Transpacific Exodus: Japanese American Migrants in Japan through the 1950s.

Arguing for a reconceptualization of Asian American history that utilizes a transpacific framework, this important and welcome study expands our understanding of Japanese American history by tracing the migration of young U.S.-born I Nisei i to Japan and its colonial empire during the decades prior to the Second World War. Key among those who comprised this "highly mobile transpacific diaspora" were Nisei born in the United States who were sent to Japan as children to be educated and were known as I Kibei i (written with characters representing "return" and "America") on their return to the United States (4). Michael R. Jin argues that this migration, in which as many as one in four Nisei participated, should be regarded not as a return to Japan but as a separate wave of migration originating in the United States. [Extracted from the article]