Sansei

[8] Most American Sansei were born during the Baby Boom after the end of World War II; older Sansei, who were living in the western United States during the war, were forcibly incarcerated with their parents (Nisei) and grandparents (Issei) after Executive Order 9066 was promulgated to exclude everyone of Japanese descent from the West Coast and from Southern Arizona.

[9] In some senses, the Sansei seem to feel they are caught in a dilemma between their "quiet" Nisei parents and their other identity model of "verbal" and outspoken Americans.

[11] Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, three distinct subgroups developed, each with different sociocultural referents, generational identities, and wartime experiences.

The Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms like Issei, Nisei and Sansei which describe the first, second and third generation of immigrants.

The Issei, Nisei and Sansei generations reflect distinctly different attitudes to authority, gender, non-Japanese involvement, religious belief and practice and other matters.

[13] The age when individuals faced the wartime evacuation and internment is the single, most significant factor which explains these variations in their experiences, attitudes and behaviour patterns.

Rituals are enactments of shared meanings, norms, and values and this Japanese rite of passage highlights a collective response among the Nisei to the conventional dilemmas of growing older.

[21] The sansei became known as the "activist generation"[22] because of their large hand in the redress movement and individuals that have become a part of the American mainstream political landscape.

The numbers of sansei who have earned some degree of public recognition has continued to increase over time; but the quiet lives of those whose names are known only to family and friends are no less important in understanding the broader narrative of the Nikkei.