Abstrak

The attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941 marked the beginning of the mass incarceration of people with Japanese ancestry in the United States. The mass incarceration, commonly called as Internment, was a racially driven policy triggered by anti-Japanese sentiments. The prevalent anti-Japanese sentiment  shaped  the  identity  of  Japanese-American.  This  research  aims  to examine how anti-Japanese sentiment affects the identity of Japanese-American.

This research is a descriptive qualitative research. The primary data used in this research consists of characters, characterizations, plot, setting, narrative and dialogues taken from Graham Salisbury’s novel Under the Blood-Red Sun. The secondary data include  Internment narratives and articles found in books and journals.

Since the research is under the framework of American Studies, it is an interdisciplinary study. Some approaches and theories are employed in this research. It uses socio-cultural and historical approach, ethnic studies, and semiotics.

Through the analysis, it is found that the anti-Japanese sentiment which is manifested  in  stereotype,  prejudice,  and  Internment  affects  the  identity  of Japanese-American in two ways. For the first generation of Japanese American, Issei,  the  anti-Japanese  sentiments  cause  the  identity  burial  of  Issei.  For  the second  generation  of  Japanese-American,  Nisei,  the  anti-Japanese  sentiments cause the realization of the bi-culturality of Nisei.

Keywords : Japanese-American, Internment, minority, Graham Salisbury