ABSTRACT
Like most cultural communities, Japanese Canadians have a shared mythology, through which they imagine their history, define their geography and probe the limits of their community.3 One of the myths concerns the ‘silence’ of the Issei (first generation) with respect to their political and human rights, as opposed to the activism and anger expressed by the Sansei (third generation), and the ambivalence of the Nisei (second generation) between the two other worlds. The Issei are viewed as stoic, constrained by a culture of complex codes and interdictions to persevere (gaman) in silence in the face of what would for others be intolerable oppression. Reference to their supposed attitude of shikata ga nai (it can’t be helped) has become a cliché for the ‘old values’.
