The conflict

It is easy to conclude that the Japanese American community all felt unanimously on issues, however this was not the case. Not only were there generational conflicts, there were also divisions on the attitude towards the United States. The Nisei, being taught in American schools had managed to become more Americanized than their parents.

Yoo, Growing Up Nisei, pg.24

Girl working behind vegetable stand

It was predominately cultural issues that caused the divides between children and parents. For example the parents did not like the way dancing was so close, and often the Nisei would dance in secret.

American boy-girl relations were alien to Japanese culture and made the parents feel uneasy. Arranged marriages were the custom in Japan, and found this "free and easy" culture hard to accept. ( Hosokawa Nisei 179). It was also hard for the Nisei whose parents insisted they were to have arranged marriages.

A norm developed where the Nisei dated in the American way, but also played with tradition.

The Nisei had learnt values of freedom for all. As a result they questioned the racist attitudes that they faced from their fellow Americans. This resulted in many Nisei publications to develop a voice.

Many Japanese Americans did not agree with JACL and did not appreciate the fact the JACL accommodated the Interment Camps. This was aggravated by the fact that the government took the JACL to be the voice of all Japanese Americans.

Mike Masaoka, a leading figure in the JACL was against the idea to take cases to the Supreme Court, because he thought that it would be better not to aggravate the government anymore. Naturally many did not feel that way, but rather the United States should pay the price for the atrocity it's government had caused.

The divisions still exist today. There are those who can not understand how their fellow Japanese Americans could possibly pledge alliance to the United States, where others simply considered themselves American, they knew no other culture or homeland.