Nisei Daughter is a biography written by Monica Sone capturing her life as she grew up from her first memories, until she graduated college. It is heavily focused on her identity and the identity crisis she went through as an American-born-Japanese child.
The book opens up with a scene of when Sone, named Kazuko in Japanese, was different than the other people in her grammar school. She realizes this as she and her older brother Henry has to begin going to a Japanese school after Grammar School. In the beginning of the book, the story of her parents met and ended up in America is also recalled. They now own a hotel where Kazuko and her brother are raised. It is not a wholly peaceful and comfortable environment though, as the police watch the family heavily, because they don’t trust Japanese people.
When Kazuko and her family take a trip to Japan to visit family and friends, Kazuko realizes that she doesn’t fit in there either. She is looked upon as American there, instead of Japanese. Her new younger brother falls ill and dies, which is a huge tragedy. As the family returns to America, Kazuko develops Asthma because of the bad air. As they try to relocate, they are not permitted to buy the houses because of their race. The tension against Japanese people in the book is raised as Kazuko grows and becomes more aware of herself and the people around her.
Kazuko graduates from high school, but falls ill with tuberculosis, rendering her to bed for an entire year. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese families are sent to camp. Their family is separated and relocated, before they finally are released. Kazuko studies at Wendell College of Indiana where there are a lot of international people, and she can feel like both a Japanese and an American person for the first time.
