Talk:Japanese American
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Has the question of the use or non-use of the hyphen in the phrase Japanese-American, Italian-American, etc., been discussed on Wikipedia, and a consensus reached rejecting the hyphen? (Once upon a time, persons belonging to such groups were called "hyphenates".) Michael Hardy 01:35, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)
From User talk:Jiang archive 1:
Hi,
I'm puzzled about what you are doing to pages about x-Americans. While in terms of strict grammar a dash should not be there, they always are written with a dash because many such communities do not actually see themselves as Americans but as Anglo-Americans, Irish-Americans, Spanish-Americans, Italian-Americans, etc. Indeed Irish-Americans take offence at being written as Irish Americans, as any Italian-Americans I know don't just take offence; they are liable to punch you if you leave the dash out, so important do they view it. They and other communities regard the dash as crucial to highlighting their dual cultural identity. So I think your changes are in all the communities I know about not merely wrong but actually can (however accidentially) cause offence. FearÉIREANN 07:29 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)
- Without the dash, the "Asian" or "Chinese" is used as an adjetive to modify the term "American," and therefore the Chinese American, Asian American, etc. would be considered American. Without the dash, it seems like a Chinese-American is half-Chinese, half-American, which is not the case. (I find that offensive!) Actually, the dash is less frequently used (probably because of these reasons: [1], [2], [3] Try to snoop around on the web and you'll find the dash absent on most semi-official sites. Well, it all comes to which culture you come from. I left the European cultures alone. African American and Japanese American were already that way when I found them. There's a difference between cultural and national identity--the dash emphasizes dual national identity, not cultural. Sorry for not allowing this issue to be discussed before I acted...I brought it up at the Chinese American talk page and got no response after 24 hrs. --Jiang 07:39 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)
--Jiang 02:41, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)
Here are the first five hits from a google search: [4][5][6][7][8]. The links are overwhelming for leaving out the hyphen. --Jiang 02:45, 19 Nov 2003 (UTC)
New article: Hyphenated American. --Jiang
[edit] Contradiction of another article
"Japanese Americans are typically members of Protestant Christianity. Only a small minority are also followers of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and sectarian Shinto."
This claim directly contradicts this from the Religions of Japan article
"Some churches in America take an active missionary role in converting Japanese in Japan, and America, but even in America, 97% of Japanese Americans adhere to Shinto and Buddhism."
These can't BOTH be right. I'm going to place a similar message on that article's talk page. I don't know which view is correct; maybe someone who knows better than me can fix this.
Rhesusmanrhesusman 17:22 UTC 17 April 2005
- Maybe because the both claims are true? In Japan, it is not that simply you profess to some religion or not. For example, some may not follow the teaching of Shinto, but celebrate New Yeark in the manner of Shinto. (This is very common case in Japan) The best thing we can do is just not to mention these issues at all. -- Taku 16:35, Apr 17, 2005 (UTC)
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- I don't know. This article's claim looks pretty exclusive. It says only a small minority ALSO follow Buddhism and Shinto. There is a clear implication that most Japanese Americans are NOT following Buddhism or Shinto in addition to Christianity. I know about the phenomenon of Japanese syncretism you mention, but this article's claim does not seem to accommodate that at all. If these claims really can be viewed as simultaneously acceptable, shouldn't they be re-worded at least so they don't look so mutually exclusive?
Rhesusmanrhesusman 17:52 UTC 17 April 2005
As a Japanese-American (Sansei), I was also surprised by the statement in Wikipedia that "Japanese Americans are typically Christians. Only a small minority are also followers of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and sectarian Shinto." Based on my interactions with Japanese-Americans, most are not Christians. Many would say that they are "not very religious" or are mildly "Buddhist/Shinto," although I do not know the exact percentages. My observations indicate that the statement that "Japanese Americans are typically Christians" is not accurate.
In addition, I question the veracity of the claim that "After Filipino Americans, Japanese Americans are the second largest Asian Christian community." I would think that Korean-Americans would rank higher than Japanese-Americans.
Are these statements based on reputable surveys? If so, what are the sources?
--Nisei-han, 13-July-2005
- I would tend to agree with you. Have you read Religions of Japan? It tends to agree more with what you're saying. Rhesusmanrhesusman 16:37 UTC 24 July 2005
I would say they are both wrong. Most Japanese Americans seem to be either non-religious or Christian, with some Buddhists and few Shinto practitioners. There seems to be a slightly higher rate of atheism or non-religiousness in the JA community than in whites, possibly because many of them are in the west coast urban areas, which have those tendencies in general. Christianity does seem to be the most common religion, though, even if it's below %50.
One problem is that Buddhism and Shintoism have looser definitions of being a member than most Christian denominations. Note that you do not have to be practicing Shintoism to be 'Shinto', you can have your name entered into a Shinto shrine and you will be considered one of them, however I don't think most J-As have that done. Either way, I don't think Buddhism, and certainly not Shinto, are major forces in the Japanese American community.
I live in the Portland, OR area, and while I am sure that there are Japanese-American churches, places of worship do not seem to play a central role in defining the community, the way they do for Hispanic, Korean or Hindu immigrants. Most J-A celebrations and festivals I have seen have been at community centers, schools, or commercial areas, and center around cultural rituals like origami, taiko, various traditional arts, martial arts, or films. Religion did not crop up very often.
Fyi, I am a Japanese citizen, and the actual Japanese expatriat community is not very religios either.
In either case, the Korean, Chinese and even Vietnamese Christian communities should vastly outnumber the Japanese Christian community in the U.S. See the table in the [Languages_in_the_United_States] page for some insight as to the various sizes of the communities. Identity0 11:20, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
- The current version as of my writing is fairly accurate from my observations, so it seems this discussion was cleared up. Just adding some reinforcement
- I'm a 4th gen with familial ties throughout the California region. Religious groups are a large part of the Japanese community. Nisei Week and most obons are staged from religious centers.
- There are also fusion beliefs among JAs, rather than strict followers. My dad loosely follows several religions. My family follows Buddhist, Christian and Catholic faiths, with Christianity being the clear majority -- many of them practice traditional Shinto/Buddhist ceremonies (a way of maintaining cultural ties), yet are Christian. Most, however, are not active followers or believers, like myself, but have affiliation to one group. Specifically, my father's side has strong affiliation to a couple temples and a Methodist Church, while my mother's side has strong affiliations to a Japanese catholic school and several temples.
- Families who have been here since pre-WWII will tend to have similar religious makeup to my family (a mix of Christians, atheists, and Shinto/Buddhists), where as recent immigrant families will more likely have atheist or shinto backgrounds. 11:30, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] War Service
I find this sentence odd: Despite the treatment, many Japanese Americans served in World War II, mostly as sentries and intelligence agents in the Pacific war. I was under the impression that all the JA's that were in the Army were sent to Europe? IIRC, the reason they were all sent there was that they were afraid they would be confused with the Japanese Empire troops. And why would they be put into intelligence, when the whole reason for their internment was that they weren't trusted? I have read up on Allied codebreaking in WWII, and they do not mention use of JA's in intelligence work. Mostly, they seem to have used asian people of other races (Korean, Chinese, etc.) or white officers, who had learned the Japanese language.
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- The sentence was poorly written. It would be accurate to say that "In the Pacific war, they served mostly with military intelligence and as sentries." Then military service in Europe would be mentioned in another sentence. Critic-at-Arms 18:36, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
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- Only partially true, many Japanese served in the Pacific, but in noncombat roles. After the war, many of the intelligence agents became relief agents throughout Japan, providing aid and translation. I think you also might be confusing codebreakers with intelligence agents, who serve in more capacities than just code breaking. The majority of JA soldiers, however, served on the European front.
- Internment had many more factors to it than a trust issue. If there was a real trust issue, then Roosevelt wouldn't have forcibly drafted JAs. Also, Hawaii had a sizable Japanese population before the war, many of whom volunteered for service 11:39, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
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