This review analyzes Stan Yogi’s “’You Had to Be One or the Other’: Oppositions and Reconciliation in John Okada’s No-No Boy,” agreeing with the main points and proposing additional suggestions to the argument’s claim. Yogi centers his analysis on the literary genre of Bildungsroman, focusing on the struggle of Ichiro Yamada, a twenty-five-year-old Nisei, to accept his wartime actions. Moreover, he analyzes the visible unacceptance of a “Japanese-American” identity and the embracement of “mutually exclusive” Japanese and American identities. In hindsight, Yogi argues that John Okada shatters the idea of a “model minority” that paints the Japanese-American community and instead exemplifies its internal conflicts. In turn, the author, according to Yogi, explores the polarizing oppositions that surround individuality and community, and concludes that healing within both the Nikkei community and America is possible. While the article provides a partially convincing claim, my conclusion suggests that Yogi’s analyses of the other characters should not overshadow his main focus on the protagonist.…show more content… Yogi states that the label “American” takes on racial implications, equating this term to whiteness. As a result, the Nisei create a narrowed definition of “American,” which results in the hatred of their parents’ culture. Consequently, he argues that the scene between Ichiro and his mother intensifies the tension between these two identities. Ichiro realizes that his mother is using his decision to shame one of the families they visit, by pointing out that they could have prevented their son’s death by being true “Japanese” and preventing their son from fighting on the American side. Ichiro reacts with disdain, referring to his mother as a crazy Jap, exposing his
