Japanese and Nikkei at Home and Abroad: Negotiating Identities in ...

Chapter 1

Reconsiderations of Race,
Ethnicity, and Identity

Transnational Migrants
in Post–World War II
Global Society

Nobuko Adachi

All the chapters of this volume look at the processing and reprocessing of ethnic identities of Japanese transnational migrants and Nikkei—people of Japanese descent who were born and grew up abroad. We especially focus on post–World War II developments and changes in the lives of Nikkei and Japanese nationals living overseas. These people are inexorably involved in the social, cultural, economic, and political environments of both their resident and ancestral-home societies.