Japanese Americans and mental health

This is a personal account by a second-generation Japanese American of the special problems faced by certain minority groups and their effects on the mental health of individuals and families in these groups. It discusses the cultural and historic forces in traditional Japanese life whose interaction with American customs produces emotional stresses and delineates the barriers to seeking professional help that originate in the Japanese emphasis on avoidance of family shame. It reports on studies indicating an increase in intermarriage and emphasizes the commonality existing among groups and races that can serve to fuse the special uniqueness of each into the larger human family.Based on an address given on June 16, 1978 to the Japanese American Citizens League and reprinted here with permission from theNew York Nichibei.