Conflicting Loyalties
Ichiro becomes a no-no boy because he refuses to answer yes to two questions posed by the draft board: is he willing to serve in combat anywhere and will he swear allegiance to the United States forswear all allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. In reality, he has no problem saying yes to both, but ultimately says “no” twice because of loyalty to his mother, who would never have accepted his agreeing to such terms. Faced with loyalty to his mother and his country, his choice ultimately dooms him to never fully being “American” as well as being shut out of opportunities that can never come as a result of his choice.
Racial Prejudice
Not that the opportunities for those Japanese-Americans who did serve and were discharged honorably proved to be significantly broader or more plentiful. Whether a veteran or no-no boy, the odds are stacked against Japanese-Americans not because the nation their parents or grandparents called home waged war on America. German-Americans and Italian-Americans suffered none of the systemic racial prejudice experienced by Japanese-Americans and the bullets fired by the soldiers of those two country killed Americans just as effectively as those shot by Japanese soldiers. A very special and particular racial bias formed against Japan immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States government took no action to address that unfair treatment. In fact, they were leading the parade of prejudice against the Japanese.
Identity Crisis
The demand for Japanese-American men drafted or enlisting to fight to sign an oath of loyalty to the U.S. while also forcing a renunciation of any allegiance to the nation which gave them their heritage and culture was tantamount to forcing a parent to decide which child he loves most…and then demanding that he not love the other child at all. Second and third generation Japanese-Americans at the time were not so easily assimilated into the American culture as they are now with the result that while the bulk of these men likely never stepped foot in Japan, they still possessed a strong sense of Japanese identity.
This theme is explored by first admitting that a such a situation naturally produces an identity crisis for many, but then goes on to explore how placing pressures upon one group of immigrants for obviously racist reasons serves to negatively impact the feelings of loyalty to home rather than the homeland. In attempting to address the issue of conflicted loyalties and a crisis of identity through such pernicious compulsion, perhaps the United States government succeeded in bringing about precisely the opposite of their intended outcome among who knows how substantial a segment of the Japanese-American community.
