Sansei

is a Japanese and North American English term used in parts of the world such as South America and North America to specify the children of children born to ethnic Japanese in a new country of residence. The '' nisei'' are considered the second generation; grandchildren of the Japanese-born immigrants are called ''Sansei''; and the fourth generation is called '' yonsei''. The children of at least one ''nisei'' parent are called ''Sansei'' and are usually the first generation of whom a high percentage are mixed race since their parents were usually themselves born and raised in America.

The character and uniqueness of the ''sansei'' is recognized in its social history.

In various countries

Although the earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled in Mexico in 1897,Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)
''Japan-Mexico Relations''
retrieved 2011-05-17 the four largest populations of Japanese and descendants of Japanese immigrants are in Brazil, the United States, Canada, and Peru.

Brazilian ''Sansei''

Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan, with an estimate of more than 1.5 million of them (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity), more than that of the 1.2 million in the United States. The ''Sansei'' Japanese Brazilians are an important part of that ethnic minority in that nation in South America.

American ''Sansei''

Most American ''Sansei'' were born during the Baby Boom after the end of World War II, but older ''Sansei'' who were living in the western United States during the war were forcibly incarcerated with their parents (''Nisei'') and grandparents ('' Issei'') after Executive Order 9066 was promulgated to exclude everyone of Japanese descent from the West Coast and from Southern Arizona. The ''Sansei'' were forceful activists in the redress movement in the 1980s, which resulted in an official apology to the internees. In some senses, the ''Sansei'' seem to feel they are caught in a dilemma between their "quiet" Nisei parents and their other identity model of "verbal" Americans.

In the United States, a representative ''Sansei'' is General Eric Shinseki (born November 28, 1942), the 34th Chief of Staff of the United States Army (1999–2003) and former United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is the first Asian American in US history to be a four-star general, and the first to lead one of the four US military services.

Canadian ''Sansei''

Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, three distinct subgroups developed, each with different sociocultural referents, generational identity, and wartime experiences.McLellan, Janet. (1999). ; Ikawa, Fumiko
"Reviews: ''Umi o Watatta Nippon no Mura'' by Masao Gamo and "''Steveston Monogatari: Sekai no Naka no Nipponjin''" by Kazuko Tsurumi
''American Anthropologist'' (US). New Series, Vol. 65, No. 1 (Feb., 1963), pp. 152-156; retrieved 2011-05-17

Peruvian ''Sansei''

Among the approximately 80,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent, the ''Sansei'' Japanese Peruvians comprise the largest number.

Cultural profile

Generations

Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians have special names for each of their generations in North America. These are formed by combining one of the Japanese numbers corresponding to the generation with the Japanese word for generation (''sei'' 世). The Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like ''Issei'', ''Nisei'' and ''Sansei'' which describe the first, second and third generation of immigrants. The fourth generation is called ''Yonsei'' (四世) and the fifth is called ''Gosei'' (五世). The ''Issei'', ''Nisei'' and ''Sansei'' generations reflect distinctly different attitudes to authority, gender, non-Japanese involvement, religious belief and practice and other matters. The age when individuals faced the wartime evacuation and internment is the single, most significant factor which explains these variations in their experiences, attitudes and behaviour patterns.

The term '' Nikkei'' (日系) encompasses all of the world's Japanese immigrants across generations. The collective memory of the ''Issei'' and older ''Nisei'' was an image of Meiji Japan from 1870 through 1911, which contrasted sharply with the Japan that newer immigrants had more recently left. These differing attitudes, social values and associations with Japan were often incompatible with each other.McLellan, In this context, the significant differences in post-war experiences and opportunities did nothing to mitigate the gaps which separated generational perspectives.

In North America since the redress victory in 1988, a significant evolutionary change has occurred. The ''Sansei'', their parents, their grandparents, and their children are changing the way they look at themselves and their pattern of accommodation to the non-Japanese majority.

There are currently just over one hundred thousand British Japanese, mostly in London; but unlike other '' Nikkei'' communities elsewhere in the world, these Britons do not conventionally parse their communities in generational terms as ''Issei'', ''Nisei'' or ''Sansei''.

Sansei

The third generation of immigrants, born in the United States or Canada to parents born in the United States or Canada, is called ''Sansei'' (三世). Children born to the ''Nisei'' were generally born after 1945. They speak English as their first language and are completely acculturized in the contexts of Canadian or American society. They tend to identify with Canadian or American values, norms and expectations. Few speak Japanese and most tend to express their identity as Canadian or American rather than Japanese. Among the ''Sansei'' there is an overwhelming percentage of marriages to persons of non-Japanese ancestry.

Aging

The ''kanreki'' (還暦), a traditional, pre-modern Japanese rite of passage to old age at 60, was sometimes celebrated by the ''Issei'' and is now being celebrated by increasing numbers of ''Nisei'' and a few ''Sansei''. Rituals are enactments of shared meanings, norms, and values and this Japanese rite of passage highlights a collective response among the Nisei to the conventional dilemmas of growing older.

History

Internment and redress

Some responded to internment with lawsuits and political action; and for others, poetry became an unplanned consequence:
:::With new hope.
:::We build new lives.
:::Why complain when it rains?
:::This is what it means to be free.
:::: -- Lawson Fusao Inada, Japanese American Historical Plaza, Portland, Oregon.

Life under United States policies before and after World War II

Politics

The ''sansei'' became known as the "activist generation" because of their large hand in the redress movement and individuals that have become a part of the American mainstream political landscape.

Notable individuals

The numbers of ''sansei'' who have earned some degree of public recognition has continued to increase over time; but the quiet lives of those whose names are known only to family and friends are no less important in understanding the broader narrative of the ''Nikkei.'' Although the names highlighted here are over-represented by ''sansei'' from North America, the Latin American member countries of the Pan American Nikkei Association (PANA) include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, in addition to the English-speaking United States and Canada.

* Francis Fukuyama
* Robert S. Hamada
* Ryan Higa
* Mike Honda
* Kaisei Ichiro
* Lawson Fusao Inada
* Soji Kashiwagi
* Janice Kawaye
* Kyle Larson
* Doris Matsui
* Robert Matsui
* Dale Minami
* Patsy Mink
* Kent Nagano
* Suzy Nakamura
* Desmond Nakano
* Lane Nishikawa
* Linda Nishio
* Bev Oda

* Sophie Oda
* Steven Okazaki
* Yuji Okumoto
* Ellison Onizuka
* Pete Rouse
* Lenn Sakata
* Roger Shimomura
* Mike Shinoda
* Eric Shinseki
* David Suzuki
* Ronald Takaki
* Mark Takano
* Dan TaniSeigel, Shizue
"Dan Tani: NASA’s Newest Japanese American Astronaut,"
''Nikkei Heritage'' (US). Vol. XI, No. 4, Fall 1999; retrieved 2011-05-17
* Chris Tashima
* David Tsubouchi
* Gedde Watanabe
* Kristi Yamaguchi
* Jan Yanehiro

See also

Notes

References

* Harth, Erica. (2003). ''Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans.'' New York: Macmillan.
OCLC 46364694
* Hosokowa, Fumiko. (1978). ''The Sansei: Social Interaction and Ethnic Identification Among the Third Generation Japanese.'' San Francisco: R & E Research Associates.
OCLC 4057372
* Itoh, Keiko. (2001). ''The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain: From Integration to Disintegration.'' Richmond, Surrey: Curzon.
OCLC 48937604
* Leslie, Gerald R. and Sheila K. Korman. (1967). ''The Family in Social Context.'' New York: Oxford University Press
OCLC 530549
* Makabe, Tomoko. (1998). ''The Canadian Sansei.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ;
OCLC 39523777
* McLellan, Janet. (1999). ''Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ;
OCLC 43521129
* Nomura, Gail M. (1998)
"Japanese American Women,"
in ''The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History'' (Mankiller, Barbara Smith, ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
OCLC 43338598
* Sowell, Thomas. (1981). ''Ethnic America: A History.'' New York: Basic Books.
OCLC 7306301
* Takahashi, Jere. (1997). ''Nisei Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics.'' Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
OCLC 37180842
* Tamura, Eileen and Roger Daniels. (1994). ''Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: The Nisei Generation in Hawaii.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ;
OCLC 27383373
* Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff. (2006). ''Diversity in the Power Elite: How it Happened, Why it Matters.'' Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ;
OCLC 62281556

Further reading

* Gehrie, Mark Joshua. (1973). ''Sansei: An Ethnography of Experience'' (Ph.D. thesis, Anthropology). Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University
OCLC 71849646
* Kaihara, Rodney and Patricia Morgan. (1973). ''Sansei Experience''. San Fullerton, Calif. : Oral History Program, California State University, Fullerton
OCLC 23352676
* Oana, Leilani Kyoko. (1984). ''Ethnocultural Identification in Sansei (Third Generation Japanese American) Females: An Evaluation of Alternative Measures'' (M.A. thesis). Washington, D.C.: George Washington University
OCLC 12726534
* Okamura, Randall F. (1978). ''The Contemporary Sansei'' (M.A. thesis, Community Development and Public Service). San Francisco: Lone Mountain College
OCLC 13182634
* Tanaka, Shaun Naomi. (2003). ''Ethnic Identity in the Absence of Propinquity Sansei and the Transformation of the Japanese-Canadian Community'' (M.A. thesis). Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University Press
OCLC 60673221

External links

Japanese American National Museum JANM generational teas


in Washington, DC

Japanese American Citizens League

Japanese Cultural & Community Center
of Northern California

Japanese American Community and Cultural Center
of Southern California

Japanese American Historical Society

Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project

Japanese American Museum
of San Jose, California

Japanese American Network

Japanese-American's own companies in USA

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110525012332/http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/photo_exhibits/yamato.cfm Photo Exhibit of Japanese American communityin Florida

Nikkei Federation

Discover Nikkei


* ttps://www.pbs.org/thewar/at_war_democracy_japanese_american.htm The War: Fighting for Democracy: Japanese Americansbr>''“The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice”'', a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan

{{Japanese diaspora

Japanese words and phrases
Japanese diaspora
Japanese-American history
Cultural generations

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