This book reflects the author’s wish of not only remembering what has happened to the Japanese families living in the United States of America at the time of war but also to show its effects and how families made through that storm of problems and insecurities. The story takes in the first turn when the father of Jeanne gets arrested in the accusation of supplying fuel to Japanese parties and takes it last turn when after the passage of several years, Jeanne (writer) is living a contented life with her family and ponders over her past (Wakatsuki Houston and D. Houston 3-78). As we read along the pages
Mary Matsuda Gruenewald tells her tale of what life was like for her family when they were sent to internment camps in her memoir “Looking like the Enemy.” The book starts when Gruenewald is sixteen years old and her family just got news that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japan. After the bombing Gruenewald and her family life changed, they were forced to leave their home and go to internment camps meant for Japanese Americans. During the time Gruenewald was in imprisonment she dealt with the struggle for survival both physical and mental. This affected Gruenewald great that she would say to herself “Am I Japanese?
African Americans on the battle front are put into segregated divisions, whereas Native Americans dealt with compliment racism or unintentional racism. Chinese Americans were concerned with being accused of being Japanese, while the Japanese Americans tried to prove they were American too. Throughout his book, Takaki demonstrates the varying levels of racism experienced, and how hard work and perseverance helped these groups prove themselves to some degree. Takaki claims, all of these minorities groups, gained some form of freedom and equality either through the military or through job opportunities and improvements.
From being with her in the kitchen at the elementary school to getting into the Black Elks club to watch Henry, his heart becomes soft for this girl. Keiko is Japanese and is bullied and treated accordingly. When President Roosevelt sent all the Japanese to internment camps, Henry realized how much he would losing if he let her go. He tried everything from trying to persuade her hide out with his aunt to wearing his “I am chinese” button. He even snuck in overnight to see her.
Eyewitness accounts are generally able to convince readers and this book is able to convince readers about its objective through some sincere retelling of events. One feels that one is accompanying Jeanne on her personal journey and that is the strength of the book. The authors not only recount facts and events but take the readers along with them on a journey where they search, examine and understand the truth behind their experiences. Jeanne shares her experience of being a Japanese American during the war and the impact it had on her without any bitterness or self-pity. It is extremely readable as it avoids being academic and relies more on personal experiences.
Ellis concludes that although this version of “the interview at Weehawken” is historically accurate, it is also too brief. In order to understand the true significance and aftermath of the duel, one must first consider
Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki and her husband James D. Houston, brings the aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor to life through the the reimaging of the hardships and discrimination that Jeanne and her family endured while stationed at Manzanar. After the events of Pearl Harbor, seven year-old Jeanne is evacuated with family to an internment camp in which the family will be forced to adapt to a life in containment. Through the writings of Jeanne herself, readers are able to see Jeanne’s world through her words and experience the hardships and sacrifices that the Wakatsuki family had to go through. Farewell to Manzanar takes the reader on a journey through the eyes of a young American-Japanese girl struggling to be accepted by society.
In Julie Otsuka’s novel, When the Emperor was Divine, a nameless Japanese-American family is uprooted, exported, and abandoned by their own government. The family, along with thousands of others, lived in an internment camp for the duration of World War II, their only crime being their Japanese heritage. All Americans should know the story well, however, beyond public knowledge, there is a hidden history of Japanese-American imprisonment that extends beyond the less malicious internment of families. It is kept in the dark, easily overlooked, only found when one is willing to search.
There are many gruesome aspects and scenes which a paper could be focused on alone. Battle Royale is attempt at painting a picture of what a blood bath life can become if you don’t follow the rules and rest of the herd of the Republic of Greater East Asia, individualism is not an option. “In Creative Edge: Emerging individualism in Japan, Kuniko Miyanaga reports a rise in ’individualism’ resulting from Western influences, contrary to the spirit of a ‘group conscience’ that characterized traditional Japanese culture. In his book, he argues that popular belief interprets the increased crime rate [of 1990s Japan] as a result of the ’American sickness’.” (Paradias 77)
“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.
He talks about how he read about after Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were ready to enlist in the army, but at first they were turned down because their background. Then eventually Japanese-Americans were accepted because of a wartime manpower shortage. “They fought with amazing, incredible courage and valor. They were sent on the most dangerous missions and they sustained the highest combat casualty rate of any unit proportionally.” They fought for their country even though that same country had denied them service and locked them up in the first place.
This one line describes the harshness of the inhuman approach that America took in the unwarranted fear of the Japanese. Helen Brill’s account recalled how she came to be teacher at an internment camp in Manzanar. The conditions were less than ideal. The floor was the place to sleep before the residents were given cots stuffed with straw.
The transition to nihilism greatly affected Japanese youth culture and caused some to strongly resist the thought of western ideas in Japanese society. This work is a cautionary tale to the effects of war on youth and it’s potential to ruin a generation. This is the story of stolen innocence, boyhood, and masculine
One of the most horrible events of the Japanese occupation of China was the Nanjing massacre. However, in this modern society, most people do not know about how and why many Chinese were butchered in the city of Nanjing. In addition, the Nanjing massacre is denied by many conservative Japanese politicians because this event is seen as Japan’s greatest shame and they do not want their future generations to know and learn about the terrible massacre. But, there are many possible explanations why this event happened and generally many historians believe that the brutal Nanjing massacre occurred because of the very tough fight that Chinese armies had put up in Shanghai in 1937. However, “Japanese imperialism and their desire for expansion” and
He felt disheartened, but soon, he was determined to prove himself worthy and he succeeded. It can be clearly seen that, the Americans in this story was having stereotypes towards Japanese-American that they were
