I am sorry my post is late, but I lost internet in my apartment for three hours. But here it is….
I would say the beginning of Nisei daughter is an “easy read” so far. There is a lot of description and boring descriptive scenes. A tough question in the story is, who speaks Japanese in the story? I came to the conclusion that the parents do fluently, and the children recognize Japanese food names but not much else. I think it is evidence that they speak Japanese, when in the book it says, “Mother clutched Father by the arm and spoke rapidly in Japanese”(37). But then again how did the daughter know they were speaking Japanese? Was it because of what she learned in school? Or was it because she too could understand the Japanese they spoke. Why does Sone leave this as such a mystery? I hope I can get a straight definite answer later on in the book. One thing I noticed as an improvement over time is the jobs the Japanese had. They moved away from the agricultural jobs to opening successful businesses. There were even white people working for Kazuko’ father. They still seemed to be discriminated but it seems like less in Sone’s book, as compared to strangers from a different shore. It seems that going to Japanese school is a big thing for Kazuko. It I simply a shock to find out that she is Japanese. She describes herself as “Being born with two heads. It sounded freakish and a lot of trouble,” after she finds out she is Japanese (19). In Strangers from a Different Shore, Takaki mentions that Nisei Togo Tanaka I advised to learn Japanese by his father. He says, “I am going to encourage him to learn the Japanese language, so that he can to go Japan is he meets too many obstacles here”(217). Does Kazuko’s parents force their children to learn Japanese for the same reason? There really is not a given reason as to why they send off their children to the school. Maybe they realized that life at the hotel is not that great, but their children cannot see that yet, and maybe fear they will never see the difficulties of living in America. Kazuko admires the hotel and everything about Skidrow from the hookers to the beggars. Maybe the parents feel they need to discipline their children with Japanese school so they can identify the more out of line way of life in America, because it seems all normal to them at that time. Why should the children learn Japanese is they cannot even use it in their environment? Kazuko said, “I could not use my Japanese on the people at the hotel. Bowing was practical only at Nihon Gakko. If I were to bow to the hotel patrons, they would have laughed in my face” (28). She could not even find a purpose for it in her life. If they want to focus on becoming successful in America, they should be concentrating on learning our ways and language. I think the parents are hiding something as to why the children need to learn Japanese.
I agree with you that it is quite confusing as to who speaks Japanese and when. It would make sense that the parents speak Japanese because their English is broken (Stone’s mother cannot even understand enough English to carry on a conversation with Kazuko’s teacher). But then why is Kazuko trying to learn Japanese in a new school? I also thought the quote being born with two heads was significant in that Kazuko is both Japanese and American taking on both cultures, but then she asks herself “Which one am I really? American or Japanese?”