Takaki

February 18, 2008 slizz4

I actually enjoyed reading Takaki’s work.  I thought he was upfront, and clear with his words, and his reasons for writing this history was apparent.  The thing that stuck with me the most was the way the Japanese went about allowing their citizens to leave Japan.  They wanted to have a good representation of people, and so only the most healthy and most highly educated were allowed to leave.  On paper, this is a very smart idea.  You send over the brightest, and most hard-working, so that when they return they will have had a better shot at making money.  So this plan should have worked out perfectly for the Japanese people, but it backfired.  Americans saw another wave of immigrants from an Asian country coming, just like the Chinese had come.  The Japanese immigrants never really stood a chance to be accepted in America because of this fact.  When the Chinese immigrants came over, the government put all those laws into affect that would purposely hold back anyone other than Americans.  So being that Americans had already developed this hatred for the Chinese, it was almost evident that they would develop a hatred for the Japanese people as well.  The government put laws out there so that Americans were “living” with the Chinese immigrants who came there, because, really, they had no rights, had no jobs, had no women, and basically had no life.  But when the Japanese came over they were a whole new culture, so the Americans had the attitude like “enough is enough with this immigration crap” and really lashed out at the Japanese.  It’s like…they had accepted the Chinese because, eh, they weren’t allowed to do anything, they were just there.  But, the Japanese people were really smart, and whenever a group of smart people comes around it makes everyone who is just average really nervous.  I just thought that it really wasn’t shocking at all that the Japanese were treated so badly.

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One Comment Add your own

• 1. Edd  |  February 21, 2008 at 3:12 am

  Unfortunately I think you are absolutely right when you said that it is not surprising that the Japanese were treated so poorly during the early 20th century. Takaki paints a picture that shows there was a sense that America was by and for the white people.

  I also like your observation of human nature, “…and whenever a group of smart people comes around it makes everyone who is just average really nervous.” I think that speaks to something that we can all identify with to some extent. Sure, most of us choose to buckle down and work harder instead of keeping the “smart guy” down. Nonetheless we all know what it feels like to be “threatened” by someone smarter or more talented than us. Nice insight.

  -Edd

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