Okada's Intra-Racial Prejudice And Racism

Okada dedicates further passages to the discrimination and prejudice within the Japanese community, particularly the hostility and hatred that Ichiro faces as a no-no boy. Ichiro is detested by numerous characters throughout the novel for performing what in their eyes amounted to disloyalty and un-American behavior. Ichiro’s friend Kenji rejects these racial binaries and is able to perceive the intra-racial prejudice. Using Yoon’s reasoning in an attempt to ease Ichiro’s mind Kenji says: “Let them call you names. They don’t mean it. What I mean is, they don’t know what they’re doing. The way I see it, they pick on you because they’re vulnerable. They think just because they went and packed a rifle they’re different but they aren’t and they know it. They’re still Japs” (146). Like the story of Mike, Japanese Americans struggled to define themselves as patriots. Placing the blame for their treatment on other Japanese Americans became a misguided outlet for expressing their loyalty to America. Okada recognized the conflicts that developed within the Japanese American community a lasting consequence of internment. Loss of …show more content…
Okada further explores the fabricated relationship between “biology” and “patriotism” by manifesting it at the root of the conflict between Ichiro and his mother. Ichiro’s mother endorses his no-no decision through her expression of Japanese nationalism. She conducts herself with an air of self-righteous indignation, dismissing Ichiro’s own view of his wartime