Second Generation Japanese In America

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Second generation Japanese children are the offspring of first generation immigrants: those that emigrated here from Japan. Unlike their parents, who are raised, and will always have some sort of ties to, Japan, the second generation is American born, and will integrate themselves into American society in a more profound manner than that of their immigrant parents. The second generation must seek to reconcile the co-mingling of their own American culture with the integration of the culture of their parent’s heritage, and, set in the environment of American society, this proposes a number of issues. Between the pressure of their American peers and their immigrant families, and striving for the American dream of prosperity that brought about their parent’s immigration here, the 2nd generation will be a driving force in shaping the future of the Japanese immigrants here in America at large, as well as in the cities they choose to congregate in. Many first generation parents immigrated here foreseeing a better chance of material success, especially for their children. This however, also comes with a distrust of American family and community values, and this fear leaves the parents in a strange dichotomy: how to raise their child to still hold on to the Japanese cultural values beset in themselves, while raising their child in America, with high hopes and demands for success higher than their own. The children meanwhile must find their own identity between these two countries, and their decision is shaped by a multitude of issues, especially prejudice or racism, and their expectations of such biases. Such discrimination has a direct effect on self esteem, aspirations, and can be a major point of conflict between parent and child, and thus these four issues have a wider effect on the expansion or narrowing of the goals of the second generation child. Thus, the

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