is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or . The , or second generation, in turn are the parents of the , or third generation. These Japanese-language terms derive from , "one, two, three", the ordinal numbers used with sei (see Japanese numerals). Though nisei means "second-generation immigrant", it more specifically often refers to the children of the initial diaspora, occurring during the period of the Empire of Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and overlapping in the U.S. with the Greatest Generation and Silent Generation.
History
Although the earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants left Japan centuries ago, and a later group settled in Mexico in 1897,Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), "Japan-Mexico Relations"; retrieved May 17, 2011. today's largest populations of Japanese immigrants and their descendants are concentrated in four countries: Brazil (2 million), the United States (1.5 million), Canada (130,000), and Peru (100,000).
American Nisei
Some US Nisei were born after the end of World War II during the baby boom. Most Nisei, however, who were living in the western United States during World War II, were forcibly interned with their parents (Issei) after Executive Order 9066 was promulgated to remove everyone of Japanese descent from the West Coast areas of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. It has been argued that some Nisei feel caught in a dilemma between their Issei parents and other Americans.Miyoshi, Nobu. (1978). "Identity Crisis of the Sansei and the Concentration Camp", NIMH Grant No. 1 R13 MH25655-01. The Nisei of Hawaii had a somewhat different experience.
In the United States, two representative Nisei were Daniel Inouye and Fred Korematsu. Hawaiian-born was one of many young Nisei men who volunteered to fight in the nation's military when restrictions against Japanese-American enlistment were removed in 1943. Inouye later went on to become a U.S. Senator from Hawaii after it achieved statehood.
was one of many Japanese-American citizens living on the West Coast who resisted internment during World War II. In 1944, Korematsu lost a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the wartime internment of Japanese Americans but gained vindication decades later.Lewis, Neil A. "President Names 15 for Nation's Top Civilian Honor", New York Times. January 9, 1998. The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, was awarded to Korematsu in 1998. At the White House award ceremonies, President Bill Clinton explained, "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls. Plessy, Brown, Parks ... to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu."Goldstein, Richard. Fred Korematsu, 86, Dies; Lost Key Suit on Internment, New York Times. April 1, 2005.
The overwhelming majority of Japanese Americans had reacted to the internment by acquiescing to the government's order, hoping to prove their loyalty as Americans. To them, Korematsu's opposition was treacherous to both his country and his community. Across the span of decades, he was seen as a traitor, a test case, an embarrassment and, finally, a hero.Bai, Matt. He Said No to Internment, New York Times. December 25, 2005.
Brazilian Nisei
Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, estimated to number more than 1.5 million (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity),MOFA, "Japan-Brazil Relations"; retrieved 2011-05-17. more than that of the 1.2 million in the United States.US Census, "Selected Population Profile in the United States; Japanese alone or in any combination," 2005 ; retrieved 2011-05-17. The Nisei Japanese Brazilians are an important part of the ethnic minority in that South American nation.
Canadian Nisei
Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, three distinct subgroups developed, each with different sociocultural referents, generational identity, and wartime experiences.McLellan, Janet. (1999). Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto, p. 36.Ikawa, Fumiko. "Reviews: Umi o Watatta Nippon no Mura by Masao Gamo and "Steveston Monogatari: Sekai no Naka no Nipponjin" by Kazuko Tsurumi, American Anthropologist (US). New Series, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 1963), pp. 152–156.
Peruvian Nisei
Among the approximately 80,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent, the Nisei Japanese Peruvians comprise the largest element.
Cultural profile Generations Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians have special names for each of their generations in North America. These are formed by combining one of the Japanese numbers corresponding to the generation with the Japanese word for . The Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like , , and which describe the first, second and third generation of immigrants. The fourth generation is called and the fifth is called . The Issei, Nisei and Sansei generations reflect distinctly different attitudes to authority, gender, non-Japanese involvement, and religious belief and practice, and other matters.McLellan, p. 59. The age when individuals faced the wartime evacuation and internment is the single, most significant factor which explains these variations in their experiences, attitudes and behaviour patterns.
The Gosei and later generations typically identify more with the adopted country and are acculturated with only vestigial cultural affiliation without a single surviving grandparent with firsthand memory of the language and cultural traditions, as with any ethnic group, and don't identify strongly enough to use Japanese language generation names.Johnson, George Toshio. "Into the Next Stage: Japanese American Newspapers: Over and Out?" Rafu Shimpo (US). February 17, 2011; retrieved 2011-05-17Fisher, Nancy L. (1996). American descendants of Wakamatsu colonist Masumizu Kuninosuke are in the generation through his marriage to a mixed African-Native American woman in 1877, and some only discovered the ancestry of their 1/64th ancestor through a DNA test.
The term encompasses all of the world's Japanese immigrants across generations."What is Nikkei?" . Japanese American National Museum. The collective memory of the Issei and older Nisei was an image of Meiji Japan from 1870 through 1911, which contrasted sharply with the Japan that newer immigrants had more recently left. These differing attitudes, social values and associations with Japan were often incompatible.McLellan, p. 37. In this context, the significant differences in post-war experiences and opportunities did nothing to mitigate the gaps which separated generational perspectives.
GenerationCohort description The generation of people born in Japan who later immigrated to another country. The generation of people born in North America, South America, Australia, Hawaii, or any country outside Japan either to at least one or one non-immigrant Japanese parent. The generation of people born to at least one parent. The generation of people born to at least one parent. The generation of people born to at least one parent.Ikezoe-Halevi, Jean. "Voices of Chicago: Day of Remembrance 2006". Discover Nikkei (US). October 31, 2006.
The second generation of immigrants, born in Canada or the United States to parents not born in Canada or the United States, is called . Some Nisei have resisted being absorbed into the majority society, largely because of their tendency to maintain Japanese interpersonal styles of relationships.Miyamoto, S. Frank. "Problems of Interpersonal Style among the Nisei". Amerasia Journal. v13 n2 p29-45 (1986–87).
Most Nisei were educated in Canadian or American school systems where they were taught Canadian or American national values as citizens of those countries. When these were taken away in the early 1940s, the Nisei confronted great difficulty in accepting or coming to terms with internment and forced resettlement. Older Nisei tended to identify more closely with the Issei, sharing similar economic and social characteristics. Older Nisei who had been employed in small businesses, farming, fishing or in semi-skilled occupations, tended to remain in blue-collar work.McLellan, pp. 36–37. In contrast, the younger Nisei attended university and college and entered various professions and white-collar employment after the war. This sharp division in post-war experiences and opportunities exacerbated the gaps between these Nisei.
In North America, since the redress victory in 1988, a significant evolutionary change has occurred. The Nisei, their parents and their children are changing the way they look at themselves as individuals of Japanese descent in their respective nations of Canada, the United States and Mexico.McLellan, p. 68.
There are currently just over one hundred thousand British Japanese, mostly in London; but unlike other terms used centered from Japan to distinguish the distance from Japanese nationality elsewhere in the world, these Britons do not conventionally parse their communities in generational terms as Issei, Nisei, or Sansei.Itoh, p. 7.
Aging The , a traditional, pre-modern Japanese rite of passage to old age at 60, was sometimes celebrated by the Issei, and is now being celebrated by increasing numbers of Nisei. Rituals are enactments of shared meanings, norms, and values; and this Japanese rite of passage highlights a collective response among the Nisei to the conventional dilemmas of growing older.Doi, Mary L. "A Transformation of Ritual: The Nisei 60th Birthday". Journal Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. Vol. 6, No. 2 (April, 1991). Aging is affecting the demographics of the Nisei. According to a 2011 columnist in The Rafu Shimpo of Los Angeles, the obituaries showing the number of Japanese Americans in their 80s and 90s—Nisei, in a word—who are passing is staggering"Johnson, George Toshio. "Into the Next Stage: Japanese American Newspapers: Over and Out?" Rafu Shimpo (US). February 17, 2011.
Languages The Japanese-born Issei learned Japanese as their mother tongue, and their success in learning English as a second language was varied. Most Nisei speak Japanese to some extent, learned from Issei parents, Japanese school, and living in a Japanese community or in the internment camps. A majority of English-speaking Nisei have retained knowledge of the Japanese language, at least in its spoken form. Most Sansei speak English as their first language and most marry people of non-Japanese ancestry.
Education
An illustrative point-of-view, as revealed in the poetry of an Issei woman:
Intermarriage There was relatively little intermarriage during the Nisei generation, partly because the war and the unconstitutionalSklansky, David (2016-11-18). "Japanese Internment Case Not 'Good Law. Stanford Law School. Retrieved September 6, 2020. incarcerationDensho.org. "Terminology". Retrieved 2020-09-06. of these American citizens intervened exactly at a time when the group was of marrying age. Identification of them with the enemy by the American public, made them unpopular and unlikely candidates for interracial marriage. Besides this, they were thrown, en masse, into concentration campsEncyclopædia Britannica. "Concentration camp". Retrieved September 6, 2020.Lachman, Joseph Shoji (February 20, 2017). "FDR Called Them Concentration Camps: Why Terminology Matters". Retrieved September 6, 2020. with others of the same ethnicity, causing the majority of Nisei to marry other Nisei. Another factor is that anti-miscegenation laws criminalizing interracial marriage, cohabitation, and sex were in effect in many U.S. states until 1967.