This paper investigates how the voices of Japanese women living in the US were constructed in developing Japanese immigrant newspapers in the early twentieth century. It asks how these voices were linked to representing and establishing the concept of 'essential' motherhood and a racial, transnational and ethnic group identity. The voices of women on the subject of motherhood were formed in connection with ideas of 'home'. They were formed under the influence of Japanese transnational discourses of motherhood popular in Japan. At the same time, they were articulated in the interests of permanent settlement and the formation and reform of Japanese immigrant society. These voices defined 'home' as a place to reproduce the second generation, which would help to establish a 'healthy' and 'civilized' Japanese immigrant community acceptable to US society. Women were given the role of establishing a good 'home' and a desirable Japanese immigrant society by Americanizing themselves and their children. Furthermore, they had the mission of passing on and establishing a racial and transnational identity as Japanese in the US. Reflecting these components of the idea of 'home', women's discourses of birth control and desirable childcare were formed through the immigrant media. © 2009 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Japanese immigrants Americanization Media motherhood Transnationalism

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