Intergenerational Experience of Japanese American Internment: The Grandchildren of the Camps
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Authors
Arai, Scott Gen
Issue Date
2012
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
"Japanese Americans","Generational trauma","Forced removal","Internment","1942-1945"
Alternative Title
Abstract
Executive Order 9066 has little resonance for most Americans, but to Japanese Americans this government order represents a profoundly traumatic experience of racial discrimination and systemic prejudice that imprisoned and stripped Japanese Americans of their civil rights, among other things. While this event happened over fifty years ago, research has found that myriad effects of internment have been transmitted from interned Japanese Americans to their children. Although there is a significant amount of research that has been done on Holocaust survivors and their offspring (Baider et al ., 2000; Bar-on, 1989; Danieli , 1982 ; Yehuda et al., 1998), little has been empirically investigated on the intergenerational effects of the Japanese American internment during World War II. Donna Nagata (1987) conducted the Sansei Research Project, the first study to explore the intergenerational impact of internment on the third generation of Japanese Americans . The present qualitative study utilizes semi-structured audiotaped interviews to explore and describe the complex intergenerational effects of Japanese American internment on ten (N= 10) participants a generation removed from the experience; the grandchildren of previously interned Japanese Americans. Previous research on intergenerational trauma pointed to the transmission of pathologic symptoms. However, results from this study are consistent with Nagata's findings that among the children and grandchildren of the camps, a deep sense of pride, strength, gratitude, and a pre-existing capacity for resilience are as much a part of the legacy as the negative effects of the experience. The findings of the present study are compared with those of the Sansei Project, and discussed in the context of the wider intergenerational trauma literature.