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Through harsh winters: The life of a Japanese immigrant woman
Book by Tanaka, Michiko
157 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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September 18, 2020
The harsher the winter, the fresher the spring.
--Japanese proverb
This is the oral biography of a Japanese "issei" (first generation) American immigrant woman in California compiled by her daughter, the youngest of her 14 children. Michiko Tanaka and her husband Saburo came by ship to the United States in 1923, intending to stay a few months, but spent the rest of their lives in the US. They were agricultural laborers, hardworking but very poor, trying to maintain their customs and family structure in a new environment. The story of "Mama" is probably typical of many "issei" immigrants but it is filled with so many details that impact the gradual understanding by the author of her mother and her older siblings that it is richer than one might expect.
This book was a graduate thesis in anthropology, I believe, written in the 1980s, so there is an introduction explaining how the author interviewed her mother, some of her siblings, and some of her relatives in Japan to get a fuller perspective on her mother's life. There are family trees of both sides of the family. The story itself is compelling reading, at least to me, since I spent more than 16 years in Japan and met many Japanese Americans there and in California after returning to the States. The notes on the story explain a lot of things about Japanese family structure and family obligations, as well as frequently used Japanese terms.
There are also appendices that discuss more academic topics: "The Japanese American Family in Process of Acculturation" and "Methodology." I didn't expect to find these interesting but I did. There's also a bibliography. Probably lots more research has been done in this area since this small book was published, but I don't think that matters. It's still relevant and highly readable.
--Japanese proverb
This is the oral biography of a Japanese "issei" (first generation) American immigrant woman in California compiled by her daughter, the youngest of her 14 children. Michiko Tanaka and her husband Saburo came by ship to the United States in 1923, intending to stay a few months, but spent the rest of their lives in the US. They were agricultural laborers, hardworking but very poor, trying to maintain their customs and family structure in a new environment. The story of "Mama" is probably typical of many "issei" immigrants but it is filled with so many details that impact the gradual understanding by the author of her mother and her older siblings that it is richer than one might expect.
This book was a graduate thesis in anthropology, I believe, written in the 1980s, so there is an introduction explaining how the author interviewed her mother, some of her siblings, and some of her relatives in Japan to get a fuller perspective on her mother's life. There are family trees of both sides of the family. The story itself is compelling reading, at least to me, since I spent more than 16 years in Japan and met many Japanese Americans there and in California after returning to the States. The notes on the story explain a lot of things about Japanese family structure and family obligations, as well as frequently used Japanese terms.
There are also appendices that discuss more academic topics: "The Japanese American Family in Process of Acculturation" and "Methodology." I didn't expect to find these interesting but I did. There's also a bibliography. Probably lots more research has been done in this area since this small book was published, but I don't think that matters. It's still relevant and highly readable.
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