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DESCRIPTION:\nOn October 13\, 1955\, Pan American World Airways stunned the
  commercial aviation industry by ordering the largest fleet of jet aircraf
 t in the world\, officially ushering in the Jet Age. In that same year\, t
 he airline embarked on a new personnel program\, hiring Japanese American 
 women to serve its Tokyo-bound and famed round-the-world flights. Although
  the airline claimed to hire these women to speak Japanese\, in order to c
 ompete with Japan Air Lines which began international air travel in 1954\,
  Yano’s analysis shows that beyond language\, the women added the look o
 f the exotic Asian woman. With Honolulu as their base\, these women were i
 nformally dubbed Pan Am’s “Nisei” (second-generation Japanese Americ
 an) stewardesses\, even if not all of them were second-generation or Japan
 ese American. Rather\, by calling these women “Nisei\,” Pan Am drew up
 on the cultural capital of Nisei war veterans and their minority patriotis
 m. These women were among the first non-white stewardesses in Pan Am and o
 ther airlines’ employ. However this breaking of the racial barrier came 
 not as a matter of civil rights\, but as carefully drawn corporate strateg
 y to expand Pan Am’s global domination utilizing some of the drawing pow
 er of the Asian woman.\n\nThis talk analyzes Pan Am’s “Nisei” stewar
 dess project from its inception in 1955 to 1972\, when the women themselve
 s instigated the end of their closed-base status in order to gain more emp
 loyee rights. This study situates Pan Am’s “Nisei” stewardesses with
 in an era of postwar American empire tied to newfound mobilities symbolize
 d particularly by jets and Asian American women. Through interviews with t
 he women and archival research\, Yano juxtaposes Pan Am’s ambitions with
  individual aspirations and experiences. Yano argues that both share mutua
 lly constitutive “airborne dreams\,” embedded within the nascent cosmo
 politanisms of this frontier era known as the Jet Age.\n\nPan Am’s “Ni
 sei” stewardesses provide an important lens upon a particular period in 
 American history filled with the complexities of assimilationist rhetoric 
 and racialized hiring. Becoming corporate persons in a prestigious America
 n company at the forefront of a global industry – in particular for Japa
 nese Americans only ten years following the end of World War II – called
  upon assimilation within the gendered domain of “model minority” femi
 ninity and professionalism.\n\n<a href="http://janmstore.com/151273.html">
 <em>Airborne Dreams</em> is available to purchase from the Museum Store &
 gt\;&gt\;</a>\n\nFree with Museum admission. Reservations recommended to r
 svp@janm.org or 213.625.0414 at least 48 hours prior.\n\n<a href="http://w
 ww.janm.org/" target="_blank">www.janm.org</a>\n
DTSTAMP:20250115T222132Z
SUMMARY:BOOKS &amp\; CONVERSATIONS: Airborne Dreams: “Nisei” Stewardess
 es and Pan American World Airways by Christine R. Yano
URL:/en/events/2012/01/28/books-conversations-airborne-dreams-nisei-st/
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