In “The Invisible Man” by Murphy-Shigemitsu, the questions that he raises in the beginning of the reading regarding what makes one Japanese or not are very interesting. I think that the ones that captured my attention the most was “What does an American face look like? What does a Japanese face look like? The reason being is because I don’t know the answer and better yet there is no concrete answer, because ultimately nationality and race are social constructions making the question that more complex. Relating this to my experiences in Japan so far, the truth is that I have not noticed people that are mixed or from two completely different nationalities. Maybe I am not paying attention enough to notice or perhaps I have encountered a dew but am just unsure of what mixed blood people look like, again because there is no set or concrete description of what they look like so I am unsure what I am looking for.
In addition, there is also the mention of context mattering in being able to identify a Japanese person or in this case an American or foreigner. Murphy Shigemitsu mentions that many times he perceptions of his identity or racial background depended on the people that surrounded him. In Japan when he is surrounded by those that are “more” Japanese than he is he is perceived as more foreign as he received a baseball game pamphlet in English rather than Japanese. On the other hand, when he is surrounded by those that look less Japanese and more foreign, he is perceived as more Japanese and is given a Japanese program. This again goes back to the idea of individuals not really knowing what Japanese or American really looks like as presented by the fact that perception changed based on the surroundings and context which are not concrete.
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