Hybridization of Identity. after Pearl Harbour In Selected Japanese-North American Fiction

Abstract

In his essay, "An American Identity on Trial", Makoto Ishii evokes a debatable question, "Is there a need for an Asian American identit}•?" (16) This question of identity is not a recent one;• nor is it a response to the Civil Rights Movement that emerged in the early 1960's. It is a problem that has faced Asian Americans since the ve1y first Asian decided to immigrate­ to the United States. The term "Asian American" implies homogeneity of people and of purpose; in fact, it connotes highly disparate people of different races and with di1-erse languages, religions, and cultural bases. However, inside the borders of the United States, all Asian communities share common experiences of immigration, discrimination, acculturation conflict, generational strains and above all racial prejudice:

In the American racial order, Asian Americans have been generally ignored by policy makers and institutional leaders. They have been convenient scapegoats in times of economic recession and social CriSIS (Hawley, 206).

Asians have immigrated from the Oriental to the Occidental hemisphere geographically, and have experiencc:d the process of acculturation in a foreign land. They ventured to the United States and Canada for the same reasons as the first settlers from Europe did, in quest for a better life.

The Chinese were the first .to land in America. They were first attracted by the California Gold Rush of the I 840's. Disappointed in their dreams, they were forced to seek work laying railroad tracks. Gradually, they turned to [arming as hired hands, or by reclaiming unwanted !anti. Their cheap labour, joined later by that of Japanese, Filipino, and Mexican immigrants, was largely responsible for converting swamps if!to rich agricultural area.

The first flow of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States increased in the four decades from 1 885 to I 924.