Personal Essay Sample: My Cultural Heritage
My cultural heritage strings from two similar yet very different cultures and people, I am a half Japanese and half American offspring that was born in America. My mother’s side of the family is where most of my Japanese relatives live and my father’s side of the family has most of the American traits. Today I will explore the Japanese/Asian side of myself as I don’t have much of an understanding of where my mother comes from.
Before we get an understanding of myself we would have to get an understanding of Japanese history and where everything originated that makes up Japan.
Japan is an island country that is by the east coast of Asia and is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. In the year 40,000 BCE, Japan was once a land that was connected to Asia before rising water levels that submerged the connecting land, which made Japan an island. During this age rice farms were becoming a trend and Japan took part as it took over half of Japan. At this time of development Japan had 7 major kingdoms, Hi, Chikushi, Izumo, Kibi, Yamato, Koshi, and Kenu. Somewhere around the 5th century Kanji was introduced from China, Kanji is the first writing system alongside Hiragana and Katakana, Kanji has characters that mostly have meaning instead of sounds like Hiragana and Katakana. By the year 593 Japan had been introduced to a new religion called Buddhism by Prince Shotoku. Buddhism is the belief that there is a cause to suffering and Buddhism is the truth in suffering. Somewhere in between this in the year 645 the Taika Reforms were formed and were written after the death of Prince Shotoku. The Taika Reforms stated that the government/emperor was going to be more in control rather than the people. Around the 7th or 8th century Japan established their new name as “Nihon” which stands for “Land of the rising sun” or “Sunrise land”. Japan kept relocating the capital every time the emperor passed and then finally decided to keep it in one area called Kyoto around the year 794. Both Katakana and Hiragana have been said to have been created during the 9th century, Katakana and Hiragana have similar vowel structure but different characters as Katakana was used for foreign words and names rather than Hiragana which was mainly used for native sounding. Then Japan went through a lot of changes throughout the next 6 centuries such as the hiring of Samurai, Shogunate: the new military government and the introduction of the shogun the military leader, the attack of the Mongols, the Emperor being overthrown by the shogun, The new government closing the country, Etc. In the 19th century, the US asked Japan to open the country, and instead, Japan signed a contract that allowed the US, Russia, And Britain to enter the country. Two cities called Choshu and Satsuma didn’t agree with the idea and overthrew the shogun (the military leader) and empowered the emperor to emperor and renamed Edo into Tokyo which means “Eastern Capital”. More problems arise as a new western government is in place, Russia and Japan having issues that, led to WW1, World War 1, World War 2, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the US introducing a government that is more of Japan’s liking. Currently, Japan has a total of 47 prefectures also known as districts under the government. The 47 prefectures consist of some of the more known Japanese cities such as Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, etc. which are all split up into different types of prefectures.
Now that we have an understanding of Japanese history it’s time to get to know more about me and my mother’s culture.
My mother was born in Tokyo, Japan 1964, and grew up with her mother and brother (my nana and uncle). In her adult years, she met my dad when he was stationed in Japan during his time in the Navy. My mother and father had my older sister Jewel and got married in America then they moved to Washington State after my father was stationed there. After all these events they had me at the Bremerton Naval Hospital.
What sets my culture apart from others is that my culture is built off of politeness and modesty. In Japan, there are many unspoken but known rules that all citizens follow in accordance. Some examples of these rules would be taking your shoes off before entering your or anyone's home, not leaving chopsticks upright, not pointing, not eating or drinking on the streets, not tipping when going out, etc, These rules help create a sort of strict or otherwise well-mannered community that Japanese culture aims to achieve. Where most of the modesty and politeness came from could be interpreted differently by many people since they isn’t an exact origin but a statement that I agree with the most can be quoted from a response to a quora question from Koraro Hanawa a person that is native to Japan speaking on behalf on why they think Japanese people are about modesty, “One reason is that the Japanese are in the psychological condition where they are dependent on honoring themselves and others-.”
I personally agree with that statement as I also believe that Japanese people have just been raised with the idea of being polite to others and being well-mannered and that Japanese people have a strong sense of honoring themselves and others. This could also be another reason why Japanese people speak very highly of Japan.
In my final thoughts, I love every aspect of my culture and wouldn’t give it up for the world, and sharing the history and details about my Japanese culture has taught me a lot about accepting who I am and even understanding others cultures as well as my own.
