Nisei

Nisei (二世, "second generation") is a Japanese-language term used in countries in North America and South America to specify the ethnically Japanese children born in the new country to Japanese-born immigrants, or Issei. The Nisei, or second generation, in turn are the parents of the Sansei, or third generation. These Japanese-language terms derive from ichi, ni, san, "one, two, three", the ordinal numbers used with sei (see Japanese numerals). Though nisei means "second-generation immigrant", it more specifically often refers to the children of the initial diaspora, occurring during the period of the Empire of Japan in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and overlapping in the U.S. with the Greatest Generation and Silent Generation.

History

Although the earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants left Japan centuries ago, and a later group settled in Mexico in 1897, today's largest populations of Japanese immigrants and their descendants are concentrated in four countries: Brazil (2 million), the United States (1.5 million), Canada (130,000), and Peru (100,000).

American Nisei

Some US Nisei were born after the end of World War II during the baby boom. Most Nisei, however, who were living in the western United States during World War II, were forcibly interned with their parents (Issei) after Executive Order 9066 was promulgated to remove everyone of Japanese descent from the West Coast areas of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. It has been argued that some Nisei feel caught in a dilemma between their Issei parents and other Americans. The Nisei of Hawaii had a somewhat different experience.

In the United States, two representative Nisei were Daniel Inouye and Fred Korematsu.