World War II was a time of great fear and distrust in this world’s history. There was great prejudice with a sense that betrayal could occur at any moment. This held most true for the Japanese. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were greatly looked down upon due to an American fear of retaliation. In Joy Kogawa’s novel, Obason, the narrator is a young Japanese Canadian girl recalling her forced relocation to internment camps. It was a time filled with stereotypes and a great deal of prejudiced behavior. Kogawa makes great use of point of view, selection of detail, and figurative language in order to reflect to narrator’s naive attitude of her past.
Through her use of point of view, Kogawa is able to provide simple and clear details on the narrator’s experiences. Children are young and innocent which means they are often unaware to the horrors and evils existing in this world. Kogawa chooses to write the narrator as a young girl who is innocent in the world. This girl has no real understanding as to the happenings and details of her World War II surroundings. Even so the narrator is able to provide simple views on the events which speaks volumes for the scene. “The train smells of oil and soot and orange peels...the black soot leaps and settles like insects...a boy is trying to distract the kitten with his finger but the kitten mews and mews” (50-60). A child’s perspective allows readers to receive simplified versions of events without any adult biases to interfere with the world’s occurances. It gives a view of the world that has not yet been affected by adult hardships as well as makes these views pure. Innocent children are able to provide naive innocent truths. If the point of view was that of an adult there cou...
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...ced to experience much undeserved fear. In Joy Kogawa’s passage, Obasan, the narrator is from a child’s point of view. This provides simplified naive viewpoints yet also gives innocent unbiased truths. With strong diction, the speaker also reveals broken spirits that are unified in their silence. A child's opinion on this terrifying journey to imprisonment is truthfully able to reflect fear, strength, and judgment. Children have unmolded minds and therefore have pure thoughts not yet tainted by society’s prejudiced judgments. Kogawa reveals to the reader that prejudice is an evil that comes both from within and out a person and society. Through the prejudgment and misjudgment of others, lives can be hurt and easily torn apart. It is in times such as this when people come together, despite their fear, and find unrealized comfort in others who can connect with them.
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.
Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...
...itizens would know the truth about what happened to the Japanese in America. Jeanne told people in an interview, that in her book “It tells a story about America. For the first time in the history of our country, all three branches of the government violated the constitution. They rounded up a group of people because of their race and because of the potential to be dangerous. They rounded them up and imprisoned them in these camps from one to three years, and no one knew about it. This was a great violation of democratic values of this country.’’
It was no secret that when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, countless Americans were frightened on what will happen next. The attack transpiring during WW2 only added to the hysteria of American citizens. According to the article “Betrayed by America” it expressed,”After the bombing many members of the public and media began calling for anyone of Japanese ancestry။citizens or not။to be removed from the West Coast.”(7) The corroboration supports the reason why America interned Japanese-Americans because it talks about Americans wanting to remove Japanese-Americans from the West Coast due to Japan bombing America. Japan bombing America led to Americans grow fear and hysteria. Fear due to the recent attack caused internment because Americans were afraid of what people with Japanese ancestry could do. In order to cease the hysteria, America turned to internment. American logic tells us that by getting the Japanese-Americans interned, many
Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
Beginning in March of 1942, in the midst of World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully removed from their homes and ordered to relocate to several of what the United States has euphemistically labeled “internment camps.” In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes in frightening detail her family’s experience of confinement for three and a half years during the war. In efforts to cope with the mortification and dehumanization and the boredom they were facing, the Wakatsukis and other Japanese-Americans participated in a wide range of activities. The children, before a structured school system was organized, generally played sports or made trouble; some adults worked for extremely meager wages, while others refused and had hobbies, and others involved themselves in more self-destructive activities.
...it may help us arrive at an understanding of the war situation through the eyes of what were those of an innocent child. It is almost unique in the sense that this was perhaps the first time that a child soldier has been able to directly give literary voice to one of the most distressing phenomena of the late 20th century: the rise of the child-killer. While the book does give a glimpse of the war situation, the story should be taken with a grain of salt.
'Even with all the mental anguish and struggle, an elemental instinct bound us to this soil. Here we were born; here we wanted to live. We had tasted of its freedom and learned of its brave hopes for democracy. It was too late, much too late for us to turn back.' (Sone 124). This statement is key to understanding much of the novel, Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone. From one perspective, this novel is an autobiographical account of a Japanese American girl and the ways in which she constructed her own self-identity. On the other hand, the novel depicts the distinct differences and tension that formed between the Issei and Nisei generations. Moreover, it can be seen as an attempt to describe the confusion experienced by Japanese Americans torn between two cultures.
...ile the war is still happening. The lack of freedom and human rights can cause people to have a sad life. Their identity, personality, and dignity will be vanish after their freedom and human right are taking away. This is a action which shows America’s inhuman ideas. It is understandable that war prison should be put into jail and take away their rights; but Japanese-American citizen have nothing to do with the war. American chooses to treat Jap-American citizen as a war prisoner, then it is not fair to them because they have rights to stay whatever side they choose and they can choose what ever region they want. Therefore, Otasuka’s novel telling the readers a lesson of how important it is for people to have their rights and freedom with them. People should cherish these two things; if not, they will going to regret it.
Fighting a war against the oppression and persecution of a people, how hypocritical of the American government to harass and punish those based on their heritage. Magnifying the already existing dilemma of discrimination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor introduced Japanese-Americans to the harsh and unjust treatment they were forced to confront for a lifetime to come. Wakatsuki Ko, after thirty-five years of residence in the United States, was still prevented by law from becoming an American citizen.
I am a small child… I am wearing…” Kogawa begins to speak of what she went through during relocation as a young child with her Obasan (aunt). The author no longer uses figurative language to describe the occurrence, but instead selection of detail. When informing the reader of a very young mother on the train she used details to emphasize her points. The “... tiny red-faced…” description of the baby highlighted the fact that it was born prematurely only days prior. Also, the “... birdlike face” of the mother created a relation in the reader’s thoughts between the mother and birds who are iconic for caring for their young. The most important detail included in this section is the gesture on Obasan’s part for this young mother. The young lady had nothing for her baby, “not even diapers.” So in an effort to help this woman in some way, Obasan wrapped up some food in a cloth and gave it to her. This is very important to the story because it shows that even in their darkest times her people are still giving and will sacrifice what little they have for someone who has even less. By including details and speaking in first person singular point of view the author made what was happening feel much more personal and real because instead of a generalized group that is being terrorized, it’s individuals and shows the author’s pride in her
John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of a country devastated by World War II. His capturing of the Japanese peoples' voice let us, as readers, empathize with those who had to start over in a "new nation."
[4] Ann G. Sunahara, The Politics of Racism: The Uprooting of Japanese Canadians during World War II(Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 1981), 161.
The book “Hiroshima,” written by John Hersey is an alluring piece coupled with an underlining, mind grabbing message. The book is a biographical text about the lives of six people: Miss Sasaki, Dr. Fujii, Mrs. Nakamura, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki, and Rev. Tanimoto, in Hiroshima, Japan. It speaks of these aforementioned individuals’ lives, following the dropping of the world’s first atomic bomb on 06 Aug 1945, and how it radically changed them, forever. John Hersey, the author of “Hiroshima,” attempts to expose the monstrosity of the atomic bomb, through his use of outstanding rhetoric, descriptive language, and accounts of survivors. He also attempts to correlate the Japanese civilians of Hiroshima to the American public, in hope that Americans
Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan is the story of discrimination, identity, and silence in the Japanese - Canadian community during and after World War II. Kogawa places a special emphasis on silence, speech, as well as the positive and negative aspects of both. In the novel, Kogawa contrasts silence and speech by illustrating through Obasan and Aunt Emily, respectively, while also demonstrating Naomi’s confusion of whether she should be silent or vocal about her feelings and views. Obasan’s silence is representative of her traditional Japanese values while Aunt Emily’s outspoken tendencies represent her message of being a Canadian. Speaking out about issues is an ideology most would associate with western society and