Nisei Daughter Summary

The memoir “Nisei Daughter” by Monica Sone, depicts the experience of being sent to a Japanese internment camp and explains the struggles that went alongside that experience. Kazuko Itoli experienced Americanization later than most first generation Americans due to being held in an internment camp. While the Nisei adjusted better than the Issei, their Americanization was still hindered by being in the internment camps. In the beginning of the book, Kazuko behaves like a normal American child and does not understand that she is different from her friends. At the end of the first chapter, Kazuko says that she always thought she was an American but her mother was telling her she was a Japanese. Before the camp, Kazuko was able to assimilate into the American culture trough school and by

On page 188, Sone discusses the fact that all of their Japanese literature was taken from them even though none of it had any messages of destruction or violence. The reason behind this requirement was not because the government thought that they were spies and were plotting against them, it was because the government wanted the Japanese to become Americanized. This move was foolish because confiscating Japanese books was not going to result in the Japanese being less Japanese. The Americans did try to Americanize the Japanese inside the camps but to little avail. The camps had English classes to help mostly the Issei because most of the Nisei had grown up in the American school system. The camps had other classes available to the Japanese and the Army tried to recruit Nisei to make them more American and so the Americans did not have to put themselves in as much danger. Americanization was one of the ultimate goals of the internment camps put in act by the War Relocation Authority, however, the Americanization ultimately failed until the Japanese were released back into