Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US A Japanese-American who is born in the United States but primarily educated in Japan.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese 帰米 (kibei, "to go home").

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Examples

  • When he returned to Hawaii as a kibei a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent who is educated in Japan and became a manager in the sugar plantation, he was, says Ms. Kita, “the nail that sticks out and must be pounded down.”

    One Big Table Molly O’Neill 2010

  • The Niihau incident itself got very little attention, as far as I know, either in the press or in the security analyses; much less than Japanese language schools and newspapers, imported nationalistic Nichiren priests, kibei educational returnees and other community ties to Japan.

    Asian History Carnival #11 2007

  • Lt. Cmdr. K.D. Ringle of the Office of Naval Intelligence had been investigating the kibei for several months when the Japanese perpetrated their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Israelated - English Israel blogs 2008

  • Known as kibei, they were fluent in Japanese, steeped in Japanese history and culture, and supporters of Japanese expansion in the Far East.

    Israelated - English Israel blogs 2008

  • Lt. Cmdr. K.D. Ringle of the Office of Naval Intelligence had been investigating the kibei for several months when the Japanese perpetrated their sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

    Latest Articles 2008

  • Known as kibei, they were fluent in Japanese, steeped in Japanese history and culture, and supporters of Japanese expansion in the Far East.

    Latest Articles 2008

  • Nippostrongylus kendo kyu nisei kesa-gatame kyudo No keyaki linked verse nogaku kiaki mai noh kibei maiko nori kiku makimono norimon Kikuchi mama-san norito kikumon mamushi noshi kikyo mana notan ki-mon matsu nunchakus kimono matsuri oban kimono sleeve matsuyama, adj. obang kin mebos obe kiri medaka obi kirigami Meiji odori kirimon menuki ofuro kirin metake o-goshi koan miai oiran mikado ojime sub mikan Okayama, adj. kobang Mikimoto Okazaki kobe, adj.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol IX No 1 1982

  • What’s particularly interesting about Lummis’s article — which goes on from there to discuss Benedict’s life and career in some detail, with the usual damning portrayal of mid-century anthropology — is his portrait of Robert Hashima, Benedict’s most important “informant”: Hashima was a kibei — US-born but returned to Japan as a teen to study — who got back to the US just in time to be interned and work for anthropologist John Embree.

    井の中の蛙 » The Rice Bowl and the Bomb » Print 2007

  • What’s particularly interesting about Lummis’s article — which goes on from there to discuss Benedict’s life and career in some detail, with the usual damning portrayal of mid-century anthropology — is his portrait of Robert Hashima, Benedict’s most important “informant”: Hashima was a kibei — US-born but returned to Japan as a teen to study — who got back to the US just in time to be interned and work for anthropologist John Embree.

    The Rice Bowl and the Bomb 2007

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