Liberal Democracy (BookRags)
Assess Kazuko's attitude towards the prejudice in the United States?
Prejudice as discussed in the book Nisei
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Prejudice as discussed in the book Nisei
Prejudice toward Japanese Americans appears throughout Nisei Daughter. In chapter II, when Mr. Itoi refuses to refund a hotel guest's money after he uses a room for most of the day, the man tells Mr. Itoi that he is a lawyer and will have Mr. Itoi arrested. He assumes that a Japanese immigrant like Mr. Itoi does not know American laws; however, Mr. Itoi—once a law student in Japan—reveals that he is knowledgeable and will not be fooled.
Later, when tensions grow between Japan and the United States, white Americans routinely eye fellow citizen Kazuko with suspicion simply because of her appearance. She observes, "I felt their resentment in a hundred ways—the way a saleswoman in a large department store never saw me waiting at the counter." Before they have even met her, strangers judge her to be in league with the enemy.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, FBI agents raid the home of another Japanese American, Mrs. Matsui. When they cannot find her husband, they assume she is hiding him because he is a spy. After scouring the place, the agents discover that Mr. Matsui had died years before. This sort of widespread prejudice even prompts Chinese Americans to begin wearing badges identifying themselves as Chinese so they will not be mistaken for Japanese.
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