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Nanka Nikkei Voices
My Name is “BAKA”: Issei Discipline & Expectations in a Dr. Spock World
As a “baby boomer” raised by Issei parents on a farm in San Jose, CA after the war, I’ve often thought about how different it might have been if I had been raised as part of the “Dr. Spock1 generation” of my suburban hakujin (Caucasian) classmates. I often heard my hakujin friends have discussions with their parents about, (1) why they weren’t allowed to do something; (2) making excuses for not getting something done; or (3) denying blame when they were being chastised for something they did. Such discussions never took place in my house.
In many ...
