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.
Like many children her age, the girl in Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine had the opportunity to attend a “summer camp.” However, the camps that the girl and her family endured were not like traditional summer getaways but instead state-sponsored prisons designed to keep the populace “safe.” Instead of enjoying the water slides and rope swings that other children her age got to experience, the girl struggled with establishing an identity that fit with the rest of her society. With her use of neutral tone and language, Julie Otsuka explores the creation of the cultural identity that is established by the Japanese-American people as they are confined in Concentration camps designed to keep the nation safe. Pulled from their homes,
In this paper, I will discuss the signing of Executive Order 9066, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, regarding the Japanese relocation and connecting back to the Pearl Harbor attack, thus, resulting in further negative opinions of both the first generation Japanese and the second generation of Japanese Americans. Event Description: Internment was brought about by a justifiable fear for the security of the nation. Japan had figured out how to pull off the assault on Pearl Harbor, which nobody had thought was conceivable. The possibility that they may assault the West Coast while the US military was still in shock was on everyone’s mind. Secondly, it was caused by racism.
This paragraph from Kesaya Noda’s autobiographical essay “Growing Up Asian in America” represents the conflict that the author feels between her Japanese ethnicity, and her American nationality. The tension she describes in the opening pages of her essay is between what she looks like and is judged to be (a Japanese woman who faces racial stereotypes) versus what she feels like and understands (life as a United States citizen). This passage signals her connection to Japan; and highlights her American upbringing. At this point in the essay, Noda is unable to envision her identity as unified and she describes her identity as split by race.
Following the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japanese Americans faced racism and were suspected of treason. The entire community avoided them in spite of their homeland’s actions and developed a general distrust towards anyone of Japanese descent. Anti-Japanese sentiment was on the rise. For instance, hateful messages against them, such as “No Japs Wanted,” were often scrawled on property owned by Japanese Americans (Doc. 4). This conveyed the prejudice this minority group faced and how they were blamed for an attack that wasn’t their fault.
Throughout time diverse regions have considered other societies to be barbaric, causing them to have the desire of “civilizing” them. Likewise, During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the American nativist groups, possessed a similar perspective towards immigration. Nativist’s opposed immigration, as they believed that it would negatively impact the United States socially, morally, politically, and economically. Socially and morally, the nativists feared that foreigners were a threat to the American society, as they were culturally inferior, possessed many ailments, and committed crimes. Politically, the ethnocentric nativists believed that immigrants would corrupt the government and negatively influence American politics.
Abstract Imagine not being able to walk outside at night or having to sell your possessions and abandon your home to spend years behind barbed wire—even though you’d done nothing wrong. For Japanese Americans during World War II, this scenario was reality. The freedom they once had is now gone, as they are put into concentration camps no longer in their home. Now having to line up for meals and to do laundry, thing you did before on a normal basis, while being hovered over. The internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. was the act of forcing those of Japanese decent to relocation and incarcerating them during World War II.
During World War II, the United States of America and the Empire of Japan fought against each other. In 'Race, Language, and War in Two Cultures' written by John W. Dower in the book Japan in War and Peace, Dower address the racial aspect of the two sides in the war. Firstly, in the article, Dower addresses American racism against the Japanese during WWII. This anti-Japanese sentiment stems from racism.
Life of a Japanese American was harsh and scary because you never knew what the mad people would do. Japanese Americans shouldn’t have been punished because most of them were born and raised on the West Coast. They had to sell their homes, stores, and most of their assets because they could not be certain their homes and livelihoods would still be there on their return. It made no difference that many had never been to Japan because Japananese American veterans of WW1 were forced to leave. The fear was that if Japanese invaded the west coast of America, they would be loyal to Japan instead of the U.S.
“Mary Tsukamoto once said ‘I knew it would leave a scar that would stay with me forever. At that moment my precious freedom was taken from me’” (Martin 54). The Betrayal. The attack on Pearl Harbor.
Thesis statement: Though many speculate that the act of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) while not doing so on Europe (Germany and Italy) was racially motivated, racism played little to no role in these bombings. The United States of America and her allies were willing to end World War II at any cost, had the atomic bombs been available they would have been deployed in Europe. In the 1940’s there is no doubt that the United States of America was engulfed by mass anti-Japanese hysteria which inevitably bled over into America’s foreign policy. During this period Japanese people living in both Japan and the United States of America were seen as less that human.
As a result, all Japanese were discriminated in the U.S.A. as biased perceptions were already set in their minds. They were judging the Japanese as the whole, just because the attack of a small part of the
This is due to the fact that the Japanese immigrants suffered deeply from exclusion, torture and racism. In the United States they’ve experienced many obstacles but through all the griefs and setbacks, immigrants like the Japanese along with many other ethnic crowds, despite the diversity, managed to coalesce as a united nation. There are many events and leaders that contribute to this success. President John F. Kennedy took control to reform the immigration laws ever since he noticed the wrong doings and violation of immigrants. He acknowledged that they are human too and deserve to be treated better in our land that represents
Immigration in America is nothing new and it has had an impact on society for many years. People from all over come to America for a fresh start and to get away from any problems. You can’t really blame them for wanting to get away from where ever and wanting to start over. As George Takei talks about his experience as a Japanese-American and his view of the American Dream. Immigrants have many differences while in America.
Eugenics is the science of using artificial selection to improve genetic features of the population. It is thought that improvement of the human race can be seen through sterilization of people who exhibit undesirable traits and selective breeding. Often called Social Darwinism, the concept was widely accepted during the time of World War I. It quickly became a taboo after World War II when Nazi Germany used it as an excuse for genocide. The thought of improving the human race by manipulating who is allowed to breed can either be appalling or compelling.
