Alien Enemies, American Citizens: Japanese American Postwar Resettlement, Identity, And Community Development In Los Angeles And South Bay

Event Center BC

The post-incarceration redevelopment of the Japanese American community presents a complex and unique circumstance to the study of ethnic populations and community development. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the lacking research and literature of the immediate postwar period between the late 1940s resettlement period and the 1960s. In the 1960s, the Sansei (third generation) started to reshape the character and cultural expressions of Japanese American communities, including their development of the Yellow Power Movement in the context of the Black and Brown Power Movements in California. Furthermore, this thesis contributes to the nearly absent literature of Japanese American community redevelopment in the transboundary Los Angeles/ South Bay area. This locale hosted the largest and fastest growing postwar Japanese American population in the country. The community built lasting networks and relationships, and laid the foundations for later social activism and the redefining of the Japanese American community, through the revival of cultural celebrations like Obon and Nisei Week, sport and recreation – namely baseball and bowling, and ethnic resources in the form of food and ethnic markets.