Summary Of Mary Matsuda Gruenewald's Looking Like The Enemy

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? Or am I American?” The internment camps that Gruenewald was placed and like most Japanese Americans were huge camps surrounded

The Isseri were Japanese people who immigrated to America, for example Gruenewald parents. Niseri are the American born child born from the Isseri. In the beginning of the imprisonment of the Japanese people the both the Isseri and Niseri had a hard time dealing with their current situation and some dealt with it worst then others for example Mrs. Sato who was acquaintance with Gruenewald and her family came in their apartment and stated to cry out “I can’t stand the heat, the awful food, the dust storms, the lack of privacy, and I can’t sleep and get any relief at night. I hate everything about this place.” Mrs. Sato reaction was what most people in the camp experience in the camp. Gruenewald parents on the other hand handle the experience a little different from others stated my Gruenewald her parents would always say “Yes, it is difficult, isn’t it? I have those same concerns. All we can do now is hope that all this will end son and we can all go home.” When the Japanese were locked up they all were giving a questionnaire which two types where giving out one for the Isseri and the other for the Niseri. Both of the asked if both groups would swear allegiance to the United States and the Niseri were giving a question if they were willing to serve in the military and this is what divided the Niseri. The ones who said yes later serve the military and their reason was to show their loyalty to the

What the benefits of using Gruenewald’s memoir is that we get the emotions that she felt during the time and what she thought of the situation she was in. With the memoir we are able to get what a general normal day was for her and everyone in the camp. The downside of using her memoir is that she is trying to remember something that happen decades ago and all the events could be tweaked from her not remembering one hundred percent of what happen. Another downside of using her memoir is she could be bias about what happen for somethings. The benefit of adding a government document is that we would be able to see what they were thinking during the whole process of the interment and what others thought of the interment that the Japanese-Americans went though, for example I would have liked what the government thought when they started to think of what to do after the attack on Pearl Harbor, their discussion on the questionnaire they gave out to all the camps, the release thoughts they had when they released all the people in the camps, and what they thought would be a good apology to give out to the