Growing up Nisei : race, generation, and culture among Japanese Americans of California, 1924-49 /

Yoo covers the years from exclusion in 1924 to the Tokyo Rose trial, a period in which the Nisei (second generation) came of age and developed an identity of their own. As Japanese Americans, they were separate from the Issei (first generation) but yet not assimilated into American society. Yoo rightly indicates that the era of WW II did not by itself define the Nisei experience and that discrimination against the Nisei began long before the war. They reacted to racism not simply as victims but also as active agents who developed their own religious, educational, and journalistic institutions. In the wartime camps, the Nisei relied on those institutions to get them through the ordeal. Yoo notes that the Nisei response strengthened their own racial-ethnic identity, but that it was not a homogeneous response. Diverse reactions are shown by distinctions made between Buddhists and Christians, debates over the appropriate reaction to racism, and discussions about how to win support in the broader American community. Specific individuals like Mike Masaoka, of the Japanese American Citizens' League, Charles Kikuchi, who recorded Nisei life experiences, and journalists Larry and Guyo Tajiri provide further evidence of the various approaches to problems. Readable, carefully organized, and well researched. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. P. Rodechko; Wilkes University