Interviews with Japanese American women revealed that they developed an Asian American identity by resolving initial identity conflicts, and that the process occurred in five stages. In the first stage, the individuals' interaction with family and friends led to ethnic awareness, or a consciousness of their Japanese descent. In the second stage, contact with white society resulted in a sense of being different from peers, of alienation from self and from other Asian Americans, and of identification with whites. In the third stage, which coincided with the sociopolitical movements of the 1960s and the 1970s, the Asian Americans developed sociopolitical consciousness, a new awareness of themselves and of their rights as minorities, and a feeling of alienation from whites. The fourth stage involved the redirection of experiences toward Asian American consciousness and the gradual emergence of an Asian American identity. The fifth stage was characterized by the women's ability to relate to different groups of people without losing their identity as Asian Americans. Interaction with the social environment influenced the identity development process: in general, women who grew up in predominantly non-white, racially mixed neighborhoods had less painful experiences with identity conflict than those who grew up in predominantly white neighborhoods. (MJL)