Chapter 2

Why have I been MIA in my posting?
Well being sick on and off the first two or so weeks of school for some reason really gets in the way of finishing readings and keeping up with school work. But I am pretty much better now and will be continuing to post on previous chapters read until I catch up. Hopefully I'll be able to stay well. So stay tuned!

Why did these "strangers of a different shore" come?
Before reading Takaki, I think I unknowingly assumed that these "strangers" had more in common with each other than they actually did, when first arriving in Hawaii and California. As Francis said in our class discussion on chapter 2 of Strangers of a Different Shore, one box was being created for the people who had come from 6 or more nations. Takaki points out that in actuality the emigrants from each of the Asian nations all came from more than just different countries, but from different backgrounds, as well. They all had different religions (Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity). Most were men, though there were a number of Japanese and Korean women. I found it interesting that culture played a pretty big role in who came over to America. Since Chinese women were expected to take care of her husband's family and it was not custom for them to travel alone, they very often stayed home in China. However, it wasn't so taboo for women to travel for Japanese and Koreans. They also all had differences in educational background, situations in their homeland that contributed in them leaving, and varying contact with U.S. culture prior to coming to America.

I cannot even imagine going to such a different place as these immigrants did. Takaki rightly documented a few excerpts describing the voyage some immigrants took and their feelings about it. Currently, I want to go abroad myself to work for a year some place in Asia. I hope it will be a great experience, but right now, I'll be honest it scares me shitless to think about it. I still have no idea what I would be doing or where I'll be but am looking into all of my options. Still, the world is so much smaller than it was then. I can travel in one or two days to Asia, so rather than having a month to think about whether I made the right decision, I only have a day contemplating that before I actually arrive and really find out. The laws are not as rigid and discriminatory as they were in the last 1800s and early 1900s. Also, English is pretty widespread in the larger cities in Asia. A language barrier does still exist, but it is not nearly as rigid.

Though my reason for going abroad is the interest of experiencing something new, for most Asian immigrants 100 years ago, it was a "necessity" that drove most immigrants them come to American despite having different respective backgrounds. Takaki's title for chapter 2 "Overblown with Hope" is very fitting. Necessity led immigrants to hope for better lives rather than just try to stick it out in their respective homelands. Unfortunately, it was not exactly what they bargained for.