Decades ago, I stumbled into majoring in anthropology at Barnard College in New York City. Anthropology was my third choice for a major, and Barnard was my fourth choice for college. But my options were limited. Soon it would be time to graduate, and I had to do a final project. Having dabbled in Eastern religions (of course), I found it made sense to do a little fieldwork in a Japanese temple nearby. New York City, of course, is a playground for anthropologists.

I paid some visits to the temple and watched a group of high school students engage in their Japanese Buddhist practices and rituals. What I saw did not resemble what I was led to believe I would find from my Eastern Religions class. Nevertheless, I took notes and prepared to write up my final project.

Somehow I noticed that many of the young people in the group were of mixed ancestry. At the end of my observations, I asked the class, “How many of you are half Japanese?” Almost all of the students raised........

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