Us, Hawai'i-born Japanese

ISBN: 9780415977982

³ö°æÉç: Routledge

³ö°æÄê: 2006-2

Ò³Êý: 208

¶¨¼Û: $ 164.98

×°Ö¡: HRD

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This enlightening book on the collective identities of Japanese American elderly in a former sugar plantation community in the rural town of Puna, Hawai'i, investigates the stories in which they remember, evaluate, and represent their past lives on the plantation from the 1920s to the 1980s. Author Kinoshita deftly explores the process by which they collectively delineate their identities in terms of ethnicity, class, generation, and gender. Presenting an ethnography of remembering that captures the so-called 'cultural testimony', the Japanese American elderly, in this book, narrate their plantation experience as both an internally-oriented emotional manifestation and an externally-based common understanding of their community. Kinoshita demonstrates how they employ their memories to reconstruct plantation experience and define their peoplehood as the collective identities of plantation-raised Japanese Americans. This book is informative for a wide cross-section of students due to its distinctive approach to people and community - its analysis of interview transcripts reveals the significance of shared story in creating a sense of community. However, most significantly, this book is for people who love Hawai'i. The life stories of these Hawai'i-born Japanese Americans will fascinate readers and acquaint them with Hawai'i's culture and history.