Sansei (三世, "third generation") is aJapanese and North American English term^[1] used in parts of the world (mainly inSouth America andNorth America) to refer to the children of children born to ethnically Japanese emigrants (Issei) in a new country of residence, outside of Japan. Thenisei are considered the second generation, while grandchildren of the Japanese-born emigrants are calledSansei. The fourth generation is referred to asyonsei.^[2] The children of at least onenisei parent are calledSansei; they are usually the first generation of whom a high percentage are mixed-race, given that their parents were (usually), themselves, born and raised in America.^[3]

The character and uniqueness of thesansei is recognized in its social history.^[4]

Although the earliest organized group of Japanese emigrants settled inMexico in 1897,^[5] the four largest populations of Japanese and their descendants are inBrazil, theUnited States,Canada, andPeru.

Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside ofJapan, with an estimate of more than 1.5 million people (including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity),^[6] more than that of the 1.2 million in theUnited States.^[7] TheSansei Japanese of Brazil are an important ethnic minority in the South American nation.^[8]

Most AmericanSansei were born during theBaby Boom after the end ofWorld War II; olderSansei, who were living in the western United States during the war, were forcibly incarcerated with their parents (Nisei) and grandparents (Issei) afterExecutive Order 9066 was promulgated to exclude everyone of Japanese descent from theWest Coast and fromSouthern Arizona. TheSansei were forceful activists in theredress movement of the 1980s, which resulted in anofficial apology to the internees.^[9] In some senses, theSansei seem to feel they are caught in a dilemma between their "quiet" Nisei parents and their other identity model of "verbal" and outspoken Americans.^[10]

In the United States, an iconicSansei is GeneralEric Shinseki (born November 28, 1942, 34thChief of Staff of the United States Army (1999–2003) and formerUnited States Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is the firstAsian American in U.S. history to be afour-star general, and the first to lead one of the four U.S. military services.^[11]

Within Japanese-Canadian communities across Canada, three distinct subgroups developed, each with different sociocultural referents, generational identities, and wartime experiences.^[12]

Among the approximately 80,000 Peruvians of Japanese descent, theSansei Japanese Peruvians comprise the largest number. Former Peruvian PresidentAlberto Fujimori, who was in office from 28 July 1990 until 22 November 2000, was thenisei son ofIssei emigrants fromKumamoto City,Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan.

Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians have special names for each of their generations in North America. These are formed by combining one of theJapanese numbers corresponding to thegeneration with the Japanese word for generation (sei 世). The Japanese-American and Japanese-Canadian communities have themselves distinguished their members with terms likeIssei,Nisei andSansei which describe the first, second and third generation of immigrants. The fourth generation is calledYonsei (四世) and the fifth is calledGosei (五世). TheIssei,Nisei andSansei 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.^[12]

The termNikkei (日系) encompasses all of the world's Japanese immigrants across generations.^[14] The collective memory of theIssei and olderNisei was an image of Meiji Japan from 1870 through 1911, which contrasted sharply with the Japan that newer immigrants had more recently left. These differing attitudes, social values and associations with Japan were often incompatible with each other.^[15] In this context, the significant differences in post-war experiences and opportunities did nothing to mitigate the gaps which separated generational perspectives.

In North America since the redress victory in 1988, a significant evolutionary change has occurred. TheSansei, their parents, their grandparents, and their children are changing the way they look at themselves and their pattern of accommodation to the non-Japanese majority.^[17]

There are currently just over one hundred thousandBritish Japanese, mostly inLondon; but unlike otherNikkei communities elsewhere in the world, these Britons do not conventionally parse their communities in generational terms asIssei,Nisei orSansei.^[18][19]

The third generation of immigrants, born in the United States or Canada to parents born in the United States or Canada, is calledSansei (三世). Children born to theNisei were generally born after 1945. They speak English as their first language and are completely acculturized in the contexts of Canadian or American society. They tend to identify with Canadian or American values, norms and expectations. Few speak Japanese and most tend to express their identity as Canadian or American rather than Japanese. Among theSansei there is an overwhelming percentage of marriages to persons of non-Japanese ancestry.^[15]

Thekanreki (還暦), a traditional, pre-modern Japanese rite of passage to old age at 60, was sometimes celebrated by theIssei and is now being celebrated by increasing numbers ofNisei and a fewSansei. 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.^[20]

Some responded to internment with lawsuits and political action; and for others, poetry became an unplanned consequence:

With new hope.
We build new lives.
Why complain when it rains?
This is what it means to be free.
Lawson Fusao Inada,Japanese American Historical Plaza, Portland, Oregon.^[21]

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

The numbers ofsansei 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 theNikkei. Although the names highlighted here are over-represented bysansei from North America, the Latin American member countries of thePan American Nikkei Association (PANA) includeArgentina,Bolivia,Brazil,Chile,Colombia,Mexico,Paraguay,Peru,Uruguay, in addition to the English-speakingUnited States andCanada.^[23]

• Harth, Erica. (2003).Last Witnesses: Reflections on the Wartime Internment of Japanese Americans. New York: Macmillan.ISBN 9780312221997;OCLC 46364694
• Hosokowa, Fumiko. (1978).The Sansei: Social Interaction and Ethnic Identification Among the Third Generation Japanese. San Francisco: R & E Research Associates.ISBN 9780882474908;OCLC 4057372
• Itoh, Keiko. (2001).The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain: From Integration to Disintegration. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon.ISBN 9780700714872;OCLC 48937604
• Leslie, Gerald R. and Sheila K. Korman. (1967).The Family in Social Context. New York: Oxford University Press.OCLC 530549
• Makabe, Tomoko. (1998).The Canadian Sansei. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.ISBN 9780802041791;ISBN 9780802080387;OCLC 39523777
• McLellan, Janet. (1999).Many Petals of the Lotus: Five Asian Buddhist Communities in Toronto. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.ISBN 9780802044211;ISBN 9780802082251;OCLC 43521129
• Nomura, Gail M. (1998)."Japanese American Women," inThe Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (Mankiller, Barbara Smith, ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 9780618001828;OCLC 43338598
• Sowell, Thomas. (1981).Ethnic America: A History. New York:Basic Books.ISBN 9780465020744;OCLC 7306301
• Takahashi, Jere. (1997).Nisei Sansei: Shifting Japanese American Identities and Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.ISBN 9781566395502;OCLC 37180842
• Tamura, Eileen and Roger Daniels. (1994).Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: The Nisei Generation in Hawaii. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.ISBN 9780252020315;ISBN 9780252063589;OCLC 27383373
• Zweigenhaft, Richard L. and G. William Domhoff. (2006).Diversity in the Power Elite: How it Happened, Why it Matters. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN 9780742536982;ISBN 9780742536999;OCLC 62281556

• Gehrie, Mark Joshua. (1973).Sansei: An Ethnography of Experience (Ph.D. thesis, Anthropology). Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University.OCLC 71849646
• Kaihara, Rodney and Patricia Morgan. (1973).Sansei Experience. San Fullerton, Calif. : Oral History Program, California State University, Fullerton.OCLC 23352676
• Oana, Leilani Kyoko. (1984).Ethnocultural Identification in Sansei (Third Generation Japanese American) Females: An Evaluation of Alternative Measures (M.A. thesis). Washington, D.C.: George Washington University.OCLC 12726534
• Okamura, Randall F. (1978).The Contemporary Sansei (M.A. thesis, Community Development and Public Service). San Francisco: Lone Mountain College.OCLC 13182634
• Tanaka, Shaun Naomi. (2003).Ethnic Identity in the Absence of Propinquity Sansei and the Transformation of the Japanese-Canadian Community (M.A. thesis). Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University Press.OCLC 60673221

• Japanese American National Museum;JANM generational teas
• Embassy of Japan inWashington, DC
• Japanese American Citizens League

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