree Conferral Date 1968-06

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,social sciences

Format application/pdf (imt)

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