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Invisibility And Resisting Of Miné Okubo: Summary

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POWs and Internees: Invisibility and Resisting During World War ll there were thousands of American, Australian, and more ethnic group POWs in prison camps controlled by the Japanese. There were also many Japanese-Americans held in internment camps by America who was in fear of them sabotaging our country with secret spies throughout the country. These people were made to feel isolated and dehumanized by being placed in prison and internment camps, living in poor conditions, and even being beaten, sometimes to the death. These two people had to have perseverance, determination, and hope to overcome these awful things and live through it. However, even though Japanese-American internees and Prisoners of War (POWs) were made to feel invisible, …show more content…

One girl named Miné Okubo a Japanese-American internee during World War II, resisted being made to feel invisible in her own way so she and other internees would not be forgotten. The author writes, “Internees were not allowed to have cameras, but Miné wanted to document what was happening inside the camps. She put her artistic talent to use making sketches of daily life inside the fences” (The Life of Miné Okubo 5). This quote explains how she resisted invisibility because by drawing she was able to make sketches of the camps so she could show other people how they lived, and it kept her calm and made her think of her normal life. Miné had another way she was determined to not fall to invisibility. By using her amazing talent with art, she taught an art class in the internment camps and drew the cover for a magazine, The author explains further, “She also taught an art class to children in the camp and illustrated the front cover of Trek, a magazine created by the internees” (The life of Miné Okubo 5). Miné was determined not to feel invisible, and by teaching the art class and drawing the front cover for Trek, she was able to keep in touch with something she loves, as well as show other people, outside of the camps what life was like inside of them. Louie and POWs also resisted. One way they tried to resist was by stealing. They would steal anything they could just to survive and keep in touch with the outside world. For instance, “Eventually, he was so frantic to eat that he broke into the kitchen and stole chestnuts reserved for the guards…” (Hillenbrand 165). The guards were not giving them food and were making them feel invisible so Louie rebelled and stole food to get back at the guards and also just to survive. Internees and POWs went through a lot of hard times but they found a way to resist using stealing, documentation, and by connecting back to

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These heroes perseverance and resistance throughout the monstrous conditions that they were forced to live in proving that humans are capable of recovering and persevering through almost anything. Japanese-American internees and prisoners of war were made to feel invisible but they

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Japanese Internment Camps - Persuasive Argument On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base located near Pearl Harbor at Honolulu, Hawaii. After the bombing, Japanese Americans were sent off to internment camps due to President Franklin Roosevelt’s decision on releasing Executive Order 9066. Even though the U.S government’s decision was meant to benefit the country’s safety from more attacks by the Japanese, my strong belief is that Executive Order 9066 was not justifiable towards Americans.

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As opposed to righteous view that America was safeguarding its position in the war, the Japanese American internments were created out of resentment and racial prejudice fostered by other Americans. As the article “Personal Justice Denied” stated, the internments were led by “widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan” (Doc E, 1983). It may seem like a precautionary cause to make internments but there aren’t any other extreme measures for other fronts. Caused by a hatred stirred by media and society’s view, many people disdain the Japanese.

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One of the ways American POWs were dehumanized is how they were made to feel invisible. The text says, “They found the bodies of 150 POWs, starved to death. ”(Hillenbrand 321) This text shows how Japanese treated American POWs in Japanese camps to break their spirit

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In this article, Valerie Matsumoto describes the lives of Japanese American women during World War II and examines the effects that the internment camp experiences had on these women. Matsumoto argues that good and bad things were brought about because of the internment camps. Japanese American women were discriminated against, they were victims of racism, and they also faced traumatic family strain. Although these women’s stay at the internment camp was a living hell, their experiences there brought about significant changes in their lives; for the better good. From women having more leisure time, new opportunities for women such as travel work and education and better yet equal pay.

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Miné Okubo was sent to a camp in America because she was seen a threat to America because of Minés Japanese heritage. It didn't matter that she was an American citizen. Miné and Louie were sent to these camps to be isolated from the public and the guads tried to dehumanize them. They tried to dehumanize Miné and Louie in many ways but Miné and Louie resisted feeling invisible and survived. Japanese-Americans and prisoners of war were sent to camps

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How would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear.

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In the Pacific Theatre of World War II, Prisoner-of-war camps were a common occurrence. Japan and the United States had POW camps, but the most infamous were those of the Japanese. Japanese POW camps were governed by the country’s military officials, with no international laws being applied to the system. Prisoner-of-war camps were meant to be a place for enemy soldiers to be abstained from the war efforts on either side. However, POW camps in Japan were geared toward the expansion of the Japanese war effort.

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December 7th of 1941 America would face a horrific scene in their own homeland, the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor with their Air Force not once but twice. That same day President John F. Kennedy would decide to place the Japanese Americans, living in the country at the time, in internment camps. The civilians would not have a clue what they would be put up against, now they would have to encounter various obstacles to make sure they would be able to survive. “The camps were prisons, with armed soldiers around the perimeters, barbed wire. and controls over every aspect of life”(Chang).

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