Case Vignette: “Jenny”: Sansei (Third Generation) Japanese American Woman
For nearly all my life I have never seriously
attempted to dissect my feelings and attitudes about being a Japanese American woman. Aborted attempts were made, but they were never brought to fruition, because it was unbearably painful. Having been born and raised in Arizona, I had no Asian friends. I suspect that given an opportunity to make some, I would have avoided them anyway. That is because I didn’t want to have
anything to do with being Japanese American. Most of the Japanese images I saw were negative. Japanese women were ugly;
they had cucumber legs,” flat yellow faces, small slanty eyes, flat chests, and were stunted in growth. The men were short and