The Nisei generation's educational experience in Japan

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This research project has two purposes : to investigate how four variables (geography, age, religion, sex) affected the education received in Japan by the Nisei (second-generation Japanese born in North America with dual citizenship) who were sent by their parents back to Japan for schooling, and to demonstrate how their educational experience influenced both Japanese and American society. Unlike those Nisei who were sent to the Tokyo area, the main purpose of sending young Nisei to the prefectures from which their parents had emigrated was for them to acquire the "culture of their heritage" by enrolling in elementary school, since most were young enough to enter this level of the school system. Many Nisei boys who were sent to study in Kyoto were there to receive professional licenses as Buddhist priests, but Buddhist Nisei schooling in Kyoto promoted the indigenization of Buddhism in America. Most of the young Nisei women who came to Japan were selected from among the elite in each Japanese community in North America. The Nisei's schooling in Japan was influenced by regional, state, and national contexts. In Wakayama, their educational experience led to a shift in the purpose of public schooling on Terminal Island in Southern California from "Americanizing" a foreign population to enabling the Nisei to be bicultural. In Kumamoto, it served to strengthen a transnational network of people from Kumamoto that extended across both Japan and North America. In Okinawa it promoted upward mobility.