Koreans in Japan and the United States: Attitudes toward Achievement and Authority

‘In the United States, various minority groups have had different responses to educational adaptation. A number of the Asian groups are doing relatively well, having taken to the school system positively and are much overrepresented, at the major American tertiary educational institutions. Other groups, such as Mexican Americans and blacks, have done relatively poorly. How have ethnic minorities with long histories of discrimination within majority dominated school systems, adapted in other systems? Research on this topic has recently been initiated in a number of countries. ¹ The present generation of Korean youths in Japan suffers particular personal alienation because of the degradation of their parents and grandparents since their arrival in Japan. Most of these individuals speak no Korean and are culturally, but not socially, assimilated within contemporary Japanese society. De Vos (1973) has earlier reported their high rates of delinquency and other behavioral symptoms of the alienation.