Response To Executive Order 906 By Dwight Okita

War and Acts of Terror “On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The next day, the United States and Britain declared war on Japan. Two months later, on February 19, 1942, the lives of thousands of Japanese Americans were dramatically changed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This order led to the assembly and evacuation and relocation of nearly 122,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry on the west coast of the United States” (“Relocation”). The incarceration of thousands of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor was questioned by many people. Many wondered whether the decision was just while others accepted it because of their fear of the possibility that the people living

Stereotyping is often perpetuated by fear, particularly during a war or after acts of terror. For instance, the following events after the bombing of Pearl Harbor show how the start of the war caused America’s prejudice and stereotyping against a certain ethnic group. In “In Response to Executive Order 9066”, Dwight Okita writes from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old girl. She composes a letter to government officials saying she’s ready to go to the place they’re taking her not knowing that she will be going to an incarceration camp. Since she does not understand why she has to leave, she writes about herself and her ordinary life to show that she is just like any other American girl. She reveals that her best friend all of a sudden rejected her and accused her for her country’s actions. In response to her best friend’s accusation, the girl gives a packet of seeds and tells her friend to plant them and to remember her when the first tomato ripens (Okita 140). Okita’s poem acknowledges the insanity of Order 9066 and the latent fear and discrimination that allowed the order to be administered; it illustrates how war and acts of terror prompt fear-based decisions and stereotyping and how counterterrorism should be

For example, after the 9/11 attacks, Americans labeled Muslims as a threat out of fear, which contradicted the country’s beliefs of acceptance and freedom. In Okita’s poem, the girl’s best friend accuses her, “She was sitting on the other side of the room. / ‘You’re trying to start a war,’ she said, ‘giving secrets away / to the Enemy, Why can’t you keep your big mouth shut?’” (140). In the text, the best friend represents America, and the girl signifies Japan. When the best friend blames the girl for the actions of her country, it illustrates how America derogated Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the following events after 9/11, Canada made efforts to be more cautious by questioning its citizens and having a heightened suspicion towards them. According to Janil and Rousseau, Canada’s actions were associated with an internalization of fear (371). The nation did not trust its citizens, and as a result, the country judged its citizens by their race (Janil and Rousseau 383, 386). Generally speaking, a person’s thoughts, decisions, and views towards others are based on fear, and fear from acts of terror and war can incite a powerful country to make assumptions, raise suspicions, and perpetuate stereotyping. While people may stereotype others, the ethnic groups that are derogated are greatly