Norviel's Pacific Crossings

1. The author is talking about the want and eagerness the Japanese people had to be a part of the New World, America. Even though they were not treated the best they still wanted the chance to be a part of something great, something up-and-coming.

2. Takaki writes about the experiences the Japanese people had when leaving their home country to come to America. They were excited to see this new way of life, a way to make money and live more prosperously. The Japanese migrants were leaving their homes and families, to which they would probably never see again. He talked about the "picture brides", which were women who were sent from their home country to America to be with an arranged husband whom they have never even met. The young girls were usually very excited about their journey to the "new world", not because they necessarily wanted to be with their husband, but because they were eager to see this new and better way of life. Many of these new workers had similar jobs in America, that they had back home. They worked hard, long hours out in the fields. Under the sun, with no breeze, Takaki described the undesirable conditions that these people worked under. Much like the blacks, these foreigners were discriminated against as well. They were enslaved and made to do hard manual labor as well. Unlike the blacks, at least this group of people were normally kept with their families, because the owners thought that men with families were more valuable workers so their living conditions were somewhat better than what the blacks had to live in. Later on, even though the Japanese were free and were allowed to own land and property, in many cases they were discriminated against and were denied certain homes in certain neighborhoods.

3. Why would these people continue to come to America if their lives really were not made as easy as they thought? Were these people thankful for their new opportunities that they were given; since they could have been denied or turned away from this new world and way of life?

4. I didn't really like this reading that much. It is really long and drawn out, as well as somewhat boring, making you lose interest in the reading. It was somewhat confusing also because one minute he would talk about how the Japanese were so excited to go and make money and have new and better opportunities, and then the next minute he made it seem like their lives were not so great, and they were treated as slaves. Then it would go back to them being free and being able to purchase land and work. I did like the fact that it was about a different minority group rather than just African Americans, because that can get kind of redundant.