Hailed at the time of its publication in 1969, Bill Hosokawa's Nisei remains an inspiring account of the original Japanese immigrants and their role in the development of the West. Hosokawa recounts the ordeals faced by the immigrant generation and their American-born offspring, the Nisei; the ill-advised government decisions that led to their uprooting during World War II; how they withstood harsh camp life; and their courageous efforts to prove their loyalty to the United States. As Hosokawa additionally demonstrates, since World War II, Japanese Americans have achieved exceptional social, economic, and political progress. Their efforts led to apologies by four U.S. presidents for wartime injustices and redress through the landmark Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Brought up-to-date in this newly revised edition, Nisei details the transformation of these "quiet Americans" from despised security risks to respected citizens.

The place occupied by Japanese Americans within the annals of United States history often begins and ends with their cameo appearance as victims of incarceration after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In this provocative work, David K. Yoo broadens the scope of Japanese American history to examine how the second generation—the Nisei—shaped its identity and negotiated its place within American society. Tracing the emergence of a dynamic Nisei subculture, Yoo shows how the foundations laid during the 1920s and 1930s helped many Nisei adjust to the upheaval of the concentration camps. Schools, racial-ethnic churches, and the immigrant press served not merely as waystations to assimilation but as tools by which Nisei affirmed their identity in connection with both Japanese and American culture. The Nisei who came of age during World War II formed identities while negotiating complexities of race, gender, class, generation, economics, politics, and international relations. A thoughtful consideration of the gray area between accommodation and resistance, Growing Up Nisei reveals the struggles and humanity of a forgotten generation of Japanese Americans.

A Japanese-American's personal account of growing up in Seattle in the 1930s and of being subjected to relocation during World War II.

In this gripping novel, a man in despair stumbles upon the secrets of his Japanese father's World War II experiences, and the past that shaped his family. Robert Takahashi sits in the empty attic of his mother's old home in Hawaii, a home he has to sell to cover financial losses from her nursing home care-and his own massive gambling debts. Once his affairs are in order, he can proceed to the next step: suicide. His wife is done with him anyway. His daughters-well, he's nothing but an embarrassment to them. Robert barely remembers his father and knows little about his parents' past. But a manuscript he's just found-left under an eave and contained in a dusty box along with ten medals from the US military-will enlighten him about many things. As he reads his father's words, he discovers a story of a Japanese boy born in Hawaii, a life uprooted by internment, and a young Nisei's harrowing quest to prove his patriotism by serving with the renowned 442nd Regimental Combat Team. He also learns about a long-ago forbidden love-and how prejudice can derail a life-in this sweeping tale of family, war, and two generations of men battling powerful forces both externally and within themselves.

"This book tells the story of an unusual group of American soldiers in World War II, second-generation Japanese Americans (Nisei) who served as interpreters and translators in the Military Intelligence Service."--Preface.

In the late 1800s the United States government encouraged Japanese emigration. Conflict started between the first generation Japanese Americans and their American born children because of the cultural influences from the United States population.

Author Joseph D. Harrington has written an informative and insightful history of the Nisei (Second-generation Japanese Americans), working for the U.S. armed forces in the Pacific during World War II. This is no whitewashed narrative, as it exposes U.S. internment camps, prejudices, and the frustrations of patriotic Japanese-Americans who wanted to fight for their country, but were initially rebuffed. As the book relates, not all Nisei were in favor of fighting, and even those that did encountered another kind of prejudice at first, from Hawaiian-born Nisei who more than occasionally felt that continental Japanese-Americans just didn't measure up, linguistically-speaking. Like other children of immigrants, the Nisei were, to a large extent, caught between Japanese tradition and U.S. culture. The concept of honor, an essential element in Japanese-American family life, ended up serving U.S. military interests well. The author has done an outstanding job of uncovering names and telling little-known stories. Especially fascinating are the ones that describe the analytical acumen of Nisei translators.