Race and Nation in John Okada's No-No Boy

Defining race and nation involves recognizing representations of nation that shape and complicate notions of race and facets of race that form and obscure nation. As demonstrated by John Okada's No-No Boy, there can be great instability and conflict in trying to distinguish and separate the two issues. Each individual depiction of race and nation serves to further perplex the notion of the other by extracting discrepancies between the two but also by helping to bring about the linkage and reasoning to and of the other. In No-No Boy, Ichiro struggles to understand each and reconcile the two in order to form an identity for himself. Caught between the past and the present, Ichiro tries to settle history with Japan and his family at the same time that he is trying to rediscover a place in his own country, the US. He must face the decisions between an allegiance to his mother and a loyalty to America amidst America's betrayal of his people and his own accused disloyalty to the nation. To Ichiro, representations of race and nation are only able to provide a label but not a sense of self being for as Okada portrays race and nation, the two are unbalanced and malleable discourses that are transformed and manipulated according to need and application. It is, then, a network of unique experiences that characterize who one is and the concepts of racial identity, national culture, and belonging that allow for a thorough understanding of race and nation for both Ichiro and the reader.
Race has an immediate presence and force at the opening of the novel with references to the divisions of the town with clubs and bars labeled "Oriental" separated into sections of Asians and then Japanese and Chinese, reflecting upon the divided nature of the nation and the strong racism that is present between whites and the nonwhites, those of the same race, as well as rampant racism in which victimized races persecute each other. Later, Kenji is seen commenting on the dangerous nature of these communal structures and groupings that further complicate the ideas of race and nation by impeding the attempts of Asian Americans to join the larger American culture and be accepted by as he angrily comments "…they screamed because the government said they were Japs and, when they finally got out, they couldn't wait to rush together and prove that they were" (164).

Racial identity for Ichiro is automatic in that he is immediately deemed an Asian and a Jap and all that is attributed to those categories, and thus treated a specific way based solely on biological outward appearances; while the Blacks at the beginning of the novel taunt Ichiro for being a Jap, Ichiro is offered a job by Mr.Carrick for being Japanese, demonstrating an articulation of race as the root of racism in both a hatred of a race and sympathetic remorse for a race, both of which are forms of either intentional or unintentional racism. There seems to be no way to escape from the constraints of one's race for what one is holds near complete dominance over who one is even though it is constantly on an axis of revolution. This concept of race is directly linked to the meaning of nation, for Ichiro's being Asian and being Japanese is why it is difficult for him to fully grasp a sense of nation. His race inhibits his comprehension and attainment of a true racial identity because the notions of a race have already been established by structural inequality and racism, and society itself. It is his race, in the end, that cleaves the distinctive meanings of racial identity and national belonging and forces him to choose between nations.

The idea that nation is linked directly to the issue of race is illustrated through the ongoing clash between the two in Ichiro as he tries to find a place for himself in a nation that no longer welcomes his sense of nationalism. He suffers disagreement within himself and with his mother, who is yet another strong Asian female figure who embodies the notion of tradition, culture, and the homeland. Because he can no longer live to fulfill his mother's ideas and loyalty to Japan, a conflict emerges as a manifestation of his ordeal with being unable to choose between an allegiance to his mother and the country that he loves and calls home as shown by his proclamation,

"…one is not born in America and raised in America and taught in America and one does not speak and swear and drink and smoke and play and fight and see and hear in America among Americans in American streets and houses without becoming American and loving it." (16)

The war has forced him to decide between a race and a nation, a choice of being Japanese or being an American and belonging to an America immersed in national culture.

In the novel, Okada portrays nation through a perspective that is critical and brings about many questions about what constitutes a national culture and what determines national belonging. The United States interned Japanese families out of distrust and suspicion but expected the Japanese to fight for the American cause. While it was not Ichiro's personal choice to not fight, many chose to be a no-no boy simply because they could not fight for a nation that treated them as potential enemies. Thus, in the novel, the idea of nation is articulated to be very conditional and temporary for race and nation seem to be lacking a centrality of concrete consistency as they become quite flexible in times of political struggle (Omi & Winant). The nation that seemed to welcome people with opportunities and a better life never seems quite willing to accept "foreigners." Immigrants may have played crucial roles in the foundations of America but they will forever be deemed "foreign" by the society that ironically preached diversity and flaunted a welcoming attitude. Ichiro was born in the United States and has never even set foot on Japanese soil and can barely read Japanese and yet is considered a traitor because he refused the orders of the government.

Although he has committed no crimes against his country, Ichiro now faces racism and hatred even as a legal citizen and an official American and is no longer welcome to belong to the nation because "…it is not enough to be American only in the eyes of the law" (16). This understanding of the representation of race helps to define nation by pointing out the biases of a fickle and conniving structural nation. The national culture is open only to those who silently accept oppression and those who sacrifice all to act appropriately and at the right time. A prime example of this is Kenji, who ultimately gives his life for false gratitude from the government that showers him with materialistic awards for his service as a shallow attempt at appreciation for showing allegiance and further demonstrating to the world the benefits of submission. However, the no-no boys, who chose to do other than what they were demanded, are now seen as shameful traitors regardless of their reasons or the fact that they had been accepted citizens before the war. Ichiro, like the other no-no boys, now has no place in the world for he is no longer welcomed to truly belong to the American nation but he is also not a part of the old Japan, a nation that was never his in the first place. In this sense, the discourses of race and racial identity and nation and national belonging begin to become distinct from one another. Through an analysis of nation it is clear, as shown by the experiences of Ichiro, that race does not always factor into nation, for his sense of racial identity does not make a difference when facing the concept of nation in the novel. It is unimportant whether one defines oneself to be American or otherwise, it is rather, obedience, conformity, and compliance that are equated with dutiful loyalty that warrants respect and recognition.

The terms and definitions of race and nation are constantly being interpreted and reinterpreted in order to meet the past, present, and future. Undeniably, the two share an interlocking relationship, in that each simplifies and complicates the other and neither can be thought of alone without lost conceptions. The neat and organized demarcation lines are blurred and hazy in No-No Boy as the term nation goes beyond the comforts of simple political inclination and race, itself, challenges biological definition. As Omi and Winant point out, "The racial order is equilibrated by the state-encoded in law," race and nation are not separate entities in various spheres of thinking but essential to the comprehension of each. The relationship of race and nation further delineates the concepts of racial identity, national culture, and national belonging for race is not an isolated social construct or political phenomenon of a nation but unique to the experience. Binded to race then, nation embodies and confuses the understanding of race by becoming racialized. Ichiro's conflict throughout the plot go to demonstrate the complexities race and nation cause upon each other. At one point in the novel Ichiro believes that he has come up with a solution in which he comes to the conclusion that if all groups in the world could cease to struggle and compete, there would be no need to fight and all could be just people without a race as Kenji had envisioned Heaven. However, before he can completely realize the idea, Kenji dies and the realization and hope is lost forever, articulating the bleak situation of tolerant race and nation in American society. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of the novel, Ichiro is depicted walking in darkness but chasing "…that faint and elusive insinuation of promise as it continued to take shape in mind and in heart" bringing about a feeling of hope and faith that the experiences of race and nation, though complex and generally unjust, will one day result in knowledge and tolerance.