The purpose of this paper is to explore the diverse identity of Japanese/Japanese American people (hereafter JA) living in San Francisco, US. Since California is the main place of residence for Asian immigrants, there are many Asian communities including Japanese/JA groups. From Dec. 2016 to Mar. 2017, I conducted a research in San Francisco, mainly with Japanese/JA informants and collected data from 11 persons.
Literature has revealed how “Japanese” identity has been constructed against the historical background of the US, pointing out that JA subgroups nowadays are not connected to each other and there is a gap in “Japanese” identity between different generations (Kurata 1997 etc.). However, not many studies examine how JAs perceive other Japanese groups, other generations and other ethnic groups. Furthermore, there is little qualitative research that examines the individual’s narrative and identity.
Through the qualitative analysis of narratives, which are considered as an arena of dynamic identity construction (Georgakopoulou 2006), I will reveal how diverse the JA’s identity actually is in relation to other Asian Americans, Whites and other ethnic minorities. My data is from third or fourth generation informants whose ancestors moved to the US before WW2, and from “new” first or second generation informants who moved after WW2. They diversely identify themselves utilizing various self-designations as JA, Japanese, Asian American or Hapa. They also position themselves in relation to other ethnic minorities such as Chinese. I will focus on the dynamics of their identity construction, using the positioning theory (Davies and Harré 1990) and the racial triangulation theory (Kim, 1999) and show how they are connected or disconnected inside/outside the group.
Davies, B. and Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: the discursive construction of selves. Journal for the theory of Social Behavior, 20: pp.43-63.
Georgakopoulou, A. (2006). Small and large identities in narrative (inter)action. In A. De Fina, D. Schiffrin, M. Bamberg (eds.) Discourse and Identity, pp.83-102. Cambridge University Press.
Kim, C.J. (1999). The racial triangulation of Asian Americans. Politics and Society: 27(1)
Kurata, W. (1997). Hokubei-toshi niokeru esunikku mainoritii [Ethnic minorities in Northern American cities]. Kyoto: Minerva shobo.
