日裔美國遷徙營別傳
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Date
2012/08-2013/07
Authors
李秀娟
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這個研究計畫想要用五年的時間整理與閱讀第二次世界大戰期間，日裔美國遷徙營 (Japanese American relocation camp)中一世(Issei)、返美二世(Kibei)、「叛國小子」(No-No Boy)、與白人的故事。自從1970 年代末期遷徙營平反運動興起，攸關遷徙營的歷史紀錄、 檔案研究、與文化批評等著述及出版品為數眾多，但是遷徙營的敘述卻一直到了1988 年平 反運動告一段落(1988 年美國聯邦政府正式向日裔美國族群致歉並向受害者提出賠償)，才逐 漸跨出平反訴求的侷限。簡單的說，平反時期的遷徙營敘述以爭取日裔族群的憲政民權為首 要任務，敘述的重點因此放在日裔美國人對美國政府之忠貞不二，以凸顯戰時種族主義對日 裔族群造成的侵權事實。在這樣的論述氛圍之下，出生在美國，生而即具美國公民身份的二 世(Nisei)自然而然成為平反運動的領導者；在二戰中自願加入美軍，為美國作戰的日裔美國 退役軍人(Japanese American veteran)也成為平反敘述中的要角。相對而言，二戰之前受制於 美國移民法令而無法歸化美國的一世；在美國出生，卻回到日本居住並接受教育的返美二 世；戰爭期間拒絕加入美軍的「叛國小子」；還有戰爭中或是參與日裔美國居民遷徙工作、 或是保持與日裔美國族群互動的白人--這些人的戰時經驗在平反時期的遷徙營敘述中，不是 遭邊緣化，就是完全不被提及。 一世、返美二世、「叛國小子」、與白人可以被視為現存遷徙營敘述中的「他者」(others)。 他們的故事，凸顯了遷徙營歷史歧出美國中心論述、日裔美國模範少數論述、日-美國族與 文化二元論述，甚至日裔美國人與白種人對峙之種族主義論述的張力。本計畫以「日裔美國 遷徙營別傳」為主題，即是希望能藉由閱讀與分析有關一世、返美二世、「叛國小子」、與白 人的文本，開發日裔美國遷徙營敘述或是內部幽微矛盾、或是向外延展跨界的論述潛力。除 了對現存歷史與評論等相關文獻的整理，本計畫目前暫時選擇了十部作品作為主要分析文 本：Rev. Yoshiaki Fukuda, My Six Years of Internment: An Issei’s Struggle for Justice (1957/1990)；Louis Fiset, Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple (1997)；Barbara Johns, Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita (2011)；Mary Kimoto Tomita, Dear Miye: Letters Home from Japan, 1939-1946 (1995)；Max Templeman, Kibei: A Novel (1979)；Jim Yoshida, The Two Worlds of Jim Yoshida” (1972)；Barney Shallit, Song of Anger: Tales of Tule Lake (2001)；David Mura, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (2008)；Mary Woodward, In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story (2008)；以及Margaret Bane Eberle, The Gem of the Desert: A Japanese-American Internment Camp (2008)。十部作品中，前三部是有關一世的作品，接下來三部以書寫返美二 世的經驗為主；Shallit 和Mura 的作品是繼John Okada 經典小說No-No Boy (1957)之後，凸 顯「叛國小子」經驗的小說創作；最後兩部作品則由白人視角書寫遷徙營，也寫出了遷徙營 在日裔美國社群之外的影響力。十部作品中除了有三部出版於平反運動之前，其餘均是1990 年代中葉或是千禧年之後的出版品。這些作品的出版，當然也見證了日裔美國遷徙營敘述模 式與內容漸趨多元的走向。另外，我選擇了包括書信、回憶錄、傳記、(自傳式)小說等刻劃 「私密」家庭與個人情感的文類作為研究對象，為的是想從日常生活中個人的情感與回憶政 治的層面切入，改寫現存遷徙營敘述中偏向社群整體平反訴求、族裔身份政治考量的大論 述。具體而言，一世與返美二世的故事有助於我們將日裔美國移民史納入遷徙營論述，也幫 助我們看見日裔美國人在日、美兩個帝國主義之間斡旋、掙扎的跨國位置。「叛國小子」的 故事讓我們重審二戰期間日美社群內部的衝突與矛盾；而白人的視角則讓我們跳出遷徙營敘 述的少數族裔論述侷限，正視遷徙營歷史跨越種族，對美國當代社會與歷史廣泛的衝擊力。
This is a five-year research project devoted to studying the stories of Isseis, Kibeis, No-No Boys and whites in the history of Japanese American internment during the Second World War. Numerous historical studies, archival researches, and cultural criticisms have been publicized on the event of Japanese American internment since the beginning of the redress movement in the late 1970s. Yet it was not until after the conclusion of the redress movement in 1988 (when the US government issued an official apology and offered monetary compensation to former Japanese American internees and their family) that the interment narratives and memories gradually move beyond the confinement of a redress agenda. Briefly, internment narratives during the redress period aimed primarily to fight for Japanese Americans’ constitutional rights. Bringing to the fore Japanese Americans’ perspectives of the internment as a corrective to the government’s version of the history, studies in the phase placed emphasis on Japanese Americans’ loyalty toward the US to foreground the community’s position as a wronged minority group, the victim of wartime racist persecution. Understandably, Niseis—the second-generation Japanese Americans who were born citizens of the US, and the veterans—those volunteering to fight for the US during the war, became integral figures in redress narratives, while the stories of Isseis (the first-generation Japanese Americans not able to be naturalized in the US due to legal restrictions), Kibeis (Japanese Americans born in America but growing up in Japan), No-No Boys (those responding negatively to the US government’s loyalty questionnaire and resisting the US military enlistment), and the white individuals (those participating in the internment project or interacting with Japanese Americans during the war) were marginalized, if not stigmatized or rendered invisible. Isseis, Kibeis, No-No Boys, and the white individuals involved in the internment are the “others” in dominant internment narratives. Their stories are nonetheless important in instigating the internment narrating endeavors to move beyond the discursive constraints of the US nationalist assimilation, Japanese American model minority, Japanese-American national/cultural bipolarity, and the racial division between whites and Japanese Americans. Entitled “The Other Stories of Japanese American internment,” this project proposes to probe into the conflicts and contradictions within Japanese American communities and extend the impacting force of the internment narratives across historical time, national territories, and racial lines. In addition to undertaking a historical survey and critical evaluations of related publications and criticisms that have been produced and are still proliferating, I have chosen—tentatively—ten texts for close analysis: Rev. Yoshiaki Fukuda’s My Six Years of Internment: An Issei’s Struggle for Justice (1957/1990); Louis Fiset’s Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple (1997); Barbara Johns’s Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita (2011); Mary Kimoto Tomita’s Dear Miye: Letters Home from Japan, 1939-1946 (1995); Max Templeman’s Kibei: A Novel (1979); Jim Yoshida’s The Two Worlds of Jim Yoshida” (1972); Barney Shallit’s Song of Anger: Tales of Tule Lake (2001); David Mura’s Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (2008); Mary Woodward’s In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story (2008); and Margaret Bane Eberle’s The Gem of the Desert: A Japanese-American Internment Camp (2008). Among these texts, the first three feature stories of Isseis; items 4-6 are about Kibei; Shallit’s and Mura’s are stories about No-No Boy; the last two then tell stories of white individuals during the time of the internment. Three among these texts were produced before the redress movement but have not received much critical attention. The other six came out in the 1990s or after the millennium, bearing witness to the increasingly diversified representations of the internment. By choosing literary texts that cover genres such as epistles, memoirs, biographies, and (autobiographical) fictions, I intend to complicate that grand narrative of the internment with the everyday, the personal, and the intimate. Specifically, the stories of Isseis and Kibeis well extend our understanding of the internment to the immigrant histories of Japanese Americans. They cast into relief Japanese Americans’ positions as transnational subjects caught in-between the imperialisms of both the US and Japan. The stories of No-No Boy shed light on the conflicts and divisions among Japanese Americans during and after the war, and the stories of white individuals compel us to comprehend the internment as affecting across the color line.
This is a five-year research project devoted to studying the stories of Isseis, Kibeis, No-No Boys and whites in the history of Japanese American internment during the Second World War. Numerous historical studies, archival researches, and cultural criticisms have been publicized on the event of Japanese American internment since the beginning of the redress movement in the late 1970s. Yet it was not until after the conclusion of the redress movement in 1988 (when the US government issued an official apology and offered monetary compensation to former Japanese American internees and their family) that the interment narratives and memories gradually move beyond the confinement of a redress agenda. Briefly, internment narratives during the redress period aimed primarily to fight for Japanese Americans’ constitutional rights. Bringing to the fore Japanese Americans’ perspectives of the internment as a corrective to the government’s version of the history, studies in the phase placed emphasis on Japanese Americans’ loyalty toward the US to foreground the community’s position as a wronged minority group, the victim of wartime racist persecution. Understandably, Niseis—the second-generation Japanese Americans who were born citizens of the US, and the veterans—those volunteering to fight for the US during the war, became integral figures in redress narratives, while the stories of Isseis (the first-generation Japanese Americans not able to be naturalized in the US due to legal restrictions), Kibeis (Japanese Americans born in America but growing up in Japan), No-No Boys (those responding negatively to the US government’s loyalty questionnaire and resisting the US military enlistment), and the white individuals (those participating in the internment project or interacting with Japanese Americans during the war) were marginalized, if not stigmatized or rendered invisible. Isseis, Kibeis, No-No Boys, and the white individuals involved in the internment are the “others” in dominant internment narratives. Their stories are nonetheless important in instigating the internment narrating endeavors to move beyond the discursive constraints of the US nationalist assimilation, Japanese American model minority, Japanese-American national/cultural bipolarity, and the racial division between whites and Japanese Americans. Entitled “The Other Stories of Japanese American internment,” this project proposes to probe into the conflicts and contradictions within Japanese American communities and extend the impacting force of the internment narratives across historical time, national territories, and racial lines. In addition to undertaking a historical survey and critical evaluations of related publications and criticisms that have been produced and are still proliferating, I have chosen—tentatively—ten texts for close analysis: Rev. Yoshiaki Fukuda’s My Six Years of Internment: An Issei’s Struggle for Justice (1957/1990); Louis Fiset’s Imprisoned Apart: The World War II Correspondence of an Issei Couple (1997); Barbara Johns’s Signs of Home: The Paintings and Wartime Diary of Kamekichi Tokita (2011); Mary Kimoto Tomita’s Dear Miye: Letters Home from Japan, 1939-1946 (1995); Max Templeman’s Kibei: A Novel (1979); Jim Yoshida’s The Two Worlds of Jim Yoshida” (1972); Barney Shallit’s Song of Anger: Tales of Tule Lake (2001); David Mura’s Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire (2008); Mary Woodward’s In Defense of Our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story (2008); and Margaret Bane Eberle’s The Gem of the Desert: A Japanese-American Internment Camp (2008). Among these texts, the first three feature stories of Isseis; items 4-6 are about Kibei; Shallit’s and Mura’s are stories about No-No Boy; the last two then tell stories of white individuals during the time of the internment. Three among these texts were produced before the redress movement but have not received much critical attention. The other six came out in the 1990s or after the millennium, bearing witness to the increasingly diversified representations of the internment. By choosing literary texts that cover genres such as epistles, memoirs, biographies, and (autobiographical) fictions, I intend to complicate that grand narrative of the internment with the everyday, the personal, and the intimate. Specifically, the stories of Isseis and Kibeis well extend our understanding of the internment to the immigrant histories of Japanese Americans. They cast into relief Japanese Americans’ positions as transnational subjects caught in-between the imperialisms of both the US and Japan. The stories of No-No Boy shed light on the conflicts and divisions among Japanese Americans during and after the war, and the stories of white individuals compel us to comprehend the internment as affecting across the color line.