Stangers From A Different Shore: Chapter 1

Takaki introdces this chapter with effective visual and phonetic imagery, using it to establish a positive scene in which cultures flow together to create somewhat of a surreal utopia. Takaki does this to establish the tone of the book as one that promotes the value of shared diversity. However, at the same time, he highlights an issue in which the failure of the public education system to teach about ethnic groups and their roles in society results in a high level of public ignorance on the matter, manifesting itself in social interactions between the non-white and white ethnicities.

Takaki goes to great lengths to point out how Asian Americans are often left out of history. Just how significant was their involvement?

According to Takaki, about half of current immigrants are of Asian origin. The US census bureau seems to agree. I find it quite hilarious that people can complain about the hispanic population "stealing american jobs" when they make up only about 1/7th Of the total immigration population. "Overruning the borders" and "stealing all our jobs" my census data.

Takaki suggests that personal accounts are better suited for doing comparative studies on people groups (1st and 2nd waves of Asian-American immigrants). I agree, as statistics are limited by the vast expanse that they have to cover in order to be useful at all. Personal accounts are not bond by such restrictions, and as such can prove to be extremely informative and valuable in social studies.

One particular concern I have is that Takaki so far seems to lean more on arguments for humanitarian purposes rather than analytical purposes, which if he persists in doing, runs the risk of limiting the value of his analysis to that of simply making the reader sympathetic to the plights of Asian-Americans, rather than fully evaluating the significance of the cultural implications of having Asian ethnicity and living in America, such as the complete extent of the impact on social interaction, relationships, and how they differ between the first and second generations.