The United States of America a nation known for allowing freedom, equality, justice, and most of all a chance for immigrants to attain the American dream. However, that “America” was hardly recognizable during the 1940’s when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering 120,000 Japanese Americans to be relocated to internment camps. As for the aftermath, little is known beyond the historical documents and stories from those affected. Through John Okada’s novel, No-No Boy, a closer picture of the aftermath of the internment is shown through the events of the protagonist, Ichiro. It provides a more human perspective that is filled with emotions and connections that are unattainable from an ordinary historical document. In the novel, Ichiro had a life full of possibilities until he was stripped of his entire identity and had to watch those opportunities diminish before him. The war between Japan and the United States manifested itself into an internal way between his Japanese and American identities. Ichiro’s self-deprecating nature that he developed from this identity clash clearly questions American values, such as freedom and equality which creates a bigger picture of this indistinguishable “America” that has been known for its freedom, equality, and helping the oppressed.
Ichiro frequently faced hostility from Japanese-American veterans for being a No-No boy, which heightened self-hatred of his identity. From the moment he arrived back to Seattle, he was met with negativity from Eto Minato, a Japanese-American veteran who went from friendly to hateful after realizing Ichiro was a No-no boy. Ichiro came face-to-face with Eto’s harsh criticism as he told him, “Rotten bastard. Shit on you… I’ll piss on you nex...
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...her he is Japanese or an American.
The obstacles Ichiro faced in searching for his lost identity reveal a discrepancy of American values, such as freedom and equality, which are deeply rooted in a segregated society. Through the negativity of many of the Japanese-American veterans and the differences among Ichiro’s entire family, he has literally gone from having a duel-heritage to no identity at all. Since he has no desire to be Japanese and feels unworthy to be American, he sees himself as nothing. His hatred of himself not only hinders the possibilities before him, but it also paints a whole new picture of America. Instead of a nation that is united and fights for freedom and equality, America is divided by racism and strips away the freedom of those they find inferior.
Works Cited
Okada, John. No-no Boy. Seattle: University of Washington, 1981. Print.
Once Executive Order 9066 was signed, with no proof that sabotage or espionage had been committed by Japanese Americans, it allowed for the relocation and summary removal of “enemy aliens” from their homes to incarceration under guard in designated areas / camps. With just one pen and piece of paper, FDR suddenly made it possible for citizens of Japanese descent to be ...
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
21 . Robinson, Greg By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans,2003, Harvard University Press
The anti-Japanese sentiments became even more prominent with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. In Mark Weber’s essay “The Japanese Camps in California (www.ihr.org)” he describes the fear the government had of all Japanese people also including Chinese and Asian; Americans felt unsafe and perceived the Japanese as a threat. On February 19, 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066 authorizing all Japanese residents to evacuate from their homes establishing internment camps. Families were torn apart, their property and belongings were destroyed and all financial assistance for families were frozen. Many adults and children became ill and many died for lack of medical care. The evacuation was made to protect US citizens from possible sabotage. Many asked to be let go, however they were forced to fill out loyalty questionnaires. The questionnaires asked many personal questions including if they were spies, what they would do for Japan, if they would join the US military, for example, “Question 28 was even more complex: Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States... and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization? Many internees feared this question was a trap. Would a yes answer indicate that they had once sworn allegiance to Japan? Some refused to answer, or answered no to both questions, as a matter of principle. For Issei, who had been denied U.S. citizenship on the basis of race, the issue was even more complex, because either response could conceivably make them stateless” (Loyalty Questionnaire: www.amhistory.si.edu). Many found these questions to be unconstitutional and would prove
Roosevelt signed the Evaluation Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 after the attack of Pearl Harbor, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to internment camps. They were kept far away from other and kept isolated from others. About two-thirds of the Japanese relocated to internment camps were American citizens, the Nisei and Sansei, or second and third-generation descendants of first-generation Japanese immigrants. “Valerie Matsumoto gives a concise run of the facts for the internment in American War Relocation Authority camps, of which there were ten in seven different states located in largely desert areas of the West and Midwest”. (densho) Japanese Americans were given only a short amount of time before they were forced to move, many of the community leaders have already been removed to specific camps for expected troublemakers or “enemy aliens.” (densho) Many Japanese Americans were stripped of their citizenship and possessions. Moreover, some repatriated to Japan after the war, but many did not, but faced
Throughout the novel, When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, American culture permeates the lives of Japanese American children. Thousands of Japanese-American citizens were sent to internment camps across the country. The government felt that this was the only way to secure the homeland from the possibility of an internal attack by Japanese American citizens. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the detained Japanese did not identify as any nationality but American. In Otsuka’s novel, her characters cherished uniquely American items. Their reintegration into society following their internment was made difficult by the way, their peers now viewed them. This confusion in their identity highlights the unfair internment of people who were American citizens, rather than the enemy, by the United States.
Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Japanese American, and James D. Houston, describes about the experience of being sent to an internment camp during World War II. The evacuation of Japanese Americans started after President Roosevelt had signed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, the Wakatsuki was sent on a bus to Manzanar, California. There, they were placed in an internment camp, many miles from their home with only what they could carry. The lives of the Japanese Americans in the internment was a struggle. But for some of the Japanese Americans, it was even harder after they were discharged from the internment camp. The evacuation and the internment had changed the lives of all Japanese Americans. The evacuation and internment affected the Wakatsuki family in three ways: the destruction of Papa’s self-esteem, the separation of the Wakatsuki family, and the change in their social status.
Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.
After Ichiro comes back to Seattle, he has more struggles to face. “The no no boys, too, were released reviled and shunned, or something lauded, they became the target of the Japanese American Community’s agonizing ambivalence about the war” No no boys become targets because they we a “disgrace” to the Japanese American community because they choose not to join the American military. People judge him for not joining the military and his brother who despises him for his decision to not joining the Army. “Rotten Bastard. Shit on you. Eto coughed up a mouthful on a sputum and rolled his words around it: Rotten, no-good bastard.” In the beginning of the novel when Ichiro gets off the bus and sees Eto who wants to catch up with him figures out that
Japanese- Americans were being evacuated along the west coast into internment camps by their zone districts. Uchida, a current college student, lives under the constant fear of “voluntary evacuation” areas by the military, but the spiteful comments around her campus has been increasing. Many of her classmates had gone home to stay with their families or take over the family duties because the head of their families have been taken. Most of these Japanese- Americans were first and second generation Americans, who grew up here and knew America to be their “home” country. As Uchida says, “We tried to go on living as normally as possible, behaving as other American citizens. Most...had never been to Japan. The United States of America was our only country and we were totally loyal to it.” Eventually, her zone gets called for evacuation so she returns home - a place where her family has lived for fifteen years. Her sister, the head of the family in lieu of her father, brings home tags that had the reference to the family number and a few suitcases that they can carry their supplies in. The family proceed to their well- guarded designated place. The author recounts, “I could see a high barbed wire fence surrounding the entire area, pierced at regular intervals by tall guard towers...I saw armed guards close and bar the barbed wire gates behind
When the daughter came home she asked her mother if there was something wrong with her face. Clearly, she was being made fun of at school. She was unsure about her identity after some schoolmates pointed out her Japanese appearance. Puzzled by the discriminating comment, she asked her mother if she was alright: “‘Is there anything wrong with my face?’ she asked…’People were staring.’...If there was something wrong with my face,’ the girl asked, ‘would you tell me?’” (Otsuka 15). The daughter wanted to belong in the school and be accepted. She thought something was wrong about her so people stared at her hostilely. However, nothing about her has changed yet. Her classmates started to generalize all Japanese people as enemies of the state and began to alienate Japanese Americans. Her Japanese appearance was something that she could never change, and that very aspect of her identity antagonized her from her classmates because the US was at war with Japan at the time. Since the daughter does not want to feel left out of the community, she started to change her identity. She began to doubt who she was and who she should be. After the incident, the daughter tried to become someone who she was not, abating her Japanese identity little by
Austin Benoit’s presentation on the significance of noir in John Okada’s No-No Boy was a new approach to the theme of American National Belonging, which usually targets the societal aspects of American identity. Titled “’A Terribly Incomplete Thing’: ‘No-No Boy’ and the Ugly Feelings of Noir,” the article mainly argued that dark deeds, and the social estrangement signified by noir, depicted the “psychic torment” that Ichiro suffers due to his refusal to serve in the US military, representing a “discourse of negative feelings” and corrosion of any “affirmative patriotic sentiments” that the text upholds. Furthermore, Benoit treated the article’s evidence and stakes by first defining vocabulary, such as noir, in order to help the audience better
Most of Ichiro’s problems comes from the fact that he chose not to join the American army because he felt he was an American in his own way. But his regret for his decision messes with him and he hates himself for his choose sometimes. He feels he is not free because people around him remind him of his choose every day. Instead of feeling the relief of freedom from the camp, he feels trapped by his self-hatred, knowing he will never be the same and never be a true American, which he wants to be. In this book, Ichiro goes through a lot of struggles to define what gives someone the right to be
Baseball Saved Us exposes children to the grim aspects of the internment camps. It does not hesitate to point out the overcrowded living quarters in the desolate conditions of the desert camps or that Japanese Americans had to discard most of their belongings before leaving their homes. Yet, it is through these realistically dark details that this book teaches one of its most valuable lessons to children. Children need to know that Japanese Americans were unfairly persecuted and interned. Oftentimes history textbooks gloss over the Japanese American internment camps. Baseball Saved Us attempts to elucidate this overlooked subject and teaches children about the wrongful treatment of Japanese Americans during and following WWII. In describing the horrible conditions of the camps, this book serves as a positive ethical influence on children because it shows them how unfair it was for people to be forced to experience these hard...
Imagine one day you’re told to pack your bags and leave your home for a prison camp and you have no clue when or if you will return. This was decreed by Executive Order 9066, authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans. The island on which I live was the first location in the U.S. to implement this persecution of residents of Japanese descent. Prompted by war hysteria, this injustice was recognized in a presidential apology as a constitutional failure. The lessons gleaned from executive order 9066 can be applied to current issues in our world, nation, and even college campuses. Growing up with this awareness, I am acutely attuned to discrimination of groups based on their ethnic or religious identities