The novel No-No Boy by John Okada continues to investigate Asian-Americans' relationship with capitalism right after Japanese internment during the end of World War II, and the identity issues which continue to divide up and provoke conflict and misunderstanding between immigrant parents and American children. Ichiro Okada, a second-generation Japanese American man, returns home to Seattle after being interned in a Japanese internment camp for two years and imprisoned during the following two years after resisting the World War II draft and refusing to denounce loyalty to the emperor of Japan. Ichiro faces extensive generational conflicts with his family as well as interracial and intraracial discrimination throughout the novel, and finds himself conflicted over whether to take a job that would be beneficial to his future, with ideal wages, employer, and work:
He looked at Mr. Carrick and said: "I'd like to think about it.” Was it disbelief or surprise that clouded the face of the man who, in his heartfelt desire to atone for the error of a big country which hadn't been quite big enough, had matter-of-factly said two-sixty a month and three hundred after a year when two hundred a month was what he had in mind when he composed the ad since a lot of draftsmen were getting less but because the one who came for the job was a Japanese and it made a difference to him? "Certainly, Ichiro. Take all the time you need." And when he said that, Ichiro knew that the job did not belong to him, but to another Japanese who was equally as American as this man who was attempting in a small way to rectify the wrong he felt to be his own because he was a part of the country which, somehow, had erred in a moment of panic.
Ichiro eventually decides not to accept the offer from Mr. Carrick, an American man offering him an engineering job as an act of repentance for Japanese internment. Because of Ichiro’s decision to resist the war draft, he does not feel as if he is American enough for the job, despite Mr. Carrick continuing to offer him the job after learning Ichiro has spent two years in prison for resisting the draft and not renouncing allegiance to Japan. In a way, Ichiro has internalized the oppressive atmosphere of America toward those who appear foreign, causing him to become an outsider to capitalistic systems of worth as he continues to refuse varying sources of employment throughout the novel. Even though the Japanese internment is over, it is clear that it has had a long-term impact on Ichiro's psyche, within his own doubts about work and the physical toll it has taken on his best friend Kenji, who has lost a leg in the war and is slowly dying. It seems that previously enacted racisms such as the Japanese internment and interacial and intraracial hostility combine to stagnate Ichiro’s career even without the presence of racism in an employer, due to the internalized impact of past discrimination on Ichiro’s psyche. Mr. Carrick's kindness is shown to have an element of pity for America's past wrongs, and so takes on some element of artificiality that doesn't see Ichiro as an entirely whole, or complete, man who is equal to Americans who have not been forced into internment camps or prison.
Later, Ichiro recalls hearing a young Japanese-American sociologist, a recent college graduate, speaking at a family relations meeting he had attended while interned in the relocation center:
"How many of you are able to sit down with your own sons and own daughters and enjoy the companionship of conversation? How many, I ask? If I were to say none of you, I would not be far from the truth." He paused, for the grumbling was swollen with anger and indignation...If we are children of America and not the sons and daughters of our parents, it is because you have failed. It is because you have been stupid enough to think that growing rice in muddy fields is the same as growing a giant fir tree. Change, now, if you can, even if it may be too late, and become companions to your children. This is America, where you have lived and worked and suffered for thirty and forty years. This is not Japan. I will tell you what it is like to be an American boy or girl. I will tell you what the relationship between parents and children is in an American family...Some said they would attend no more lectures; others heaped hateful abuse upon the young fool who dared to have spoken with such disrespect; and then there was the elderly couple, the woman silently following the man, who stopped at another mess hall, where a dance was in progress, and peered into the dimly lit room and watched the young boys and girls gliding effortlessly around to the blaring music from a phonograph. Always before, they had found something to say about the decadent ways of an amoral nation, but, on this evening, they watched longer than usual and searched longingly to recognize their own daughter, whom they knew to be at the dance but who was only an unrecognizable shadow among the other shadows."
The generational divide between Ichiro and his family is shown to be repeated in greater society as well, as many Japanese Americans are struggling with identity issues. It becomes ironic that the speaker is addressing them in an internment camp, as despite how American the families may become they have still been rounded up and imprisoned. At this point, the only reason the parents might change is in order to understand their children better and have better relations with them. The speaker's words become especially pertinent as Ichiro's own family slowly grows apart after Japan's defeat in the war, as his father becomes an alcoholic, his brother Taro wants to join the army, the opposite of his own decision, and (spoiler) his mother commits suicide. However, it was disturbing to see Ichiro's lack of emotion when it comes to his family collapsing, as if he has no regrets about letting his mother's tragic end happen and has completely given up on her and the pure Japanese culture, yet spends his time grieving Kenji even before he passes, which may be a touch of sexism. Ichiro's own identity is at risk, as his inner thoughts are shown through wistful, moving imagery:
"There was a time that I no longer remember when you used to smile a mother's smile and tell me stories about gallant and fierce warriors who protected their lords with blades of shining steel and about the old woman who found a peach in the stream and took it home and, when her husband split it in half, a husky little boy tumbled out to fill their hearts with boundless joy. I was that boy in the peach and you were the old woman and we were Japanese with Japanese feelings and Japanese pride and Japanese thoughts because it was all right then to be Japanese and feel and think all the things that Japanese do even if we lived in America. Then there came a time when I was only half Japanese because one is not born in America and raised in America and taught in America and one does not speak and swear and drink and smoke and play and fight and see and hear in America among Americans in American streets and houses without becoming American and loving it."
Ichiro's thinking is extended to emphasize the importance of this theme, because there are many times when families may misunderstand the importance of maintaining good relationships with youth, which can be hard to do without the parents compromising their own ethnic identity. More commonly, parents may be disconnected from why exactly their children want to be American so badly, given their own strong ethnic roots. Being raised in America means being exposed to an entirely different culture from the other members of an immigrant family, and the strength of assimilation is not to be denied as family may find it difficult to understand how much America can completely subsume children and incorporate them into the culture. And with time, such as over the course of decades, even the parents will likely feel the urge to fit into America and pick and choose the customs they like best. As such, I appreciated Ichiro laying out his thinking in detailed anecdotes that mimic stream-of-consciousness, because his inner conflict is that of many young immigrants and children of immigrants.
Overall, several quotes moved me in this novel as they reflect some of my own thinking about being part of an immigrant family, but which I had never seen in literature before. Exploring the Japanese American experience through No-No Boy is absolutely fascinating as it is a full novel about a historical moment long past, yet with Asian-Americans filling in American history as the main characters. It provides support for one's feelings and inner conflicts by letting you watch Asian-Americans navigate America eighty years ago and seeing what their important decisions are like, before you get old enough to reach them.
This week's readings:
