Japanese Eyes, American Heart: Politics of Race, Nation, and Masculinity in Japanese American Veterans’ WWII Narratives

Japanese American veterans’ narratives of World War II (WWII) constitute a dynamic discursive site where heterogeneous and contradictory understandings of masculinity, military service, and national allegiance are articulated. While loyalty and patriotism often stand out as dominant themes in their narratives, their retelling of wartime military service by no means provides a uniform picture of heroic masculinity and patriotic nationalism. Having suffered from race- and gender-based dislocation as colored immigrant men in US history, Japanese American veterans’ narratives necessarily include moments of ambiguity, contradiction, and disruption and reveal the complex nature of minority men’s assertion to national belonging. By examining diverse and often contestatory voices of Japanese American veterans, this essay illuminates how minority men’s retelling of military service contradicts and even subverts the dominant understandings of war, masculinity, and nation.