Nisei

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Ni·sei

(nē-sā′, nē′sā′)

n. pl. Nisei or Ni·seis

A person born to parents who emigrated from Japan.

[Japanese : ni, two, second (from Early Middle Chinese ŋi^h; also the source of Mandarin èr) + sei, generation (from Middle Chinese ʂaj`; also the source of Mandarin shì (the Middle Chinese form ultimately being from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *lap, leaf, in reference to the renewal of foliage with each year)).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Nisei

(ˈniːseɪ)

a native-born citizen of the United States or Canada whose parents were Japanese immigrants

[Japanese, literally: second generation]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Ni•sei

(ˈni seɪ, niˈseɪ)

n., pl. -sei.

(sometimes l.c.) a child of Japanese immigrants, born and educated in North America. Compare Issei, Kibei, Sansei.

[1940–45, Amer.; < Japanese: literally, second generation; earlier ni-seĩ < Middle Chinese, = Chinese èr two, second + shēng birth]

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Noun

Nisei - a person born in the United States of parents who emigrated from Japan

American - a native or inhabitant of the United States

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References in periodicals archive ?

ONE of the most recurrent questions posed in recent interviews to Augusto Higa Oshiro (1946-), the author of La iluminacion de Katzuo Nakamatsu (2008), is the matter of Japanese Peruvian Niseis' identity (Carranza).

La personalidad nisei, tal cual la vemos aca, no existe en Japon.

Higa seems to suggest that the nationally constructed identity of Peruvian Nisei weakens Japaneseness and he therefore rejects the dual identity of half Peruvian and half Japanese as indicated in his words above, "no es mitad japones y mitad peruano" ("El nisei").

Imagining the unnegotiable home at the margins in la iluminacion de Katzuo Nakamatsu by Augusto Higa Oshiro

He was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up entirely of Niseis (American citizens of Japanese descent), which went on to become the most highly decorated combat unit in World War II.

Lane Nakano

(121) "When it is convenient the Niseis are not citizens--deprive them [of] all rights and put them in Centers; [w]hen they want more soldiers the Nisei are all loyal and worthy of the draft....

The Niseis should get together and form a resolution and present it formally to Washington." (147)

A penny for their thoughts: draft resistance at the Poston Relocation Center

The Niseis too were brought up that way, to respect your elders, don't make moves.

Drawing on 30 oral testimonies of Nisei (second generation) Japanese Canadian women, I explore the diverse and often complex ways in which Nisei women remember the internment, with particular attention to the intermingling of pest and present, the relationship between teller and listener, as well as the layering of personal and public narratives, in the construction of these memories.

Memories of internment: narrating Japanese Canadian women's life stories (1)

(6) In May 1971, her proposal was accepted by the Magnolia Committee of the YMCA, which was comprised of progressive Nisei (second-generation Japanese American) women.

(10) Social worker and activist Amy Iwasaki Mass believes that after the period of forced removal and incarceration, the Nisei population was overwhelmed by the desire to prove their patriotism and obedience to the same country that imprisoned them.

"Serve the people and you help yourself": Japanese-American anti-drug organizing in Los Angeles, 1969 to 1972

The majority of research on Japanese families is on the first generation of men and women that emigrated from Japan at the beginning of the 20th century (issei) and their second-generation (nisei) children.

Daughters reported that mothers had a difficult time interacting with nisei men and women.