The girl’s anxiety about her appearance probably stems from an “inferiority complex.” Because she is surrounded by standards of beauty that emphasize whiteness, and the white people in town stare at her because they consider her part of the “enemy,” she internalizes this constant racism and assumes that something is wrong with
her, not with them. The mother tries to be affirming, but she probably can do little in the face of an entire society that condemns the very idea of being Japanese.