Living in America as a minority is in its own way, a challenge. Discrimination surrounds the streets you walk, judgement increasingly racks up against you and racism is inevitable. There is no safe space where these things will not thrive because being Asian-American in America doesn’t automatically grant you the privilege of being an American. Due to the absence of possessing an identity, many American citizens of Asian descent struggle to find their true identity and place of belonging within America. They fight the battle between ethnicity and nationality, identifying as Asian or American, preserving culture or assimilating to a culture. In the end, many Asian-Americans find themselves choosing between the two instead of harmonizing the two because in America’s society, it is hard to embrace both.
During the 1900’s, Japan and America were at war with each other causing many Americans to join the military. Japanese citizens were classified as “enemy aliens” because of the sudden and brutal bombing of Pearl Harbor and were sent in live in remote internment camps for two years. Building upon this initial event, the novel No-No Boy reflects on the effects of the Second World War on Japanese-Americans and how their lives were challenged with the uncertainty of their identity and the reality of …show more content…
The novel begins after the war when Ichiro finally arrives in his hometown of Seattle, Washington. Expecting nothing to have changed prior to the war, Ichiro realizes that the “war had wrought violent changes… distorting the profile of Jackson Street” (Okada 6). Although a citizen of America, Ichiro’s struggles with finding his identity and place in America, especially as a “no-no boy,” plays a significant role in his self-discovery throughout the entirety of the
During the 1900’s, Japan and America were at war with each other causing many Americans to join the military. Japanese citizens were classified as “enemy aliens” because of the sudden and brutal bombing of Pearl Harbor and were sent in live in remote internment camps for two years. Building upon this initial event, the novel No-No Boy reflects on the effects of the Second World War on Japanese-Americans and how their lives were challenged with the uncertainty of their identity and the reality of …show more content…
The novel begins after the war when Ichiro finally arrives in his hometown of Seattle, Washington. Expecting nothing to have changed prior to the war, Ichiro realizes that the “war had wrought violent changes… distorting the profile of Jackson Street” (Okada 6). Although a citizen of America, Ichiro’s struggles with finding his identity and place in America, especially as a “no-no boy,” plays a significant role in his self-discovery throughout the entirety of the