First of all, I would like to tell you about what ethnicity is.  Ethnicity means that the fact of belonging to a particular culture, language, where you were from, and religion.  In short, you have an identity who you are.

What is the difference between assimilation and ethnicity?  It is that whether or not you keep on having your own identity in emigrated country.

In the past, some Japanese moved to the U.S.  There is Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, Seattle and so on, but now it outdates.  Most of present Little Tokyo’s shops are managed by Chinese or Korean and this area is not safe now.

Many of Japanese-American cannot speak Japanese, they cannot read and write Japanese.  Because of world war Ⅱ, Japanese-Americans were really segregated, and American government put them into custody.  Japanese-Americans tried to be “American”, and they wanted to express that they are not hostile foreigners.  Under the adverse condition like I told before, they tried to fit in the U.S society, and Japanese-Americans are called as Model minority.

I think it is because most Japanese who emigrated to the U.S tried to assimilate to the U.S’s society, so they don’t keep in touch with Japanese society.

On the other hand, Chinese or Korean towns are bustling till now.  San Francisco and Los Angeles have large Chinatown.  In Los Angeles, there are large Koreatown.  They have strong identity till now.

To get back to that I told, do you think which is better to have identity in emigrated country or assimilate to emigrated country?

I think you should not make “your home country’s town” because if you live in there, you always speak your own language, you always eat your cultural food, you always watch your country’s TV, and you have no relationship with emigrated country’s people.  In order to live comfortable life in emigrated country, I think you should be kind of emigrated country’s person.  I don’t mean “You must forget who you are!!”  But I think you need a certain level of assimilation as long as you live in foreign country.  How do you think about it?

by Konomi Yamamoto