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Eyeing Nikkei: Portrayals of Japanese Americans on an NHK TV Drama |
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| P1 | This paper examines Japanese
American viewer reactions to NHK's 2002 asadora [morning serialized
drama] Sakura, whose title character is a young female yonsei
(fourth-generation Japanese American) from Hawai`i. The plot of the
series concerns Elizabeth Sakura (symbol of Japan) Matsushita,1
who spends one year in Japan teaching English at a private middle
school in Hida-Takayama, and in the process exhibits traits that dub
her "more Japanese than Japanese." What makes this study
of audience reception particularly noteworthy is that the main characters
include those persons who subsequently become its viewers--that is,
Nikkeijin [persons of Japanese ancestry; shortened to Nikkei]. This
paper asks the question, what happens when the represented gaze upon
their own representation? In particular, how do Nikkei react to their
representation by Japanese media? This paper adopts the strategy of tracing a media text from its producers to consumers-in the words of Faye Ginsburg, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Brian Larkin, examining "not only how media are embedded in people's quotidian lives but also how consumers and producers are themselves imbricated in discursive universes, political situations, economic circumstances, national settings, historical moments, and transnational flows" (2002:2). Viewing Japanese American viewers of Sakura, then, includes examining the relationship of Japanese Americans to Japan, as well as the attitude toward Japanese Americans by Japan. It involves the relationship between Japan and the United States, and the role of media in the flows between these two countries. All of these elements play a role in configuring the reception of Japanese television dramas by a Japanese American audience in the United States. Within the United States, the particular position of Hawai`i vis-a-vis Japan and Japanese Americans also colors this study. In this research, the relationship between producers and consumers stands in contrast to that upon which media studies typically focuses. Sakura was broadcast not only in Japan, but in 41 other countries, including the United States. The audience in the United States is what I call a "secondary audience"-that is, one for whom the drama is not primarily intended. Louis Althusser's concept of interpellation thus falls short here because it depends upon a tight hierarchical relationship between producer and consumer with producers wielding power to interpellate consumers into certain sets of assumptions, practices, and subjectivities through an internalization of ideology (1971). Here, by contrast, at least one group of consumers reads these media texts at a distance from its producers and does so within shifting relationships and ambiguous hierarchies. The relationship between media text and its more distant overseas consumers is one which is not necessarily structured within relations of interpellation because of its transnational shift away from its primary audience (Japan) to this secondary one (U.S.). Nikkei consumers in the U.S. thus watch Sakura at a remove from NHK, even as NHK takes advantage of that remove in its portrayal of them. |
| P2 | This paper is based on interviews
in Tokyo with producers at NHK, as well as in-person, telephone, and
Web-based interviews in the United States with viewers of Sakura.2
It is also based on analyzing all episodes of Sakura (videotaped
from daily broadcasts, and subsequently in DVD compilation) and reviewing
NHK's promotional literature on the series. The media context: NHK and the asadora genre Let me first turn to the media context of "Sakura" in Japan-that of NHK and this particular genre of daytime television, the asadora. Since the beginning of broadcasting in Japan in 1925, the national government has controlled much of the airwaves, first as an NHK monopoly with broad powers of censorship in the 1920s, and then with continuing if diffused power after World War II. NHK's ties to government are most clearly seen in its highest decision-making body, the Management Commission, which is appointed by the Prime Minister, as well as its budget and operating proposals, which are subject to Diet approval. The Broadcasting Law enacted in Japan in 1950 under the American Occupation requires the following of NHK: 1) to broadcast high quality programs that will both satisfy the demands of the public and elevate the country's cultural levelA few elements worth noting in these requirements contribute significantly to NHK's programming and a Japanese audience reading of Sakura. The first is the notion of "elevating the country's cultural level." To this end, NHK feeds the Japanese public a steady diet of Euroamerican "culture" that is supposed to be good for you, particularly Western orchestral concerts (NHK Symphony Orchestra, often broadcast from NHK Concert Hall, located adjacent to the NHK broadcasting offices and studios in Tokyo), ballet, and opera. Second is the dual emphasis on local and national programs. With a network of regional offices and studios broadcasting independently and acting as feeders to its national headquarters, as well as an emphasis on programs that feature rural areas, NHK deliberately brings the margins of the country to stage center. The move is both ideological--that is, drawing the periphery into the center as exemplars of Japan's rural, agrarian past, as discussed in the works of Marilyn Ivy (1995) and Jennifer Robertson (1991)--as well as economic--that is, stimulating tourism to rural areas. Assistant producer of Sakura Aoki Shin'ya explained to me that NHK makes a conscious attempt to feature consecutively different rural areas in their programs to encourage tourism there. The NHK brochure that introduces Sakura to the Japanese public discusses the rural Takayama region where the drama is set; the narrative on Takayama reads like a tourist brochure, showing maps, places to visit, festivals, folk crafts, and lodging. Third is the preservation of "traditional" culture. Programming therefore includes performances of kabuki, bunraku (puppetry), rakugo (comedic storytelling), hougaku (traditional music), and sumo. Other programs feature traditional folk crafts, ikebana (flower arranging), and chadou (tea ceremony). The inclusion of both Japanese and Euroamerican arts does not necessarily suggest that they coexist on equal footing--one is for "preservation," the other for "elevation." But it does demonstrate the smug umbrella of inclusiveness that is supposed to guide the spirit of NHK, and the sense to which it deliberately sets itself up as a public alternative to commercial broadcasting on a national scale. These mandated elements find resonance in NHK's unofficial motto, "minasama no NHK"--that is, NHK of, by, and for minasama, an honorific form of everybody, everyone, the people. Who constitutes this minasama, how this process takes place, and what may be deemed beneficial for the good of this public body are central to the ideological work of NHK's programming. Viewers in Japan regard NHK as conservative programming that is educational, authoritative, and prestigious. As mentioned previously, NHK broadcasts internationally--although the viewers for these may be primarily Japanese nationals living abroad-adding further prestige to the network. |
| P3 | This is not to say that NHK
is viewed with acquiescence and/or enthusiasm throughout all segments
of Japan's population. Many youth, for example, feel ill-served by
the minasama of NHK's making, viewing the broadcast network
as stodgy, old-fashioned, and out of touch with the latest trends.
Others take it upon themselves to backtalk to NHK, offering critical
commentary and suggestions on programs. The minasama of NHK,
then, works in both directions: if NHK belongs to the people, then
the people (or at least some of them) feel at liberty to voice their
opinions to "their" media. The asadora genre of which Sakura is a part is particular to NHK, and distinctively frames the way Japanese viewers interpret what they see. Sakura is the 66th NHK asadora since the inception of the genre in 1961; what began as a yearly fixture to programming became a twice yearly event from 1975 on. Each asadora is a fixed-length serial drama, typically broadcast six mornings weekly for fifteen minutes each, over a period of approximately six months. The brevity, timing, and everyday scheduling of asadora help create a particular kind of relationship between viewer and viewed geared in many ways to the housewife's life. The asadora becomes routinized as a household visitor, that is, one who does not disrupt, but drops in for only a short while at the start of the day on a daily basis. Because it is daytime television broadcast in this case from 8:15 to 8:30am, it is known as television geared primarily toward women, as well as retirees and even young children. As such, an asadora is widely acknowledged in Japan as conservative family drama, which may tackle social issues, but with little in the way of sexuality or hard-hitting controversy. This is not reality so much as an NHK fiction that gives viewers a prescriptive dose of programming for what it considers to be the personal and national good. The main characters of recent asadora are often young women who undergo some kind of personal hardship, resulting in growth and change. According to Aoki, the actress chosen to play the featured main character of an asadora is typically an unknown or newcomer to show business, making her appearance in the title role part of the show's appeal (Personal communication, 6/2/02). Indeed, the publicity for Sakura repeatedly mentions that actress Takano Shiho in the leading role was chosen from among nearly 2500 aspiring actresses. The process of the asadora's making, then, becomes part of the Japanese audience's viewership. Both NHK and the Japanese audience may be said to "discover" this new talent and participate in her public upbringing. The themes of Sakura--young female put to the test in a new environment, growth and development through hardship, reinforcement of traditional values--are themes common to the asadora genre, and thus part of a Japanese viewer's set of expectations when watching Sakura. For the most part, this thickly nuanced context of NHK, its asadora, and the processes of its production are lost on viewers in the United States. They do not necessarily differentiate between NHK and other broadcast sources from Japan. They have little knowledge of the history of NHK, its mandate, and the expectations that may arise from "minasama no NHK." They have little sense that this is women's daytime drama, or that it is supposed to be programing that is "good for you," nor, more importantly, who that "you" includes and excludes. For them, this is all simply television broadcasting from Japan, prized for its direct connection to Japan, but also mediated by the English subtitles that many Nikkei need to fully understand its contents.3 Making Sakura One of the criticisms easily levelled by Nikkei about Sakura is that NHK somehow got things wrong. In this section I discuss the making of Sakura to indicate the careful attention to detail and thought that went into NHK's production process. If we are to accept this, then the resultant product is not a function of ignorance or hastiness, but deliberate, informed choices made by producers. |
| P4 | The processes of Sakura's
making included a search for a lead actress. This entailed the following,
as detailed by Aoki: 1) collecting resumes from applicants (2,512
persons); 2) first interviews with questions about their careers,
family, background, interests, hobbies (200 persons at 5-10 minutes
each) ; 3) second interviews, focusing on acting skills and command
of English (50 persons); 4) final cut, taping individual performances
in the role of an English teacher and giving a speech about a funny
personal experience (10 persons); 5) selection of Takano Shiho. When
I asked about NHK's screening of actresses for their personal background
including past scandals, Aoki indicated that each actress belongs
to a talent production company; NHK, therefore, trusts production
companies to screen the personal backgrounds of their actresses. Furthermore,
according to Aoki, NHK initially searched for a young Japanese American
actress, preferably from Hawai`i, who was fluent in Japanese and presumably
English. When they could not find one--an indication of the level
of Japanese language proficiency of most young Nikkei in Hawai`i--they
decided to select Takano, who had lived a number of years abroad in
London and Singapore and could speak English (albeit heavily accented,
not only with British inflections, but Japanese ones as well). Much
has been made of Takano's international background, as if this time
spent abroad qualifies her to pose as a Japanese American. NHK's decision
to select a Japanese rather than a Japanese American actress indicates
the degree to which they conceptualize their audience as a Japanese
one, and are willing to stretch the truth to the extent that a Japanese
audience will accept. When I spoke with Aoki in June 2002, he was
already aware of the criticism by Nikkei on NHK's choice of actress,
but argued that NHK programs are geared to Japanese, who would not
be aware of any English-language discrepancies. The processes of Sakura's making also included research by NHK staff on Japanese American history in Hawai`i and the experiences of English teachers in Japan (particularly the Japan Exchange Teaching Program known as JET). One former JET instructor recalls the meticulous detail with which NHK went about their research. In spite of what he calls his "very, very slight involvement," he recounts the following: NHK contacted the Japanese consulate in Honolulu, looking for names of Japanese Americans in the Tokyo area. The consulate gave them a list of JET people, plus my name. In tyhe fax NHK received fromj Honolulu, one of the consulate employees suggested they start by contacting me. I then met with [assistant producer] Aoki-san, who said they wanted to call al the people on the list. . . . He was unsure if they spoke Japanese or not, so I suggested that I would contact them first, in order to give them a 'heads up' as to what was coming. I met with a couple of the producers, and they saikd they were looking for a Japanese American woman in her early 20s who was from Hawaii, who spoke fluent Japanese, and who was in the Tokyo area. . . . They asked me a number of questions about my experiences on JET, and I told them what I could, but noted that my experiences as a white male would be quite different from a Japanese American woman. I called a few people I knew who might fit the bill (in addition to the JET people), and went with one woman from Hawaii to an 'interview.' Here, they asked the same basic questions they asked me, only this time, one of the writers was there, too. (Bondy, personal communication, 5/21/02)I include his recollections inasmuch as they form one very small tip of the iceberg of the research and preparations for the drama. Another set of preparatory activities took place in situ at various locations in Hawai`i, assisted by Hawai`i-based Japanese-run company, Magic Island Productions, headed by Mr. Kohki Nishitani. Nishitani's involvement with the Sakura production team included finding locations, arranging for visas for actors and other Japanese workers, dealing with local unions, casting local extras, and assisting in research activities on the islands of Hawai`i and O'ahu. Nishitani recalls: |
| P5 |
Actually NHK's director Mr. Shimizu was very interested in history of Nikkeijin, so we went to Big Island [island of Hawai`i; town of] Hilo and meet with several nisei [second-generation Japanese American] people, and also [visited] the graveyard in Honokaa [small plantation village]. They [NHK] really wanted to go into the Nikkeijin history. But actually for NHK, this is not documentary. This is drama. But before they come, they have to study about Nikkeijin. And this [drama] is about now [i.e. the contemporary] situation. I know the first and second [generations of Japanese Americans] is very different. But carry over from the issei [first-generation Japanese American] and the nisei and now the yonsei is more American. . . . I'm from Japan, living here almost 30 years, I'm from Tokyo. And Japan is very Westernized. But the Nikkeijin, they still keep tradition. Meanwhile Japan losing tradition. So Sakura is yonsei, but she carry--I think a lot of Japanese sansei [third-generation Japanese American], yonsei still carry from the old people--old style Japan. I don't know why, I feel it. . . . So we try to show Japan [i.e., NHK people], hey look, it's different [here in Hawai`i]. You know this is like Japan before. It's very interesting. And those kind things, Mr. Shimizu them, NHK people, didn't know. They only input a lot of things, maybe they saw documentary of NHK made about Nikkeijin second generation people, nisei, issei. But I don't think not so many TV, media people made documentary about sansei, yonsei. (Nishitani, personal communication, 8/27/03)According to Nishitani, the NHK research crew visited a Japanese American cemetery to gain a sense of history, and interviewed about ten people, including nisei, sansei, and yonsei. The results of this kind of extensive research can be found in NHK's promotional magazine on Sakura. Besides the biographies of the main actors and actresses and a synopsis of the drama, there are comprehensive sections on Hawai`i (NHK 2002:81-86), including a history of Japanese Americans in Hawai`i (Ibid.:86), Hida-Takayama (rural region in the drama; Ibid.:87-96), and teaching English in Japan, including interviews with two former JET teachers (Ibid.:97-100). The magazine also lists Sakura goods that will be given away to those who fill in a questionnaire about their viewership. These goods include T-shirts, telephone cards, and autographed posters. The educational emphasis of NHK endows their products, from books to television programs, with an air of authority, buttressed by research and cheerfully combined with the stamp of consumption. Nikkei in Sakura In Japan Sakura was broadcast from April through October, garnering an audience viewership of approximately 23 percent, considered a success by NHK standards. In March 2003, a more comedic stage version entitled "Sakura Butai" was performed in a three-week run at Tokyo's Meiji-za theater with much the same cast as the television show. NHK subsequently compiled the entire televised series into a DVD. Furthermore, the show became a catalyst for the careers of its performers, particularly male lead Ozawa Yukiyoshi, extending the program's influence beyond this asadora Before turning to American reactions to Sakura, it is worthwhile examining the portrayal of Nikkei within the drama because this plays a direct part in viewers' response. According to the NHK promotional magazine, Sakura is one "whose outward appearance is Japanese but whose thinking is American" (NHK 2002:7). NHK paints Nikkei within these liminal contradictions, exploring the tensions between outer appearance versus inner thought, form versus content, race versus culture. These tensions haunt all Nikkei, no matter what their generation, their knowledge of Japan or Japanese language. The tensions are structural rather than individual, and thus homogenize Nikkei into the particularity of their position as both Japanese and American. In fact, the contradictions are not so clearly drawn, even among the Nikkei of this mise-en-scene. Sakura's thinking is not quite as all-American as one might expect. She goes to Japan as one brought up in a family enclave of things Japanese in Hawai`i. Japanese is the language of the home in Sakura's family; not only do all family members speak it to teach other, but so, too, does her Caucasian fiance Robert, who spent part of his childhood in Japan. Within this heavily Japan-centered family context, Sakura is singled out as one with particularly close emotional and intellectual ties to Japan. Her interest in Japan comes through her deceased paternal grandfather, of whom she was a favorite. He long ago imposed upon the family rules about speaking Japanese, eating Japanese foods, and following Japanese customs. He, thus, acts as the family arbiter of things Japanese, with Sakura now as the repository of her grandfather's spirit. |
| P6 | The relationship between Sakura,
her grandfather, and their ties to Japan and the past, in many ways
parallels that of Nikkei and their ties to Japan's past. Just as Sakura
is a repository of her grandfather's spirit, so, too, are Nikkei--and
particularly Nikkei in Hawai`i-- said to be a cultural repository
for Japan's rural past, carrying on the ways of Japan as distilled
from the regions and time period of their original immigration (1885-1924).
Aspects of Nikkei immigrant culture in Hawai`i are considered by many
in Japan to be an example of marginal survival, in which the margins
of a diasporic population tend to preserve particular elements of
the home country, while adopting and adapting others. Nikkei thus
represent nostalgic exemplars of who "we Japanese" once
were. Although Sakura's family explains their commitment to retaining Japanese language as a deliberate effort, it is easy enough for viewers in Japan to naturalize Japanese as the default language (and therefore, a set of linguistic expectations) for anyone with Japanese blood. As Harumi Befu points out, the tie among land, race, culture, and language gets reinscribed repeatedly in nihonjinron (theories of being Japanese) and other nationalistic forms of discourse in modern Japan (1993:115). However, Sakura and other Nikkei in the drama occasionally mispronounce and/or stumble upon words and ask for help learning new vocabulary, creating a linguistic deficiency that calls upon native Japanese speakers for help. In many instances, these linguistic lapses sound at odds with the rest of their speech, which is colloquial, unaccented native-level Japanese. Laura Miller's work on gaijin tarento (foreigner media celebrities) is useful here. According to Miller, ethnolinguistic boundaries retain a stubborn hold on popular belief in the uniqueness of Japanese culture in Japan (1995:190-191). Therefore, media commentators focus on the mispronunciations and grammatical errors in gaijin tarento speech, rendering the foreigners cute, endearing, and ultimately non-threatening (Ibid:198). The same logic can be found in the representation of, Nikkei (performed by Japanese) in Sakura. Sakura's appreciation for and active interest in things Japanese make her a catalyst for Japanese around her to consider their relationship to Japan. In one scene, Sakura expresses great interest in her homestay family's long-standing business of candle-making. The family craft/business stands in danger of folding for want of a successor, and Sakura takes it upon herself to learn about candle-making. She watches grandfather painstakingly making each candle, taking copious notes; and we watch as the family, including young son Daisuke, watches her watching (Episode 27). In this drama, Nikkei act as mediators between generations in Japan, but are also themselves bound to dependency through their hybridity. Nikkei retain this liminal state of pubescence--not fully adult, not fully Japanese. The tightrope for Nikkei as depicted by NHK is their very hybridity, with one foot in each country, both child and adult. Being Japanese for Sakura becomes something that must be taught and learned upon a racial foundation that justifies these lessons. |
| P7 | What about others who are not
racially Japanese? In this NHK drama, there are various characters
who are gaijin (foreigner) residents of Japan. One of
them is even married to a Japanese woman and operates a tofu restaurant
whose customers are primarily other gaijin. The restaurant
serves Japanese food exclusively and has a "speak Japanese only"
policy, not unlike that imposed by Sakura's grandfather on
his own Nikkei family. It is, in other words, a place for gaijin
to practice or play at being Japanese-eating Japanese food, speaking
Japanese, learning calligraphy from a wizened old master. These gaijin
take Japanese as a pursuit of benkyou (study). There are limits, however,
to this space of becoming Japanese for the gaijin who
participate. For one thing, it is a bounded space, owned and operated
by gaijin. It is not a Japanese space, but one set aside
for those who want to study and practice the language and customs.
As such, it is always set apart and performed as gaijin doing
Japanese things, such as eating Japanese food (cooked by gaijin)
and speaking Japanese (primarily with other gaijin). The patrons
are young, unmarried, multiracial, and transient gaijin from
America, Canada, France, Senegal, and Brazil. In fact, the extent
to which these gaijin can become Japanese (or as Japanese as
Sakura is allowed) is limited. They are always quarantined
by their phenotypic difference, hitting a glass ceiling of acceptance
because they do not have the racial authority to fully adopt these
cultural ways. Unlike Sakura and other Nikkei who always have
the potential to become Japanese, these non-Nikkei gaijin can
only practice and perform; they can never become. In contrast to Sakura is her younger teenage sister Stephanie Momo (Peach) Matsushita, who is physically taller and darker complexioned, with long hair dyed brown and a broad, open smile. Momo's size becomes cause for attention and wonder, especially by the teenage boys at the school, who describe her as "iroppoi" (sexy). Seated at a lunch table with her when she is visiting from Hawai`i, they ask her questions such as "How tall are you?" and "What are your measurements?" which she blithely ignores. Instead, she eats hungrily and even finishes the lunch of one of the boys. The boys look at each other in amazement, commenting, "No wonder she's so big!" (Episode 58). Unlike Sakura, then, Momo has a gaijin's body and sexuality. The presence of Momo heterogenizes NHK's portrait of younger female Nikkei, but her effect is limited, especially given her minor role. For one, she speaks Japanese as well as Sakura. She ultimately shares the same values, even if they come bundled in a rougher, less palatable form. And, like all children, Momo simply needs to learn: there is nothing fundamentally "wrong" with her. What is right is that she is racially Japanese. Her shortcomings, then, may be overlooked as similar to those of others--including children and young adults in Japan--who, too, only need to learn how to become culturally Japanese. NHK paints this version of Nikkei unproblematically: Sakura is young, attractive, fluent (except for occasional gaffes), highly educated, and in love with Japan. She is not confronted with some of the negative stereotypes of Nikkei as "dumb Japanese" who lack the cultural knowledge that should course through their veins, or as Japanese who, in their own historical past, could not succeed and were forced to leave the country as immigrants. Instead, she is welcomed, in part because of her Japanese face, her disarming, childlike ways, and her admiration for Japan. She retains her distinctiveness from Japanese by her candor, impulsiveness, expressiveness, and high energy; yet, these elements of difference never fundamentally challenge the status quo. If anything, they become prods for change nostalgically back to who Japanese supposedly once were. Nikkei become selectively retro-Japanese, showing Japanese as tied to tradition, appreciative of their rural lives, treating each other with compassion. |
| P8 | The drama also paints an historical
picture of Nikkei as Japanese brethren who have undergone great hardship.
When Sakura's natal family visits her in Japan, her father
is asked to speak to the students and teachers at the Japanese school.
The speech he chooses to make highlights the pain and suffering that
Japanese immigrants went through in their struggle to make a living
in Hawai`i and elsewhere under harsh conditions. He describes their
backbreaking labor and the debt he owes them. He turns hole-hole bushi,
a work song and lament sung by Japanese immigrant women as they toiled
in Hawai`i's sugar cane fields, into a Nikkei anthem iconic of that
labor. And his speech, as well as a moving performance of hole-hole
bushi by Sakura's grandmother,4 elicits tears from
his audience, including Sakura and the rest of her family (Episode
59). Amidst this immigrant story, Nikkei--in particular Nikkei women--emerge
as heroic in their suffering. What is significant is to consider Nikkei who go unacknowledged in NHK's drama. This includes Nikkei who might pose any kind of threat to patriarchal, heterosexist stability: political activists, gays, homeless, criminals, female leaders. It also includes Nikkei who disrupt the category of Nikkei, such as persons of part-Japanese descent, now common among yonsei, as well as Okinawan immigrants and their descendants, who often faced discrimination by other Nikkei from Japan's main islands of Honshu and Kyushu. This includes Nikkei who increasingly populate Japan's work force--that is, primarily men from South America engaged in blue-collar jobs. Although the Japanese government has made accommodations for this influx, such as creating Japanese-language learning opportunities in public schools for some of the children who have immigrated, the general public tends to regard these Nikkei with suspicion and unease. By contrast, Nikkei who inhabit Sakura become mirror images of Japanese upheld as models of family life: a middle class urban family living in a three-generation household led by a male breadwinner. They engage in the practices of Japan: eating Japanese foods, speaking Japanese, espousing the values of a past era. These Nikkei become nothing less than Japanese who happen to live overseas, forever diasporic in their close ties to Japan. They are the prodigal offspring of Japan. Nikkei Viewers' Responses to Nikkei in Sakura Sakura was broadcast in Hawai`i from May through November 2002 on a pay-for-view cable network, Nippon Golden Network (NGN). NGN has been broadcasting Japanese language programming in Hawai`i to cable subscribers since 1982. A joint venture by Japanese and American interests, its corporate owners include Dentsu, the Japanese advertising agency considered one of the largest and most influential in the world, TV Tokyo, and Oceanic Cable, a division of AOL Time Warner. According to its company profile, it is the first broadcasting firm to bring Japanese pay channel programming to the United States. As of August 2003, NGN broadcasts to approximately 17,000 households, primarily in the state of Hawai`i (approximately 16,000 households), but also in Southern California (approximately 1,000 households in Gardena, Torrance, and South Bay areas; these are areas with relatively large Nikkei populations). Its programming is primarily Japanese, including NHK news, dramas, and documentaries, a well as programs from other Japanese networks (Terebi Tokyo/TV Tokyo, Fuji Terebi/Fuji TV, Nippon Television/NTV, and Tokyo Broadcasting System/TBS). All evening prime-time shows are subtitled in English. In Hawai`i, NGN broadcasts three 24-hour channels: 1) NGN with regular programs from major Japanese networks; 2) NGN-2 with satellite programs from NHK studios; and 3) NGN-3 Music Entertainment with round the clock karaoke (Pioneer Karaoke Channel). Sakura was broadcast on NGN in Hawai`i six days a week from 7:00-7:15pm, and rebroadcast from 8:15-8:30am the following morning. NGN's California subscribers received Sakura broadcasts several weeks after those shown in Hawai`i. In 2003 two different California cable networks also began broadcasts of Sakura, United Television Broadcasting based in Los Angeles, and Fuji Telecast based in San Francisco. |
| P9 | When considering Nikkei reaction
to Sakura, we have to consider the media contexts of their
viewing, such as pay channels like NGN that mark their viewing as
Nikkei (or at the least, Japanese in America) programming. We also
have to consider who these Nikkei are, and what they have possibly
invested in themselves as Nikkei. In Hawai`i, these Nikkei have self-selected
as ones with particular interest in things Japanese, at least through
their monthly investment to receive direct-from-Japan (if subtitled)
television. They are also those with the disposable income to make
that investment. Some may have an interest in particular features
of NGN's programming, such as live sumo tournament broadcasts (NHK;
dubbed with English translation and commentary), daily news (NHK;
in Japanese, no subtitles), karaoke, or subtitled films from the 1950s
through the present. Others have lived in Japan and want to continue
their ties to the country through this media connection. Many Nikkei viewers of Sakura react with benign amusement at their own portrayal. For many of them, television is always and only entertainment, and they do not think to question the veracity of what is presented on screen. The character Sakura is appealing and cute, which is reason enough to watch and enjoy the show. However, a number of other vocal Nikkei express dismay at NHK's drama. One 35-year old sansei female says, "I was really glad that they finally did a show on Japanese Americans, but we were really disappointed when we saw the show" (Personal communication 7/15/03). This disappointment rests not only in the many errors in the portrait, but also in the muting of their own voices in the process. In many cases, the positive-negative split in reactions follows generational and age lines, with older viewers reacting more favorably and less critically to NHK's portrayal than younger viewers. One example follows from a 39-year old sansei/yonsei female: My Japan-born 60+ year old mom who is a naturalized US citizen loved it. She told me about it and it just didn't hold my interest, either from a standpoint of learning how Japanese tradition dictates teaching in that society, or from an American point of v iew. . . . As for me, it [Sakura] was more uncomfortable [to watch], like the Japanese director and producers of the show wanted to be politically correct but weren't really good at it, I thought (Personal communication, 6/4/03).The political correctness she mentions refers to a Japanese drama such as Sakura including Nikkei, opening up Japanese media to people other than mainstream Japanese. Another 33-year old yonsei female and former JET instructor says that she only watched a few episodes of Sakura, but felt that Nikkei were vastly misrepresented. As a result, she did not want to watch any more of the drama (Personal communication 7/18/03). In many ways, the closer the drama comes to the lives of the viewers (e.g., in this case a yonsei who goes to Japan to teach English), the more critical the viewers' reaction to the drama. One of their main concerns is with the accuracy of the portrait. The most glaring mistake in NHK's drama is that of language. Sakura and her family are far too fluent in Japanese to be credible to anyone who has spent even the briefest amount of time with Nikkei, especially of sansei and yonsei generations. One sansei female journalist from Hawai`i now living in Japan writes: My gripe with this drama is that it is not realistic at all. No fourth-generation Japanese-American girl can speak Japanese as fluently as Sakura can. Granted, she is cute and bubbly, like many young girls from Hawaii but that's about it. . . . I am very disappointed . . . that NHK did not get more advice from some 'real' fourth-generation kids because it is giving the Japanese audience the wrong impression of what the situation would really be like" (Ito 2002:17). |
| P10 | The fact that NHK did make
an attempt to talk with "'real' fourth-generation kids"
and still ended up with this inaccurate portrait suggests the degree
to which this linguistic aspect of the Nikkei picture either did not
matter much to producers or was ignored for Japanese audiences. One
39-year old sansei/yonsei female says, "It was
so hard to believe when she was 'trying' to mispronounce Japanese
as if she were a foreign language learner. I think Japanese think
we [Nikkei] intentionally don't say things right when we're not from
there [Japan]" (Personal communication, 6/5/03). A 35-year old
female sansei former JET instructor says, "There were
such easy things that they [NHK] could've done [to improve their portrayal
of Nikkei]. The Japanese she [Sakura] spoke was too perfect.
My friend, a nisei, cannot speak Japanese at all. If only she
[Sakura] spoke desu-masu [verb forms] all the time,
then it might have been more realistic" (Personal communication
7/15/03). What she is referring to are the verb forms most commonly
taught to beginning foreign learners of Japanese. These verb forms
subsequently become a matter of linguistic habit. desu-masu,
then, marks textbook Japanese, and its users as non-native speakers.
An issei woman in her 60s recounts her own family experience:
"I have two children and even if I have taken them to Japan and
they have studied Japanese, they soon forget the language. Sakura
is not the reality. sansei and yonsei in Hawai`i can't
speak Japanese" (Personal communication 5/15/03). Another Nikkei
male (who does not identify his generation or age) says, "I thought
the concept and the attempt of NHK were good. Perhaps some of the
characters spoke Japanese too fluently, but that is because the main
audience is Japanese-speaking (like Hollywood making a movie based
in Russia where everyone is speaking English)" (Personal communication
6/3/03). This kind of explanation does not fully take into account
the processes of NHK's own research and preparation. Some viewers take issue with the English that was spoken in the drama. One female sansei/yonsei says, "The actress [Takano Shiho] pronounced English like it was an advertisement, more typical of a Japanese young person. . . . I would have given the actress allowances for the prounciation of English. She had no Hawaiian accent." (Personal communication 6/4/03). What she means by this is that Takano sounded like a Japanese--not Japanese American, and especially not a Japanese American from Hawai`i--reading English from a script, which is exactly what this was. Another 35-year old female sansei recalls, "Everytime she [Sakura] said, 'Wow!' that really got us. That would kill us [with amusement and dismay]" (Personal communication 7/15/03). She refers to not only the (mis)pronunciation of the word, but its overuse in combination with open-mouthed, wide-eyed, exaggerated facial expressions. According to this, Americans as exemplified by Nikkei are like children in a candy shop, looking eagerly here and there with excitement written all over their faces. "Wow!" expresses not only the inarticulateness of Nikkei-as-Americans, but also their uncontrolled, unrefined, unabashed infantilism. In October 2002, Mainichi Daily News writer Ryann Connell compiled a litany of complaints about Sakura by Nikkei in Hawai`i, as well as others in Japan, with an article entitled "Soap stinker gets up nose of Japanese-Americans" (2002: n.p.). Besides language, other complaints arose over the depiction of a typical family home in Hawai`i: "Some scenes had Sakura with her family in Hawaii. The living room was too cramped. It was like Tokyo" (ibid.). Another complained about the dress styles: "Sakura's mother and grandmother were dressed too plainly. In Hawaii, even old women get around in T-shirts, shorts or aloha shirts" (ibid.). One 35-year old sansei former JET instructor says emphatically, "She [Sakura] was Japanese. I mean, they didn't try to change her clothes or anything. She was supposed to be from Hawai`i, but as far as hairstyle and clothes, it was very Japanese. It just wasn't American. It was Japanese" (Personal communication, 7/15/03). |
| P11 | One Nikkei noted the lack of
physical expressiveness in NHK's version of Nikkei romance: "She
[Sakura] treated him [her fiance] as though he was a stranger.
. . . When an American meets their fiance, at the very least they'd
kiss. It was really weird that they didn't kiss or hug" (ibid.).
In fact, the physical relationship between Sakura and her Caucasian
fiance is, by American standards (and perhaps even Japanese standards,
revealing much about NHK and its depiction of romance vis a vis other
Japanese media) extremely restrained and distant. They physically
interact as siblings more than lovers. Language, customs, housing, dress, and sexual prudishness, however, is not all there is. One 77-year old nisei man I interviewed complains, "Sakura was too outspoken. Hawai`i people are more reserved. I guess movies [and television] are always like that, but I didn't like it. Not the way they portrayed that girl" (Personal communication, 5/18/03). What this man reacted to was NHK's depiction of a Nikkei who would act impulsively, without reserve, walking into a situation as a newcomer and set about changing things to suit her own values and beliefs. A 39-year old sansei/yonsei woman writes, "I saw a clip where she got angry at a man for being in an onsen [hot springs bath] she thought was for women. . . . I think, again, she was trying to portray self-expression as an American, being angry, which is maybe something Japanese women are taught not to do in public" (Personal communication 6/5/03). In both of these cases, NHK took a stereotype of Americans--geared toward action rather than reflection, quick to anger, expressing their emotions overtly and publicly--and foisted it upon Nikkei. This is the "Wow!" phenomenon in a different plane, part of the "American thinking" and acting that Sakura and other Nikkei are supposed to represent. NHK also homogenizes Nikkei, not necessarily distinguishing Nikkei from Hawai`i, who coexisted with other ethnic groups as approximately 40 percent of the population in the mid-twentieth century, with those from the continental U.S., who held very much of a minority status. In fact, Nikkei in Hawai`i make this distinction very clear, even going so far as to give Nikkei from the continental U.S. a derogatory label, "kotonk," referring to a head so hard and hollow that it makes this sound when hitting the floor.5 The commonly held stereotype in Hawai`i characterizes local Nikkei as less aggressive, less verbal, and more reserved than their continental U.S. counterparts. Or, as Harry Kitano puts it, "The mainlander [Nikkei from continental U.S.] was considered [by Nikkei in Hawai`i] standoffish and uptight, overly concerned about surface appearances, materialistic, too careful about impressing the majority group, too acculturated, and, in one word, too haolefied (white)" (1976:165). As a 39-year old sansei/yonsei female writes, "I thought there wasn't real understanding about Hawaiian Japanese being different from, let's say a New Jersey Japanese or a Chicago Japanese person" (Personal communication 6/5/03). She echoes a critique common among Asian American analysts of media images that films, television, and other texts tend to homogenize pictures of ethnic groups, not differentiating between regions, urban-rural contrasts, and/or socioeconomic backgrounds. Some Nikkei viewers yearn for a more politicized view of the Japanese American experience in the United States. One Nikkei male writes, "My personal opinion is that the drama could have emphasized the Nikkei community's relationship (struggle) vis-a-vis the white 'majority' (minority in Hawaii) more" (Personal communication 6/3/03). |
| P12 | One yonsei woman I spoke
with recalls that Sakura and her family were so unrealistic
as Nikkei, that after awhile she forgot that they were supposed to
be Nikkei at all and took them as simply characters in a Japanese
drama (Personal communication, 7/15/03). Indeed, it is the unequivocal
Japanese sense that comes through repeatedly for Nikkei watching the
show. Although the drama revolves around Nikkei, it is strictly a
Japanese story told by Japanese to Japanese. NHK, therefore, took
the location (Hawai`i) and the look, but not the substance of Nikkei,
which is far more complex and variable than the Sakura storyline
allows. While few would argue that media is meant to truly capture
life, it is the sense of appropriation, especially amidst much-touted
on-location attention to research and detail, that makes this violation
an affront for many Nikkei viewers. How, they ask, could NHK have
gotten it so wrong? On language and beyond Most studies of representations of Japanese Americans are of American media. In this paper, I examine Japanese depictions of Nikkei to highlight some of the differences and commonalities. As Darrell Hamamoto points out, even though Japanese Americans have been part of American society for four and even five generations, their media depiction in the United States remains frozen in time as newly arrived foreigners, producing a "symbolic containment [that] implies that Japanese Americans still occupy 'probationary' status within the larger society" (1994:11). Nikkei, by these American media depictions are forever fresh off the boat, and thus always foreign and exotic. NHK's depiction of Nikkei agrees with that of American media, tying Nikkei to Japan, more than to the place of their American birth and lives. Both, in the words of James Clifford, position Nikkei as "not here to stay" in America (1997:255). This is a process not so much of making others, as of extending selves by incorporating Nikkei within the fold of Japan. These representations make Nikkei always and only diasporic, resting upon an underlying racialism that creates a blood tie of all those of Japanese ancestry. Nikkei viewing Sakura react to this positioning in various ways. Some of them hardly react at all. It is difficult to tell whether or not they agree with the diasporic identities that this NHK media text portrays. Watching Japanese television in a pay-channel context overseas is already a deliberate, self-conscious act. Viewing Sakura in Hawai`i or California, therefore, is not ambient consumption, but an individuated investment in connecting oneself as directly as possible to Japan on a daily basis without traveling there. |
| P13 | In spite of this connection
to Japan--one which would coincidentally confirm the portrait painted
by NHK--Nikkei viewers continually resist being pigeonholed into a
racial enclave. Many distance themselves from the Sakura of
NHK's making as not only a fiction, but an erasure of their daily
lives. The most frequently cited inaccuracy in NHK's portrait is that
of language, raising the question, why does language matter so much
here? What kind of raw nerve does language seem to touch? Ien Ang's
essay "On not speaking Chinese" recounts her experience
as a woman of Chinese ancestry who visits China for the first time
and speaks no Chinese. "'Not speaking Chinese' . . . is a condition
that has been hegemonically constructed as a lack, a sign of loss
of authenticity" for which Ang felt compelled to apologize (2001:30).
Ang challenges diasporic populations to maintain the complexity and
flexibility as peoples in-between: "A critical diasporic cultural
politics should privilege neither host country nor (real or imagined)
homeland, but precisely keep a creative tension between 'where you're
from' and 'where you're at'" (Ibid.:35). The tyranny of language
lies in feeling compelled to apologize for "not speaking Chinese."
The hybridity of the diaspora, then, rests precisely in not speaking
Chinese if that is a function of "where you're at." Thus,
when NHK manipulates the language of its (Japanese) actors and actresses
performing Nikkei, suggesting that they speak Japanese with only a
few easily corrected slips, it robs Nikkei of their hybridity, denies
them the validity of "where they're at" and positions them
only in terms of "where they're from" (i.e. Japan). This
linguistic feat paints them as almost-Japanese, rather than within
the hybrid space of "creative tension." I argue that Nikkei react vehemently to this flaw in their portrayal not only because it is so glaring, but more importantly because it violates their everyday sense and experience of who they are and have been historically. Language is both political and personal. English for generations of Nikkei in Hawai`i was an achievement of assimilation, rewarded by entrance to "English-standard schools,"6 parlaying them into positions of government and business leadership at the highest levels within the state. Speaking English was the equivalent to becoming, being, and/or performing American, as evidenced in the "Speak American" campaign of the 1940s. Roland Kotani writes, "Since accusations of disloyalty [during World War II] were often based on the argument that Hawaii's Japanese [Americans] failed to assimilate with the broader American society, the Nikkei morale committees waged a campaign to uproot all Japanese cultural institutions and practices" (1985:92; see also Tamura 1994:59). This vigilance in the face of the patriotic fervor of the time included speaking English. Nikkei themselves launched the "Speak American" campaign, with posters that read, "Speak English, the language of America" (Kotani 1985:92). Language, then, was not trivial or neutral, but a political proving ground for Nikkei. Speaking English went hand in hand with not speaking Japanese, as if languages, like national loyalties, could not be divided or coexist multiply. Fifty years later, issues of language are far less volatile. Nevertheless, Sakura speaking Japanese (and not speaking English well) is an affront to a Nikkei political history of assimilation and embeddedness within "where they're at." On a personal level, language forms one direct conduit to subjectivity, agency, and the generalized experience of I-ness at both the individual and group levels. English is not only the basis for communication with others, but also for the daily experience of oneself. For yonsei (of which Sakura is purportedly one), the nuances of language can form an essential part of who they are, as expressed in the following poem "Making yonsei": by Hawai`i-born Carrie Takahata: Mom, |
| P14 | Takahata paints the distance between yonsei such as herself
and Japan as one encountered not directly, but filtered through Hawai`i
and guided by generations who teach children standard English (instead
of Hawaii Creole English, known locally as "pidgin English")
while intermittently performing themselves as Nikkei. Language is
integral to all of these different layers of identity, selves, and
performance. This experience of oneself includes a particular relationship to Japan and things Japanese, including language. For some Nikkei, Japanese language is a subject they have studied in school, alongside their non-ethnically-Japanese peers, listening to their share of language tapes, struggling with the idiosyncracies of writing systems, polite forms, and irregular verb endings. Sakura's fluency is a negation of not only their linguistic efforts, but also of their position as outsiders to this language. It is also a denial of their fluency in both linguistic and cultural terrms within native English codes, of the cultural tensions inherent in "where they're at." Sakura/Nikkei is supposed to be one who "is more Japanese than Japanese." The negative reaction of Nikkei to Sakura suggests their rejection of this pedestal of exemplariness. Rather than being held up as models, many Nikkei prefer acknowledgment of their own varied experiences as persons of Japanese ancestry in the U.S. They refuse the mantle of ur-Japanese. Their lives "where they're at" are full of the "creative tension" of which Ang speaks, which NHK only superficially acknowledges. This secondary audience refuses to be interpellated by NHK's statist directives. Part of their refusal is enabled by the gulf between producer and consumers. But another part of their refusal is enabled by geopolitical boundaries between Japan and the U.S., forming hierarchies that shift across the course of histories. The transnational flow of Sakura places this media text in the living rooms of the unintended. The challenge of Sakura for Nikkei audiences is to find the means to backtalk to NHK, to make their voices heard in spite of corporate indifference. This kind of challenge speaks to the increasingly fluid world of media, in, around, and through national boundaries. An NHK asadora is produced by and for Japanese. Nevertheless, this national production bears some responsibility to those it represents (such as Nikkei), especially when part of that representation suggests that they, too, might in some way fall under the umbrella of minasama. Nikkei do not necessarily want to hover under that umbrella. What many of them do want, however, is the opportunity to affirm their own experiences in the transnational media texts that represent them. Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to Aoki Shin'ya of NHK, for his kind cooperation in-person, as well as over e-mail. Thanks go to KineJapan (Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto and A. Marcus Nornes), and the International Cultural Studies and Women's Studies programs at the University of Hawai`i for allowing me to share some of these thoughts in public presentations. Thanks also to Jonathan Okamura, Naoko Shibusawa, Glen Fukushima, Hirofumi Katsuno, and David LaPorta for their contributions to this paper. |
| P15 | 1 The use of a Japanese name as a middle name is common
among second- and third-generation Nikkei, but less common for those
of fourth generation. However, the fact that most people, including
her family, call her by her Japanese middle name Sakura, instead of
by her English name Elizabeth, is not typical. 2 Finding people to interview was somewhat difficult, since Sakura was broadcast on a pay-channel, rather than a regular network. Besides a snowball sampling of interviewees, I appeared on Japanese language radio station, KZOO (AM), in Hawai`i to discuss my research and solicit listeners' opinions. I also posted a request for viewers' opinions on a Nikkei network Web group and received several responses, primarily from northern California where Sakura was being broadcast at the time. 3 At this point in time, issei (first-generation Japanese Americans) have passed away, nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans) are elderly, sansei (third-generation Japanese Americans) are middle-aged, and yonsei and gosei (respectively fourth-generation and fifth-generation Japanese Americans) are coming into their own as young adults. This does not take into consideration that group of Japanese nationals living abroad dubbed "shin issei" (literally, new issei), who moved to the United States post-World War II. In general, the Japanese language facility of the generations declines rapidly after, so that most sansei and succeeding generations have had no direct contact with Japanese language, except through extra-familial institutions such as high schools or universities. English subtitles, then, are critical for Japanese media broadcasting in the United States if the audience includes anyone but Japanese nationals living abroad. 4 In this episode hole-hole bushi is sung by Sakura's grandmother, an in-marrying urban issei who never worked a day in the sugar cane fields. NHK, then, conflates all older Nikkei women as ones who underwent the hardships of plantation life. 5 The term kotonk was popularized during World War II, when Hawai`i-born and continental U.S.-born nisei interacted and clashed while in training as members of the acclaimed 442nd regimental combat team. 6 English-standard schools are public schools that required an English proficiency examination for entrance, and were known for their higher level of education. They emerged amidst Japanese American-led labor strikes in the 1920s in Hawai`i as a means to segregate whites from the rest, and particularly Nikkei, who constituted approximately 40 percent of the population at the time. REFERENCES
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