The Nisei Daughter 8 till end

March 9, 2008 bonkie02

I found the end of The Nisei Daughter interesting because of her treatment in the camps and how her parents changed a little bit during the internment. In the beginning of chapter 8 when Henry, Sumi, and Monica heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor they were devastated and afraid of what would happen to their parents. They never thought that they would be sent to the Japanese camps although they did. I also found it  interesting that Monica’s father, whom was described as Ghandi, snapped for the first time when asked about the bombing and what would happen to the family. Also when the Americans invaded Mrs. Matsui’s home looking for her husband they were yelling and screaming at her for her husband but when she finally told them that he was dead I felt like they were happy about it and that he was one more Japanese person that they didn’t have to worry about, but I don’t know if that is true or not.

Up until this part of the book I felt that Monica hated being Japanese because she was always shunning everything Japanese and saying she was one hundred percent American. But on page 156 “Wearily we closed out eyes, filled with an indescribable sense of guilt for having destroyed the things we loved.” She was upset about getting rid of her Japanese stuff that she had for most of her life, yet she still knows that she is still Japanese even though her  and her family got rid of their stuff. I felt sorry for her but I was still confused about her feelings toward her heritage because she goes back and forth.

Skipping a bit a head to the part about George…when I first read this it made me really sad to know that this Japanese boy died fighting for the country who hated his race. His father was the one who had always had faith in America but I don’t understand how he can have faith when he was never granted citizenship and was rounded up to be put in camps after the bombing. At the same time I feel like Mr.Sawada is more of a citizen than any American because he had faith when he shouldn’t of had any.

The last paragraph on page 38 “I had discovered a deeper, stronger pulse in the American scene. I was going back into its main stream, still with Oriental eyes, but with an entirely different outlook, for now I felt more like a whole person instead of a sadly split personality. The Japanese and the American parts of me were now blended into one.”  After reading this I realized that it must take great tragedy to realize that being Japanese and American can be blended together and prove to be a good match. But then I realized that no matter your race or heritage or your country everything can be blended together to make a great person.

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