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Yokohama Yankee
Continuing with this week's theme of "Outsiders in Japan," I'm reccing Leslie Helm's book, Yokohama Yankee: My Family's Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan (available on Amazon). Helm is the great-grandson of a German immigrant who became a successful businessman in Japan and married a Japanese woman. The death of his abusive father, along with his and his wife's decision to adopt two Japanese children, led to Helm researching his family's history, which in turn resulted in this book.
Although born and raised mainly in Japan, Helm was regarded as outsider because he looks white. Similarly, while working as a reporter in the US, he had conflicted feelings and divided loyalties when faced with anti-Japanese sentiments while reporting on Japanese business dealings in the US. During his research, he found that his father and grandfather both dealt with feelings of internalized racism--not entirely, but in large part due to his grandfather emigrating to the US shortly before WWII when the Japanese were regarded as the enemy. Learning the struggles his father had gone through helped him to better understand his father and find a sense of connection to the man he had regarded mainly with fear and resentment for most of his life.
His Japanese great-grandmother suffered, too, in a sense becoming an outsider in her own country, since she was disowned by her family for marrying a foreigner. During his research, Helm is also able to learn more about her and meet some of his Japanese relatives.
The book also deals with the adoption of his children, and gives us a look into the stigma against adoption in Japan: most people don't want to adopt a child of an unknown bloodline, and those who do adopt often try to hide that fact to escape the social stigma. This did make it easier for Helm and his wife to adopt their children, and he reports that most of the prospective Japanese parents who were interested in adopting were childless couples looking for someone to carry on the family name or to take care of them in their old age, rather than simply looking for a child to love and raise for its own sake.
(There is a history of adoption in Japan, but apparently this is mainly adopting the child of a relative, or adopting an adult son-in-law to take over the family name. In both cases, the adoptee's family background would be known to the adoptive parents, so it doesn't carry the "risk" that adopting a stranger would. Helm's book touches briefly on the first scenario, which can be traumatic to the child: one of the great-grandmother's relatives said that he was supposed to be adopted by a childless aunt and uncle, but he begged his father not to send him away. Instead, his younger brother was given to the couple, and the relative felt guilty when he learned that his brother cried himself to sleep every night for a month.)
Helm's daughter and son deal with their own feelings of being outsiders in both Japan and the US: daughter Mariko in particular hated standing out and being stared at by people who were surprised to see a Japanese girl with white parents, and hated being asked if she was adopted. In one case, an American woman accused Helm of kidnapping Mariko because she "obviously" wasn't his child. Although Helm loves his children and tried to be a good father, he admits that he wasn't always as sensitive to Mariko's feelings as he should have been, which led to a lot of conflict between them. However, by the time the book ends, Mariko seems to have come to terms with her identity and is no longer ashamed of being adopted, saying that she and her brother Eric want to show people that there are different kinds of families. Actually, the story about Helm and his children would have made a fascinating book of its own, if the kids were willing to share their story.
Although born and raised mainly in Japan, Helm was regarded as outsider because he looks white. Similarly, while working as a reporter in the US, he had conflicted feelings and divided loyalties when faced with anti-Japanese sentiments while reporting on Japanese business dealings in the US. During his research, he found that his father and grandfather both dealt with feelings of internalized racism--not entirely, but in large part due to his grandfather emigrating to the US shortly before WWII when the Japanese were regarded as the enemy. Learning the struggles his father had gone through helped him to better understand his father and find a sense of connection to the man he had regarded mainly with fear and resentment for most of his life.
His Japanese great-grandmother suffered, too, in a sense becoming an outsider in her own country, since she was disowned by her family for marrying a foreigner. During his research, Helm is also able to learn more about her and meet some of his Japanese relatives.
The book also deals with the adoption of his children, and gives us a look into the stigma against adoption in Japan: most people don't want to adopt a child of an unknown bloodline, and those who do adopt often try to hide that fact to escape the social stigma. This did make it easier for Helm and his wife to adopt their children, and he reports that most of the prospective Japanese parents who were interested in adopting were childless couples looking for someone to carry on the family name or to take care of them in their old age, rather than simply looking for a child to love and raise for its own sake.
(There is a history of adoption in Japan, but apparently this is mainly adopting the child of a relative, or adopting an adult son-in-law to take over the family name. In both cases, the adoptee's family background would be known to the adoptive parents, so it doesn't carry the "risk" that adopting a stranger would. Helm's book touches briefly on the first scenario, which can be traumatic to the child: one of the great-grandmother's relatives said that he was supposed to be adopted by a childless aunt and uncle, but he begged his father not to send him away. Instead, his younger brother was given to the couple, and the relative felt guilty when he learned that his brother cried himself to sleep every night for a month.)
Helm's daughter and son deal with their own feelings of being outsiders in both Japan and the US: daughter Mariko in particular hated standing out and being stared at by people who were surprised to see a Japanese girl with white parents, and hated being asked if she was adopted. In one case, an American woman accused Helm of kidnapping Mariko because she "obviously" wasn't his child. Although Helm loves his children and tried to be a good father, he admits that he wasn't always as sensitive to Mariko's feelings as he should have been, which led to a lot of conflict between them. However, by the time the book ends, Mariko seems to have come to terms with her identity and is no longer ashamed of being adopted, saying that she and her brother Eric want to show people that there are different kinds of families. Actually, the story about Helm and his children would have made a fascinating book of its own, if the kids were willing to share their story.