ABOUT

Growing up, my cultural identity was a source of extreme confusion for me. I am a half-Japanese half-American dual citizen who grew up bouncing between the two cultures and countries. While this may sound like an incredibly exciting and privileged childhood (which it was), it also instilled in me a lack of sense of belonging or home. No matter where I was, I was an outsider- in Japan, I was American; in America, I was Japanese.

 

For Japanese American immigrant families, perceptions of cultural identity are often extremely complex, especially following Executive Order 9066 where Japanese populations in America were labeled a "threat to national security" during WWII.  On the flip side, Japanese Americans in Japan often find themselves ostracized by Japanese society as 外国人 (がいこくじん, or foreigners). For these reasons (and perhaps many others!), I think a lot of Japanese Americans grow up experiencing a sense of cultural disconnect surrounding their "not 100% Japanese" identity.

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When I first came to Cal Poly and joined JSA, I felt this imposter syndrome keenly- after graduating from a high school in Japan where I had been labeled as decidedly American, was I really allowed to be asserting myself as Japanese just because I was now in America? 

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Since speaking to other people in JSA, I have come to realize the Japanese identity is not as simple as just being "from Japan"- which to begin with, is fairly nuanced on its own. It is unfair to limit Japanese identity to people who grew up solely with Japanese culture- as the world sphere expands, our understanding of the Japanese experience should too. For example, Cal Poly's JSA was cofounded by a multi-generational Japanese American student, BJ Yebisu, whose relationship to Japan and claim of Japanese identity is vastly different to my own- but equally valid. 

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I hope this blog gives people a chance to recount their own experiences and thoughts regarding being (maybe not 100%) Japanese. This is a deeply personal topic for me and I'm sure many others, so I am very grateful to everyone who has chosen to share. In reading these stories, I hope they reveal a greater spectrum of backgrounds that make up modern Japanese identity. 

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Also if reading this blog makes you want to get more involved in our JSA fam, that is cool too ;-)