Success story: Japanese-American style - Book Report/Review Example

Success story: Japanese-American StyleThe Japanese Americans managed to thrive in an environment full of adversity to emerge as successful Americans. William Petersen (42) argues that the issei after coming to America were catapulted out of a homeland going through a rapid change while Meiji Japan remains to be one of the countries in Asia credited to have achieved modernization. The model minority strategy constitutes diligence in work together with simple fragility, which almost has the religious imperative.

The advantages of the model minority strategy include the respect for authority reinforced in the churches of the Japanese-Americans, and has a meaningful link to the original culture. The disadvantages of the model include a well-grounded distrust of all the other small groups of whites, undergoing extreme persistence to emerge successful, and almost experiencing impossible situation such as the native-born Japanese being categorized first as enemy aliens during the world war II. The minority model had significant impact on the future Asian American identities.

For the Japanese born in the third generation, the experience of the camp may either be half-forgotten memory of the childhood days or something unbelievable that happened to their own parents. However, for the other Asian Americans, the effectiveness of the Japanese acquired through the minority model will not lessen within a period of a lifetime. The Chinese living in California are said to be reading the newspapers in the current times having a particular apprehension and wondering whether the experience may happen again or be repeated.

Two decades down the line after the war, the Japanese-Americans living in L.A’s Little Tokyo and on the California farms now lead an affluent and highly Americanized life after emerging successful through the model minority. Work citedPetersen, William. “Success Story, Japanese-American Style.” New York Times 9 January 1966: p.180.