The “Nisei Daughter” is a memoir of Monica Sone’s life. Sone grew up in an immigrant family in Seattle, and she talks about her experiences with her friends and family. She is a Japanese American writing about very sensitive periods in her life. Sone wrote the memoir not too long after the Japanese were let out of the internment camps, after the Pearl Harbor attack. The book first came out in 1953. Sone and her family first arrived in the concentration camps in 1942, and some of her family stayed until the camps closed in 1946. Sone gives her first hand account on the unpleasant experiences the Japanese faced in the internment camps. It is a good read to learn about the ways of life for the Japanese before, during and after the camps. It gives a great history on the lives of the Japanese and American Japanese. Sone describes the struggles that the Issei (Japanese born/ first generation) and Nisei (American born Japanese/ second generation) have during those though times. Sone is lost in a struggle of finding her true identity. In the beginning of the memoir she describes being Japanese and American as being a freak with two heads. Monica Sone stated, “And now Mother was telling us we were Japanese. I had always thought I was a Yankee, because after all I had been born on Occidental and Main Street. Montana, a wall- shaking mountain of a man who lived at our hotel, called me a Yankee. I didn’t see how I could be a Yankee and Japanese at the same time. It was like being born with two heads. It sounded freakish and a lot of trouble” (Sone 18-19). Towards the end, Sone has had many life altering encounters with the Japanese and their culture that she has come to realize that two heads are better than one. It is interesting to see Sone slowly grow up and become a stronger person through out her memoir. One way Sone shows the cultural differences between Americans and the Japanese is by comparing foods. There are many descriptions of various foods, both American and Japanese, through out the memoir. If one was not interested in the historical aspect of the novel the descriptions of various foods is quite fascinating. If the historical portion of the book was particularly intriguing to the reader, a great book to read along with Sone’s novel would be “A History of Asian Americans: Strangers from a different shore” by Ronald Takaki. Takaki’s piece is a great narrative history of not only the Japanese, but also other Asian Americans including the Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Indian, Vietnamese, and others. A great Memoir to read on the Chinese and the clash between American born Chinese would be “The Woman Warrior” by Maxine Hong Kingston. If one were interested in reading about Koreans versus Korean Americans a great read would be the “Native Speaker” by Chang-Rae Lee. All of the novels I listed share the same captivating theme of self-identiy.There are many interesting themes in Monica Sone’s memoir to analyze. You could really dig at the themes of racism, shame, citizenship, immigration, segregation, culture values, and filial duty. Nisei Daughter is like a fun history book, because it includes exciting first hand experiences along with factual historical information.