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August 4, 2005
"President Hirohito?"
A
n amusing little window onto the process of assimilation:
"[A Japanese newspaper in America] carried an interesting article in September 1908. The article was devoted to the ignorance of Japan exhibited by [American-born] children [of Japanese parents]. When asked about what they would like to become, some children replied that they aspired to become the Emperor of Japan."
This, of course, troubled the parents--because it revealed the impact on their children of the American folk belief that anyone can grow up to be President.
(Quote and story from Yuji Ichioka, The Issei: The World of the First Generation Japanese Immigrants, 1885-1924 (New York: The Free Press, 1988), at 197.)
Posted by Eric at August 4, 2005 2:31 PM