Eth Std 100 Japanese American Identity Coming Home from WWII.m4v

This is a alternative essay that I did for my Ethnic Studies 100 Class at UC Berkeley (Spring '10).

This is a song about a Japanese American soldier coming home from WWII fighting against the Japanese in the Pacific Theater. Even though he has done so much for the United States, he is still looked upon as a "foreigner" and an "enemy" at home.

Lyrics:

Im staring at the mirror
And all I can see
Is an American veteran
Looking back at me

So WHY do other people
Tell me that Im not?
So WHY do other people
Tell me to get out!

Of their faces
AND their homes
Their towns and cities
I feel so alone...

What makes me so different
From other men?
Is it my Japanese heritage
The color of my skin?

So WHY do other people
Dont accept me?
As an AMERICAN Citizen
Ive done everything

That they have asked of me
Spilled the blood
Of my Japanese relatives
Like a loyal dog would

America Rejects me
Japan Betrays me
So there is Nowhere to call a home
Stuck between the binaries

All I want to be
Is accepted
Why is it so hard to be
assimilated?

I took the oath
Killed my kinsmen
Japan thinks of me a traitor
America a demon

Im staring at the mirror
And still all I see
Is an American veteran
Looking back at me

So WHY do other people
Still tell me that Im not?
So WHY do other people
Still tell me to get out!

Of their faces
AND their homes
Their towns and cities
I feel so alone..

My identity
Is ripping at the seams!
Heart of an American
But the skin of a Japanese.

Took the loyalty oath
And abandoned Japan
So that I could BE
a slave of my homeland

Fighting for a nation
that would rather see us dead.
Nissei blood stains the ground bright red.
All thats left is,
the white and blue.
Does the 4-4-2 regimen,
mean so little to you?

Cause America Rejects me
Japan Betrays me
So there is Nowhere to call a home
Stuck between the binaries

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Eth
• Std
• 100
• Japanese
• American
• Identity
• Coming
• Home
• from
• WWII

[narutofightindreamer]

Everyone in this gawdawful depression we're all suffering through.Who lost or had everything stolen from them at no fault of their own. You need only look at the Nisei, Sansei, & Issei as your inspiration on not merely rebuilding your life with the re-accumalation of every last dollar and piece of property lost. But, the accumulation of more until your cup runneth over. Like the Nisei you can publicly emberrass those against you by proving how much better you are than them through yourt actions!