The Quest of Female Identity in Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in The Attic (2011)

Abstract

In 1942, thousands of different identities of Asian peoples immigrated from Asia to America to rebuild their lives but the most that were demanded, were The Japanese due to their hard working and cheap wages. Unfortunately when they arrived there , they realized that their lives would never be improved as they wished and they started to think to establish families in America. Therefore, the Japanese government created arrangement marriage for them with their natives women throughout exchanging pictures that known as Shashinkekkon, or picture marriage. The Japanese picture brides summoned to America came for various reasons ,like the men that came before them, many women had high hopes of becoming wealthy. However, when they arrived they found themselves married with ages poor men and this what Julie Otsuka depicted in her novel The Buddha in the Attic (2011) Through the analysis of archaeological material, archival documents, and oral histories, this thesis explores the experiences of Japanese American women after their arrivals, it is also illustrating the Feminine Japanese identity that was greatly changed and redefined by ignoring them and treated them as minorities. Additionally ,This paper describes the numerous babies born to the Japanese women and the way these children try to fit into the American culture. Moreover ,the suffering of these women not stop on their loss of their feminine identity and their children relationships but it exceeds when their husbands were arrested without notice after the attack of Pearl Harbor 1945 .the Americans react when they realize the Japanese people have disappeared from their town. Although they’d never really given the people much thought, they miss them now that they are gone and courser, less civilized people are taking their place.