No-No Boy Research Paper

Dylan Colagiovanni Jacob Gamage English 11 February 29, 2024 The Effects of Internment on Japanese-American Identity The internment era of Japanese American history was one of the most influential and notorious violations of civil liberties in the history of the United States. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sentenced Americans of Japanese descent to internment through the signing of Executive Order 9066 on the 19th of February, 1942. This order called for 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent to be gathered and held in prison-esque camps against their will. The decision to intern the Japanese American population was very popular amongst Americans. From this decision, many Japanese American lives were

No-No Boy gives us insight into the psychological effects that post-internment Japanese Americans have faced, more specifically of those who resisted the draft, how their identities were challenged by racial politics, and what it means to be an American. During the beginning of the war between Japan and America, in fear of espionage and betrayal, the U.S. government gave Americans of Japanese descent a questionnaire to evaluate which nation they were loyal to. Question 27 asked if Nisei men were willing to serve against Japan and question 28 asked if individuals would swear allegiance to America and let go of any allegiance to Japan. The Nisei (second-generation) men who answered no to both questions were deemed “No-No Boys.” To understand the main character of No-No Boy, Ichiro Yamada, we must understand how No-No Boys were perceived. The “ No-No Boys” of the Japanese war often faced immediate consequences for their actions. The most common outcome was being sent to an internment camp under Executive Order

In this quote, Ichiro even goes as far as to say that he would rather be back in jail, showing just how divided the Japanese American community was during the post-internment era. During times of war, paranoia and social tensions tightened as the public searched for a group to vilify. Unfortunately for the No-No Boys, those who refused to pledge allegiance to America took the fall. During this monologue Ichiro goes on in chapter 1, Okada makes sure to make Ichiro feel like an outsider to show how the war led to division and struggles with self-identity for Japanese Americans post-internment. Oftentimes, it has been observed that Japanese Americans often feel a sense of guilt or shame for the actions taken against them, the quote “The feelings of humiliation and self-blame have been compared to those of victims of rape” from the article Psychological effects of camp supports this claim. The feelings of guilt, shame, and un-belonging prompted Japanese Americans to wither, keep a low profile or hyper assimilate to American culture to present as more “American" during the post-Japanese internment time