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Issei, Nisei, War Bride: Three Generations of Japanese American Women in Domestic Service
Presents a study of Japanese American women employed as domestic workers. This book addresses issues about the nature of labour systems in capitalist economies, the role of immigrant and racial ethnic women in those systems, and the consequences of participation in race and gender stratified systems for minority families and communities.
- GenresHistory
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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January 22, 2025
Nakano Glenn utilized her academic training successfully in many respects in Issei, Nisei, War Bride. For example, she relied on a wide array of information from primary and secondary sources. As with most sociological studies the former included a good sized cohort of women whom she interviewed extensively and government documents like census records. The latter included other studies and historical texts which allowed her to clearly place the efforts made by these women to adapt to life in the United States into the context of their native Japanese sociocultural history and family and marriage dynamics. She also explained how they were exploited by racist immigration and social policies.
Her arguments were carefully crafted, well organized, and clearly documented with references throughout the text. Thus, there were 26 pages of notes at the end of the book. There were also some tables in the narrative itself as well as 3 appendices at the end with more population information. Finally, there was an index which readers could use to further review some particular topic or issue.
The author did some things to enhance the readability of INWB. Her chapters were subdivided into sections, each of which addressed particular topics. She did an outstanding job of describing the differences between how the first generation (Issei) and second generation (Nisei) of women coped with the challenges and obstacles they faced in America. In fact, Nakano Glenn made some informative comparisons of subtle differences between individuals within the Nisei generation. And the different experiences which the War Brides had in coming to the USA after WWII were clearly articulated in some of these sections in the chapters.
Nakano Glenn did two other things to try to boost the readability of this book. First, her prose largely consisted of direct, declarative sentences. Second, she utilized quotations from the women whom she interviewed.
If anything there were so many of these quotes that the book got to to be slow going towards the final one third or so. While the specifics might have been somewhat different, the general themes of what the women were articulating about themselves and their lives were the same. And in her desire to ensure that the reader understood the context in which these women were thinking and acting in their lives Nakano Glenn repeated Japanese sociocultural information she had previously shared. Ie, there was a redundancy which led to my feeling ready for the book to end.
As the book was published in 1986 it would be instructive if the author or a cohort did a follow up study. Many of the Nisei have probably died but their children, the Sansei (third generation), could be interviewed to see how their mothers’ lives progressed over the years. It would also be instructive to see how the lives of the Sansei and Yonsei (fourth generation) women compared to their elders.
For those readers who are interested the following is a documentary on the kinds of experiences War Brides had in coming to the USA:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sp4EWuL...
Three daughters of these brides produced this shorter, engaging documentary:
https://g.co/kgs/mMi1whS
These three daughters also have an Instagram page in which they describe the experiences which a number of these women had: warbrideproject
Her arguments were carefully crafted, well organized, and clearly documented with references throughout the text. Thus, there were 26 pages of notes at the end of the book. There were also some tables in the narrative itself as well as 3 appendices at the end with more population information. Finally, there was an index which readers could use to further review some particular topic or issue.
The author did some things to enhance the readability of INWB. Her chapters were subdivided into sections, each of which addressed particular topics. She did an outstanding job of describing the differences between how the first generation (Issei) and second generation (Nisei) of women coped with the challenges and obstacles they faced in America. In fact, Nakano Glenn made some informative comparisons of subtle differences between individuals within the Nisei generation. And the different experiences which the War Brides had in coming to the USA after WWII were clearly articulated in some of these sections in the chapters.
Nakano Glenn did two other things to try to boost the readability of this book. First, her prose largely consisted of direct, declarative sentences. Second, she utilized quotations from the women whom she interviewed.
If anything there were so many of these quotes that the book got to to be slow going towards the final one third or so. While the specifics might have been somewhat different, the general themes of what the women were articulating about themselves and their lives were the same. And in her desire to ensure that the reader understood the context in which these women were thinking and acting in their lives Nakano Glenn repeated Japanese sociocultural information she had previously shared. Ie, there was a redundancy which led to my feeling ready for the book to end.
As the book was published in 1986 it would be instructive if the author or a cohort did a follow up study. Many of the Nisei have probably died but their children, the Sansei (third generation), could be interviewed to see how their mothers’ lives progressed over the years. It would also be instructive to see how the lives of the Sansei and Yonsei (fourth generation) women compared to their elders.
For those readers who are interested the following is a documentary on the kinds of experiences War Brides had in coming to the USA:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sp4EWuL...
Three daughters of these brides produced this shorter, engaging documentary:
https://g.co/kgs/mMi1whS
These three daughters also have an Instagram page in which they describe the experiences which a number of these women had: warbrideproject
Displaying 1 of 1 review