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A Rhetorical Analysis Of No-No Boy By John Okada

1374 Words6 Pages

The text I chose to start for the rhetorical analysis is a short story I recently read titled “No-No Boy”, by John Okada, first published in 1956. I chose this story because it is one that I recently read, as well as my interest in non-fictional history. I chose to take up this story because similar to the author, John Okada, I wanted to inform the reader of the hard situations some Asian Americans were put in during World War ll. Those situations are involving their decisions to take part in the draft, thus having to serve for the country against their native land, or forcefully be placed into an internment camp until the World War ll came to an end, and they were deemed safe to return back to everyday civilization in the United States. In …show more content…

The story is written in third person, but John Okada gives the thoughts of multiple characters in great detail, giving the reader the ability to see every characters point of view. He is able to do that because he can provide evidence and facts that happened through the internment camp process. The text makes claims of the poor treatment and displacement internment camps caused to Asian American citizens, as well as the negative after effects it caused to their lives. It shows the struggle Japanese Americans went through as there two worlds broke into …show more content…

I think John Okada was the perfect guy to write this story because he experienced it first hand. John Okada was raised in Seattle, where he ended up earned two Bachelor degrees in English and Library Science from The University of Washington, and then went on to earn his Masters degree from Columbia University for English. What gives him the first hand experience and credit to successfully write this story is that he was sent to an internment camp located in Minidoka, Idaho on February 19th, 1942, under President Theodore Roosevelt's executive order to relocate Japanese Americans. In addition to being sent to the internment camp, Okada also served in the United States military in World War ll. After deciding he didn't want to live in an internment camp, he chose to answer yes to the two questions that determined whether the Japanese Americans would serve in the military or send them to an internment camp. This brings up another issue, and put this group of people in such a hard situation. The first question they were asked was, “Are you willing to serve in the United States Armed Forces?”, and the second question read, “If you swear allegiance to the United States and forswear allegiance to Japan and its empire?”. Answering “no” to one or both of those questions would get one sent to an internment camp, and the nickname a “No-No Boy”, referring to your answers on the questionnaire. That is what gave the

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