Research Paper On Mine Okubo

During WWII, there was more than 120,000 people died, including Japanese-Americans and POWs. When they were being held captive in these internment camps, they are made to feel invisible. When someone is made to feel invisible, that means that they are being dehumanized and treated similar to animals. Louie Zamperini was a prisoner of war and hero during WWII. As a youngster, he loved to cause trouble like stealing many things, drinking and smoking underaged and several other unmentionables. Mine Okubo was a loyal American citizen all her life, even her parents. Being a second generation American citizen, they too were born in America, yet they got treated like animals. She grew up in Riverside, California and was treated like a normal American-Citizen.

Mine Okubo was one of the many thousands interned because of WWII and felt invisible because of the many things that she went through while she was at these internment camps. She explains, “Nobody knew how long we would be gone,” (“Riverside’s Mine Okubo”). They could only bring anything that they could carry. Everything else had to be left behind at their homes. They had certain instructions that they had to follow, and that was one reason that they were being treated like animals. While on their way to an internment camp, Mine Okubo explains that when her family went through the Berkeley center, “... they were assigned collective family number 13660, and were never again referred to by their officialdom by their given names,” (“Riverside’s Mine Okubo”). This shows that none of the Japanese-Americans were really respected at this time in history. In the book, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, she tells about Louie was a POW ahd liked to cause trouble when he was younger. She writes “... Louie was commended to crawl on the ground, picking pieces up feces and cramming handfuls of the pig’s feed into his mouth to save himself from starvation to death,” (Hillenbrand 206). This is one example of how prisoners of war were dehumanized and treated like animals. There are many more ways that these people were dehumanized and made to

Mine did many things to keep her mind off of the camp, and as well as Louie. Most of the time, they got humor out of the worst situations. One way that Mine resisted was teaching younger children how to draw. She did this because she loved to teach, draw and to keep her mind off of things, “She also taught art to interned children and illustrated covers for the three issues of Trek...,,” (“Riverside’s Mine Okubo”). Another way the Mine resisted the invisibility was by drawing everything that happened, “Carrying her sketch pad throughout the camp, she carefully recorded all she saw and experienced,” (“Riverside’s Mine Okubo”). This is another quote that shows, that even when you are in some of the worst conditions you can make the best out of it, and help others through it too. Though later on in the book, Hillenbrand explains that they later got humor out of this torture, because when Louie and his POW friends were calling guards names such as, “...Turdbird, Flange Face, the Weasel, Liver Lip, and Termite… the Quack,” (Hillenbrand 154). Another example is on page 195 when Hillenbrand says, “The Bird threw himself a goodbye party… officers dashed around camp gathering stool samples from dysentery patients, slathered “gravy” over rice cakes, and presented it to him as a gift.” Again, this shows that even in the worst situations, that you can still have