John Okada’s No-No Boy: Ichiro's Position

In John Okada’s No-No Boy, the protagonist Ichiro questions the position of how to be the American. In the novel, to be the American can be well-defined when most characters all serve in the army of America to fight for the country. While most characters take the notion of serving in the army to be the American, they desire to be visible by eagerly proving that they are the Americans despite their efforts to the process of being recognized by the public. For instance, to show that one is an American, Taro has his attempts to join the army despite his young age. Kenji also can be regarded as an American for he contributes his life to the American army while injured with his wounded leg. Taro and Kenji’s cases instead become visible as if they stood at the position of the “inside” as being an American is called, which Ichiro calls “the inside” (Okada 160) of the America in Chapter Seven.

The distinctive position is also portrayed in the character Mr. Carrick and Ichiro for their contrast identification. Ichiro seems to draw the line of outside and inside as to be the American for he considers that he hardly stays inside as being an American no matter how hard he tries. In the seventh chapter, as Ichiro meets Mr. Carrick, who is an American employer, he assumes that Mr. Carrick will disdain his past two years as he does not serve in the army for America. Nonetheless, it seems that Mr. Carrick does not truly care about Ichiro’s past but shows his apology to him for the wrongness about American government’s internment on the Japanese. Nevertheless, what Ichiro feels is that he does not fit the job offered by Mr. Carrick. As Ichiro says, he thinks that the job belongs to “another Japanese who was equally as American as this man who was attempting in a small way to rectify the wrong he felt to be his own because he was a part of the country which, somehow, had erred in a moment of panic” (Okada 151). From this quote, Ichiro takes Mr. Carrick’s position as the inside as being an American because the foundation of being recognized as an American gives not only Mr. Carrick but also the public a staunch belief that he is the one who can be visible from most people. Ichiro assumes that Mr. Carrick can show his understanding to him, but he slightly knows that Mr. Carrick always has the right to stand the position of inside or outside in which he chooses. Only when Mr. Carrick has been recognized as an American will he enable to make choices in positions. Ichiro, however, does not have any choice as he lies in the position of outside the identification of American. Though Mr. Carrick seems to stand in Ichiro’s shoes as making a sincere apology to Ichiro for the American government’s wrong doing, he meanwhile has the right to feel sorry for Ichiro, who literally feels that he is always the one outside as being an American as if Mr. Carrick, who stands at the position of “outside” (Okada 159), was able to look in the frame of what it is to be the American. For Ichiro, he does not even have courage to step out of his room as he is afraid of being seen by others for his disgraceful past. But Ichiro’s case does not mean that he is completely invisible by others. Although he desperately wants to be visible as identified to be one of Japanese or American, he lies neither in the inside nor the outside. Ichiro instead stands the position in-between. For me, Ichiro is like a mirror as he struggles between the facts of being an American. He may be able to reflect the non-identification of being an American as his self-doubt and self-alienation are revealed, and his desire to join in the army may also be reflected as he keeps longing for an American identity if he could serve in the army in the past times.