Japanese Identity in Monica Sone's Nisei Daughter Book Review by Miller

This paper discusses Monica Sone's novel, "Nisei Daughter," and the choice that Kazuko, the heroine, ultimately makes to be American, instead of Japanese. The writer examines the reasons behind the change in tone from the beginning of the book, where racial difference is a source of fear to the Itoi family, to the end, where Kazuko sees the internment as an event that helped her to reconcile the two parts of herself. One reason is that since the novel was written in the post-war period, Japanese-American citizens were constantly under scrutiny, and criticism of the internment camps might have triggered hostility. The writer concludes that Kazuko's acceptance of the government's actions may have been her only recourse in order not to incur further racism.