The Problem of Biculturalism: Japanese American Identity and Festival before World War II

Abstract

On May 23, 1934, Mihiko Shimizu persuaded the leading association of Japanese immigrants in Los Angeles to establish a celebration in honor of their Americanborn children. Such a Nisei, or second-generation, festival, he asserted, was needed to reenergize the small businesses of Little Tokyo, which no longer enjoyed the rapid growth and prosperity they had in the 191 Os and 1920s.1 Shimizu saw the sluggish market for his dry goods as an indication of a long-term trend that would prove more devastating to Japanese retailing than the current depression-era belt tightening. With the immigrant generation (or Issei) getting older and new immigration from Japan prohibited, Little Tokyo soon enough would not be able to rely primarily upon a Japanese-speaking clientele. The growth market was the Nisei. To attract second-generation customers, Shimizu advised Issei shop owners and managers to cut prices, enlarge merchandise displays, and hire clerks who spoke English and could cater to the younger generation's tastes. The challenge of a Nisei festival, he maintained, was to disabuse Japanese youth of the notion that American [department] stores offer better quality and less expensive goods of the same type found in Japanese stores.2