Identity disruption and the observing-narrating self in Stanley Hayami’s internment diary

Abstract

ABSTRACT Among the tens of thousands of young Japanese Americans imprisoned in internment camps during World War II, teenager Stanley Hayami decided to chronicle his thoughts and experiences in a diary. Hayami’s diary provides both a fascinating glimpse into the everyday experiences of teenage internees and, as we argue, an opportunity to learn more about how the process of journaling can reveal the profound and complex challenges involved in re-constructing an identity disrupted by a heightened recognition of one’s marked, racialized body and the phenomenological displacement of the self in time and space. Integrating theoretical work in narrative, diaries, and multi-modal identity, we illustrate how Hayami used his diary to observe and narrate his self-identity during internment.