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The Dehumanization Of Japanese-Americans In Unbroken By Miné Okubo

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War can be a heartbreaker, a loss of connection, or a big realization. It does not just affect the soldier, but the family, friends and colleagues of the individual. In World War II, Japanese-American citizens in the United States and U.S. prisoners of war in Japan experienced horrific trauma that made them feel invisible, although many resisted. A Japanese-American named Miné Okubo was a typical citizen who was deployed to a internment camp because on February 19, 1942 Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Roosevelt and was put into law. Mine’ Okubo had been exiled to an internment camp during World War II along with thousands of other Japanese-Americans. In Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, a hero named Louie Zamperini exhibited incredible …show more content…

Unfortunately, the Olympics were canceled and so were his dreams. The onset of World War II changed Zamperini’s life. Throughout the internment camps in Japan, POWs were denied their basic human rights, cut off from the outside world, and beaten on a regular basis. Although the American POWs and Japanese-Americans were treated brutally, they still fought dehumanization and isolation. Okubo, a United States citizen at birth, was well-known for her stunning art talent. Her and her brother Toku had a Japanese heritage which caused their lives to change drastically. She, like many internees, was denied her freedom and right of being an United States citizen. Okubo’s positive mindset led her to a hopeful future. When president Roosevelt signed the executive order the Okubo’s were informed on April 23,1942 that they had three days to pack their belongings and report to an assembly center. The two internees were only allowed to bring what they could carry. They had to leave all their personal belongings behind like their home, pictures, pets, jobs, but most of all her old self. When the two had left they were not sure if they were going to return. When the family got to the center …show more content…

The Okubo’s fought through being called number 13660. When the internees were bussed to their internment camps they realized that the government was trying to isolate them from the outside world by taking them to camps out on the West Coast. By putting the prisoners out in the mountainous states and in the arid desert they had little resources. In the Map of Japanese-American Internment Camps, it shows that the camps were together so that it was easy to keep track of all the prisoners, but they were still away from the city. Along with makeshift homes and camps the Western states provided little resources. Okubo explains that they were kept in horse stables that were filthy and small. During the day it got extraordinarily hot and at night it was freezing. At any point in the day they were exposed to rattlesnakes and unsanitary conditions. The camps were fenced in with barb wire and guards were on duty all day. It was impossible to reach freedom. By the United States government losing trust in the internees they suffered humiliation. The internees were

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In the book Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses the life experiences of Louie Zamperini to show the traits of courageous and determined. Throughout the book Louie is a courageous person. An example of this is when captive saw a newspaper with a war map on the Quack’s desk at Ofuna and Louie was the only one

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Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is the personalized account of Louis Zamperini by author Laura Hillenbrand. She researched and described Zamperini's personalized accounts of his life from birth until his return home from World War II as a Prisoner of War in Japan. Hillenbrand introduces Louis Zamperini as the son of Anthony and Louise, Italian immigrants, born in 1917. They lived in Torrance, California in the midst of immigrant hatred. Louie lived a troubled childhood, constantly fighting or stealing to prove himself.

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Similar to the implications of Executive Order 9066, Executive 9012 would drastically change the lives of Japanese Americans and the landscape of the United States. Firstly, the order contributed to the relocation process for Japanese Americans by applying new strategies to force them into internment camps Executive Order 9102 created the War Relocation Authority, which established the “orderly evacuation of designated persons living in the restricted military area” (Gallivan). In essence, it worked in concert with the previous executive order as a way to efficiently remove Japanese Americans from their current residences. The process of sending Japanese Americans to new War Relocation Authority camps was painful and arduous (Aitken). The burdensome removal process and the disruption of Japanese Americans’ lives ultimately contributed to the deleterious treatment towards Japanese

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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).

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Miné Okubo was sent to a camp in America because she was seen a threat to America because of Minés Japanese heritage. It didn't matter that she was an American citizen. Miné and Louie were sent to these camps to be isolated from the public and the guads tried to dehumanize them. They tried to dehumanize Miné and Louie in many ways but Miné and Louie resisted feeling invisible and survived. Japanese-Americans and prisoners of war were sent to camps

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When internees found out that they were free, you would expect that they would be happy and joyful, but they weren’t. Once they got back into their homes, and were free, there was still hatred shown toward them. They didn’t get paid in the camps, they had no insurance; and once they got back into their homes, they found broken windows, empty living rooms, and lost memories. But for some, they don’t want to live in a life of depression. They had just spent several years in the camps, and had the rest of their lives to spend.

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