Sansei (三世, third generation) is a Japanese language term used in countries in South America,North America and Australia to specify the children of children born to Japanese people in the new country. The Nisei are considered the second generation, grandchildren of the Japanese-born immigrants called Sansei and the fourth generation Yonsei. (In Japanese counting, "one, two, three" is "ichi, ni, san." See: Japanese numerals).

Brazilian, American, Canadian and Peruvian citizens

Although the earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled in Mexico in 1897, the four largest populations of Japanese and descendants of Japanese immigrants live in Brazil, the United States, Canada and Peru.

Brazilian Sansei

Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, numbering an estimate of more than 1.5 million (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity), more than that of the 1.2 million in the United States. The Sansei Japanese Brazilians are an important part of that ethnic minority in that South American nation.

American Sansei

The majority of American Sansei were born during the Baby Boom after the end of World War II; but older Sansei who were living in the western United States during WWII were forcibly interned with their parents (Nisei) and grandparents (Issei) after Executive Order 9066 was promulgated to exclude everyone of Japanese descent from large parts of the Western states. The Sansei were forceful activists in the redress movement, which resulted in an official apology to the internees. In some senses, the Sansei seem to feel they are caught in a dilemma between their "quiet" Nisei parents and their other identity model of "verbal" Americans.

In the United States, a representative Sansei is General Eric Shinseki (born November 28, 1942), the 34th Chief of Staff of the United States Army (1999 - 2003) and current United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is the first Asian American in U.S. history to be a four-star general, and the first to lead one of the four U.S. military services.The Sansei Japanese Americans (三世 lit. third generation) are American-born Japanese Americans citizens of the United States, the children of the Nisei Japanese Americans.

Canadian Sansei

Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, three distinct subgroups developed, each with different sociocultural referents, generational identity, and wartime experiences.

Peruvian Sansei

Among the approximately 80,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent, the Sansei Japanese Peruvians comprise the largest number.

Cultural profile

Generations

Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians have special names for each of their generations in North America. These are formed by combining one of the Japanese numbers corresponding to the generation with the Japanese word for generation (sei 世). The Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like Issei, Nisei, and Sansei which describe the first, second and third generation of immigrants. The fourth generation is called Yonsei (四世) and the fifth is called Gosei (五世). The Issei, Nisei and Sansei generations reflect distinctly different attitudes to authority, gender, non- Japanese involvement, and religious belief and practice, and other matters. The age when individuals faced the wartime evacuation and internment is the single, most significant factor which explains these variations in their experiences, attitudes and behaviour patterns.The term Nikkei (日系) was coined by a multinational group of sociologists and encompasses all of the world's Japanese immigrants across generations. The collective memory of the Issei and older Nisei was an image of Meiji Japan from 1870 through 1911, which contrasted sharply with the Japan that newer immigrants had more recently left. These differing attitudes, social values and associations with Japan were often incompatible with each other. In this context, the significant differences in post-war experiences and opportunities did nothing to mitigate the gaps which separated generational perspectives.

Generation	Summary
Issei (一世)	The generation of people born in Japan who later immigrated to another country.
Nisei (二世)	The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Australia, or any country outside of Japan either to at least one Issei or one non-immigrant Japanese parent.
Sansei (三世)	The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Australia, or any country outside of Japan to at least one Nisei parent.
Yonsei (四世)	The generation of people born in North America, Latin America, Australia, or any country outside of Japan to at least one Sansei parent.

In North America since the redress victory in 1988, a significant evolutionary change has occurred. The Sansei, their parents, their grandparents, and their children are changing the way they look at themselves and their pattern of accommodation to the non-Japanese majority.

There are currently just over one hundred thousand British Japanese, mostly in London; but unlike other Nikkei communities elsewhere in the world, these Britons do not conventionally parse their communities in generational terms as Issei, Nisei, or Sansei.

Sansei

The third generation of immigrants, born in the United States or Canada to parents born in the United States or Canada, is called Sansei (三世). Children born to the Nisei were generally born after 1945. They speak English as their first language and are completely acculturized in the contexts of Canadian or American society. They tend to identify with Canadian or American values, norms and expectations. Few speak Japanese, and most tend to express their identity as Canadian or American rather than Japanese. Among the Sansei there is an overwhelming percentage of marriages to persons of non-Japanese ancestry.

Aging

The kanreki (還暦), a traditional, pre-modern Japanese rite of passage to old age at 60, was sometimes celebrated by the Issei and is now being celebrated by increasing numbers of Nisei and a few Sansei. Rituals are enactments of shared meanings, norms, and values; and this Japanese rite of passage highlights a collective response among the Nisei to the conventional dilemmas of growing older.

History

Internment and redress

Some responded to internment with lawsuits and political action; and for others, poetry became an unplanned consequence:

::With new hope.

::We build new lives.

::Why complain when it rains?

::This is what it means to be free.

::: -- Lawson Fusao Inada, Japanese American Historical Plaza, Portland, Oregon.

Life under United States policies before and after World War II

Politics

Notable individuals

The numbers of sansei who have earned some degree of public recognition has continued to increase over time; but the quiet lives of those whose names are known only to family and friends are no less important in understanding the broader narrative of the Nikkei. Although the names highlighted here are over-represented by sansei from North America, the Latin American member countries of the Pan American Nikkei Association (PANA) include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, in addition to the English-speaking United States and Canada.

• Katherine Bannai.
• Francis Fukuyama (1952 - ), philosopher, political economist, and author
• Robert S. Hamada, professor of finance and former dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
• Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga.
• William Hohri.
• Mike Honda (1941 - ), Congressman from California
• Lawson Fusao Inada
• Rod Kawakami
• Doris Matsui
• Robert Matsui (1941 - 2005), Congressman from California and former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
• Dale Minami
• Peggy Nagae
• Kent Nagano
• Suzy Nakamura
• Desmond Nakano
• Lane Nishikawa
• Alan Nishio.
• Steven Okazaki
• Ellison Onizuka
• Eric Shinseki
• David Suzuki
• Ronald Takaki (1939 - 2009), academic, historian, ethnographer and author
• Chris Tashima
• John Tateishi.
• David Tsubouchi

Notes

1. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Japan-Mexico Foreign Relations
2. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Japan-Brazil Relations
3. US Census data 2005
4. Sowell, Thomas. (1981). Ethnic America: A History, p. 176.
5. Miyoshi, Nobu. (1978). "Identity Crisis of the Sansei and the Concentration Camp," NIMH Grant No. 1 R13 MH25655-01.
6. Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff. (2006). Diversity in the Power Elite: How it Happened, why it Matters, pp. 191-192; U.S. Army bio
7. McLellan, Janet. (1999). Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto, p. 36.
8. McLellan, p. 59.
9. "What is Nikkei?" Japanese American National Museum.
10. McLellan, p. 37.
11. McLellan, p. 68.
12. Itoh, p. 7.
13. Doi, Mary L. "A Transformation of Ritual: The Nisei 60th Birthday." Journal Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. Vol. 6, No. 2 (April, 1991).
14. PBS: "Oregon Laureate Reflects on Japanese Internment," NewsHour. October 3, 2008.
15. National Association of Japanese Canadians: PANA
16. Galang, M. Evelina et al. (2003). Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images, p. 121.
17. Discover Nikkei: Fukuyama bio
18. Japanese American National Museum (JANM): Civil Liberties Act of 1988
19. DiscoverNikkei: Honda bio
20. DiscoverNikkei: Matsui bio
21. Minami, Dale. (2005). University of Washington Law School, Commencement Address; Discover Nikkei: Minami bio
22. Zia, Helen et al. (1995). Notable Asian Americans, p. .
23. C-SPAN/Book TV: 3-hour interview, 1 March 2009.

See also

References

• Harth, Erica. (2003). Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans. New York: Macmillan. 10-ISBN 1-403-96230-8; 13-ISBN 978-1-403-96230-0
• Hosokowa, Fumiko. (1978). The Sansei: Social Interaction and Ethnic Identification Among the Third Generation Japanese. San Francisco: R & E Research Associates. 10-ISBN 0-882-47490-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-882-47490-8
• Itoh, Keiko. (2001). The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain: From Integration to Disintegration. London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0-700-71487-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-700-71487-2
• Leslie, Gerald R. and Sheila K. Korman. (1989). The Family in Social Context. New York: Oxford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-195-04974-8; 13-ISBN 978-0-195-04974-9
• Makabe, Tomoko. (1998). The Canadian Sansei. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 10-ISBN 0-802-04179-5; 13_ISBN 978-0-802-041791
• McLellan, Janet. (1999). Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 10-ISBN 0-802-08225-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-802-08225-1
• Sowell, Thomas. (1981). Ethnic America: A History. New York: Basic Books. 10-ISBN 0-465-02075-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-465-02075-1
• Takahashi, Jere. (1998). Nisei Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 10-ISBN 1-566-39659-X; 13-ISBN 978-1-566-39659-2
• Tamura, Eileen and Roger Daniels. (1994). Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: The Nisei Generation in Hawaii. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 10-ISBN 0-252-06358-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-252-06358-9
• Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff. (2006). Diversity in the Power Elite: How it Happened, why it Matters. Lanham, Marlyand: Rowman & Littlefield. 10-ISBN 0-742-53699-8; 13-ISBN 978-0-742-53699-9

Further reading

• Armbruster, Shirley. (1998-3-1). "Melding into the melting pot Third-generation Japanese-Americans who intermarry want their children to remember and honor their heritage", The Fresno Bee.
• Gehrie, Mark Joshua. (1973). Sansei: An Ethnography of Experience. Ph.D. (Anthropology)--Northwestern University, 1973. OCLC: 71849646
• Hosokawa, Fumiko. (1978). The Sansei: Social Interaction and Ethnic Identification Among the Third Generation Japanese. San Francisco : R & E Research Associates. 10-ISBN 0-882-47490-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-882-47490-8
• Kaihara, Rodney and Patricia Morgan. (1973). Sansei Experience. San Fullerton, Calif. : Oral History Program, California State University, Fullerton. OCLC 23352676
• Makabe, Tomoko. (1998). The Canadian Sansei. Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press. 10-ISBN 0-802-04179-5; 13-ISBN 978-0-802-04179-1
• Oana, Leilani Kyoko. (1984). Ethnocultural Identification in Sansei (Third Generation Japanese American) Females: An Evaluation of Alternative Measures. Thesis (M.A.)--George Washington University. OCLC: 12726534
• Okamura, Randall F. (1973). The Contemporary Sansei. Thesis (M.A., Community Development and Public Service)--Lone Mountain College, 1978. OCLC: 13182634
• Takahashi, Jere. (1997). Nisei Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics. Philadelphia : Temple University Press. 10-ISBN 1-566-39550-X; 13-ISBN 978-1-566-39550-2
• Tanaka, Shaun Naomi. (2003). Ethnic Identity in the Absence of Propinquity Sansei and the Transformation of the Japanese-Canadian Community. Thesis (M.A.)--Queen's University at Kingston 10-ISBN 0-612-86193-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-612-86193-0
• Yamada, Joyce. (1984). Contemporary Asian American Culture in the United States : Sansei, a Search for Identity. Thesis (M.A.)--George Washington University. OCLC: 12726534

External links

• Japanese American National Museum
• Embassy of Japan in Washington, DC
• Japanese American Citizens League
• Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California
• Japanese American Community and Cultural Center of Southern California
• Japanese American Historical Society
• Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
• Japanese American Museum of San Jose, California
• Japanese American Network
• Japanese-American's own companies in USA
• Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives
• Online Archive of the Japanese American Relocation during World War II
• Photo Exhibit of Japanese American community in Florida
• The Asians in America Project - Japanese American Organizations Directory
• Nikkei Federation
• Discover Nikkei
• Summary of a panel discussion on changing Japanese American identities
• Interment and American samurai
• “The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
• U.S. Government interned Japanese from Latin America