The Nisei were the first generation of Japanese descent to be born and receive their entire education in America. This generation reflected the attitude and cultural heritage of both Japan and the U.S. The Nisei worked as generations of immigrants before them along side their parents in pursuit of the American Dream. After attending the local public schools, young Nisei helped on family farms, in the storefront businesses and in the timber mills. Preservation of their mother language and culture was reinforced by attending Japanese language schools and by being members of the audience at Japanese cultural plays.
The Kibei, although Nisei, were not raised in America. They had been sent for their schooling to Japan and had returned with an education designed for success within the Japanese community, a pattern that then segregated them from the majority society. Psychologically the Kibei were more allied to the attitudes and culture of native Japan than their American born peers. The Kibei exhibited the classic symptoms of being caught between two cultures. They found difficulty fitting in; the Nisei looked down on them as being “too Japanese” (they enunciated English with a Japanese accent) and their behavior reflected mannerisms more befitting Japan than America, They were unable to bridge the duality of identity or communicate to their American educated peers, segregated from community Nisei or non-Japanese . But as American citizens they weren’t considered Japanese nationals either.
The Nisei witnessed and were subject to blatant discrimination as were their parents, but for many it was very difficult to accept these practices when they were American citizens by birth. With this new generation came a growing commitment to communal unity. The Nisei formed organizations before WWII to assert their citizenship and to give voice to the rights of both Kibei and Issei. The Human Loyalty League was organized in San Francisco and the Progressive Citizen League in Seattle. In 1939 the two organizations merged to become the Japanese American Citizens League, comprised of about half of all Japanese living in America. The goal of the JACL was to fight racism and promote Americanism.
Japanese Americans actively began to assert their rights as Americans. Although the organization was still in its infancy and it was unable to succeed in improving the socio- economic conditions of the Nisei before the war. It did provide an association separate from the Issei. After the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Dec 7, 1941, the Japanese American community found itself the target of resentment and suspicion. Inciting the majority population to demand the removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry. Paranoia erupted about attacks by Japanese naval forces on the West Coast. Disregarding the denouncement by Japanese Americans of the attack on Pearl Harbor, public, political and media pressure escalated to remove the Japanese from the West coast.
The commander of the Western Defense Command, Lt. General John Dewitt encouraged all people of Japanese descent to “voluntarily evacuate the coast and move to the designated areas in Washington, California, Oregon and Arizona. This voluntary settlement failed as fewer than 5,000 people (one out of 110,000) left. On February 13, 1942, Dewitt recommended to the War department and to President Roosevelt the military necessity for removal of the Japanese American people. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 allowing military authorities to exclude anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings. This order sets the stage for the unconstitutional mass removal and incarceration of 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry. This decree was to prevent sabotage and espionage, but Roosevelt knew it would be used to remove people of Japanese descent from the West coast. This was followed the next month (March 24,1942) by the First Civilian Exclusion Order for Bainbridge Island near Seattle, which forced Japanese families to move within one week. The Nisei were outraged at the evacuation order, but the JACL directed its members to obey the order peacefully. Japanese American families from spring to fall were removed neighborhood by neighborhood up and down the West coast. Many would spend the war years in camps.
The Japanese American community, especially the Nisei, was deeply hurt by the suspicions of their fellow Americans. All their lives they had thought of themselves as Americans and now suddenly they had become the enemy. Patriotic Americans, the Nisei actively participated in the civilian branch of the Wartime Civil Control Administration as interpreters and soldiers in addition to combat in the Pacific and European theaters. Japanese American sacrifices during the war were acknowledged by President Ford in 1975 with a proclamation titled “The American Promise.” He stated, “We know now that what we should have known then- not only was the evacuation wrong, but Japanese Americans were and are loyal Americans”.
