Definitions

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

  • noun an American whose parents were Japanese immigrants

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Japanese 二世 (にせい, nisei), from (ni-) ‘second’ + (sei) ‘generation’.

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Examples

  • At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, thirty-nine thousand nisei American-born children of Japanese immigrants in Hawaii and eighteen thousand in California were enrolled in Japanese-language schools.

    A Renegade History of the United States Thaddeus Russell 2010

  • Often compared to short-story masters such as Katherine Mansfield, Flannery O'Connor and Grace Paley, Ms. Yamamoto concentrated her imagination on the issei and nisei, the first- and second-generation Japanese Americans who were targets of the public hysteria unleashed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

    Hisaye Yamamoto, short story writer who chronicled post-WWII Japanese American life,dies at 89 Elaine Woo 2011

  • Often compared to short-story masters such as Katherine Mansfield, Flannery O'Connor and Grace Paley, Ms. Yamamoto concentrated her imagination on the issei and nisei, the first- and second-generation Japanese Americans who were targets of the public hysteria unleashed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

    Hisaye Yamamoto, short story writer who chronicled post-WWII Japanese American life,dies at 89 Elaine Woo 2011

  • Their two nisei translators had such flawed grammar and old-fashioned idioms that their efforts did not fool anyone, least of all the enemy.

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • She wove intercultural conflicts and bonds into "Seventeen Syllables" 1949, in which a nisei girl's blooming romance with a Mexican American classmate offers an achingly innocent counterpoint to her mother's arranged marriage.

    Hisaye Yamamoto, short story writer who chronicled post-WWII Japanese American life,dies at 89 Elaine Woo 2011

  • The MO staff included a nisei second-generation Japanese American named Tokie Slocum, who served as their resident expert, responsible for conjuring up the mind of the typical Japanese soldier and assessing what strategies would be most effective in playing on his emotions and superstitions and undermining his morale.

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • The MO staff included a nisei second-generation Japanese American named Tokie Slocum, who served as their resident expert, responsible for conjuring up the mind of the typical Japanese soldier and assessing what strategies would be most effective in playing on his emotions and superstitions and undermining his morale.

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • She wove intercultural conflicts and bonds into "Seventeen Syllables" 1949, in which a nisei girl's blooming romance with a Mexican American classmate offers an achingly innocent counterpoint to her mother's arranged marriage.

    Hisaye Yamamoto, short story writer who chronicled post-WWII Japanese American life,dies at 89 Elaine Woo 2011

  • Their two nisei translators had such flawed grammar and old-fashioned idioms that their efforts did not fool anyone, least of all the enemy.

    A Covert Affair Jennet Conant 2011

  • In today's paper, Mr. Tanabe's grandson reflects on what the degree means to him and his generation: I am proud of the nisei — my grandfather's generation — who responded to the prejudice of internment with actions of strength and honor.

    A Link, and Life in Hawaii kateelliott 2008

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