<미국인의 오락>에 나타난 니세이(Nisei) 정체성과 트라우마의 재구성

Abstract

Through research of the film American Pastime, this paper aims to put in the foreground the voice of Nisei, second generation Japanese American immigrants who struggled with identity confusion in terms of American citizenship during the 2nd World War. The film deals with the trauma caused by the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were evacuated from the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It also highlights the strategies used to relieve public as well as private pressures caused by the political /historical turmoil. Film director Desmond Nakano deals with the political issue of the Japanese American relocation camp with the mis-en-scene of baseball, the national pastime representing the past, present, nd future of America. Diverse metaphors of baseball as the American Pastime bring to the surface nationalistic cultural aspects that not only contribute to a deconstruction of the dichotomy of perpetrator and victim but also suggest a possibility of the unification of two conflicting elements of tension within the internment camps. American Pastime employs a widespread strategy to attract the public`s attention by inducing baseball as a cultural medium, which simultaneously rejects the stereotypical description of internment propaganda. It foregrounds the commonality of Japanese Americans in an internment camp in Arizona as well as the individuality of the Nisei generation by portraying the life of a baseball hero and his inner struggles and trauma. Nakano`s popularization strategy attempts to relieve political tension surrounding the internment trauma and asks a wide audience to contemplate serious political issues. The film delivers historical facts in a documentary format. Through Ryle and Lane Nomura, American Pastime describes the different choices made among Nisei to prove their identity. Nakano also deconstructs the stereotypical images of Asian American males in the media and provides both a new view of the Asian American male and a new composition of interracial relationships in the film. In American Pastime, director Nakano, who deplores the memory crisis in the U.S., diagnoses amnesia of the political/historical past, copes with a cultural crisis, and suggests a new agenda. Through the common denominator of film and baseball, he also succeeds in commercializing internment and trauma among Japanese Americans as a metaphor for resistance and racism. This effort particularly calls white audience members to engage in mediation for redefining the American identity of Nisei, Japanese Americans after Sansei, or Asian Americans.