From: "'Ben Bednarz'" AOL COM> Date: 21 may 1999 Subject: Re: Still Problems with the US Shogi Championship There have been so many notes about these US Shogi Championship, and everone is so busy bickering, that some interesting points are being overlooked. Taking an outsider's view, here is one such issue: Rob Uechi wrote: I suppose since I look like one of them, it must mean I am one of them. What other kind of thinking can one expect from a race that put my "un-American" kind in concentration camps during the second World War. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I would prefer to keep the Japanese-American concentration camps out of this. This was perhaps the worst crime our government ever committed (worse than slavery, for example, because it so clearly violated the constitution). I hate to mix such a terrible event with this discussion, which often indulges in petty issues. Of course, Mr. Uechi's comment was provoked by the discussion of Japanese vs. Japanese-American versus "non-Japanese-" American players. First, let's dump the entire concept of "Japanese-American". It's nice when you want to celebrate old family or cultural traditions, but the reality is that you're either American or your not. Whether you're American depends on: 1. Whether you live in the US with the intent of staying here for a long time (that is, you have no definite plans to leave in the next few years). 2. Whether you came from the US, but are living abroad temporarily. Temporary meaning you intend to return to the US. Of course, "intent to leave" and "intent to return" are sometimes are to measure. So a second way of measuring your American status is your acceptance or denial of the culture, language, etc. For example, a Japanese-born person living in this country who speak mostly Japanese, and whose personal ties remain with people in Japan rather than in the US, could be argued to be a visiting Japanese, even if he had no set date to leave the US. A third way is to look at a person's job status. Over the last year, I've become involved in table tennis, where the strong players in the US are mostly Chinese immigrants or second-generation Chinese-American. I've heard similar arguments there. In fact, the strongest player in the US (by a very wide margin!) is a Chinese immigrant who lives 50 miles from me. I consider him an American for purposes of tournament eligibility: he lives here, he works here, he shows no interest in leaving here. Bottom line: let's not get so hung-up on the nationality. I understand that the US Shogi Championships had a substantial first-prize, and greed (to put it baldly) can be a strong motivating factor, but this isn't worth the destruction of our American Shogi community, which is what you'll get if you pursue issues of national identity.