ick 443). "Culture" can be an ambiguous term as well, but in this particular study it will refer to "the entire social heritage" of the Japanese or the Japanese-Americans, and "all the knowledge, belief, customs, . . . shared ways of thinking, believing, perceiving, and evaluating" (Broom and Selznick 56). "Discrimination" refers to negative, unfair, unjust treatment of an individual or a group based on racial and/or cultural differences. In discrimination, stereotypes are in play, leading the discriminator to perceive and treat an individual as a hated or feared entity based on those differences. Discrimination is often based on the discriminator seeing the person discriminated against not only as inferior person but as an inferior thing.
The fact that the author's experiences with discrimination and stereotyping remain an important part of her life and her identity is indicated in her Preface to the book. In that Preface, Sone focuses on the issue of the illegal and immoral incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II and on the need for reparations for what was one of the darkest moments of American history:
So their story will not be forgotten and lost to
future generations, the Nikkeis are telling the nation about 1942, a time when they became prisoners of their own government, without charges, without trials (Son
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