Nisei Daughter is the story of Monica Sone's experiences as a Japanese American in the 1920s and 1930s, growing up in Seattle, never really feeling that she fit in anywhere. It is also the story of the Japanese American experience in post-Pearl Harbor America, when like most Japanese Americans, Sone and her family were sent to an internment camps for the duration of the war,
The title of the book comes from the Japanese word Nisei, which means a child of Japanese parents (Issei) born in America. Many Nisei experienced cultural differences both in the country of their birth and that country of their ancestors and Sone was no exceptions, feeling like a fish out of water in both countries.
Sone became a clinical psychologist after graduating from Case Western Reserve University, and it was through her psychologist perspective that she wrote an introduction to S. Maret's book about the internment years and the experiences of Japanese American families at these camps.
Nisei Daughter is considered to be one of the most important texts studied in college Asian American Studies programs.
