Life in the internment camp
Dear Miss Breed,
I am very scared I’m not sure what’s going to happen next, this morning at 5 the American guards asked my parents to evacuate the house in less than 48 hours and take our possessions. I still remember my mom saying, “Xian and Zyanku get all your belongings now! Because you know that your possessions that we leave behind will be stolen or sold by the Us guards .On the 8 December 1941 all Japanese descendants were put in a train carriage, there were 20 people in each of the carriages, the food we got was green stew and beans lots of the people in our carriage died of malnutrition, the only toilet that we could use was a bucket in the middle of the carriage. Many people died just being transported from our homes to the internments camps. After 6 long days of travelling my parents were put in a different que to us and then my brother knew that we would never see them again….……When my brother and I saw the huge barbed wire fences and armed guards we knew that we would never be able to escape. Mr Heckter was our guard he was very scary and didn’t talk much he led 10 of the children including us to dorm 51, the dorm was made out of mud our beds were made out of wood with dog blankets and a bucket for our toilet. In the morning at 5 I heard noises coming from outside and thats when I saw my mom and dad being beaten up, blindfolded and put in sliding dorms because the tried to escape, that’s when I knew it was all over because sliding dorms were where cattle were kept before they were slaughtered. I didn’t tell my brother about what I saw. At 7 Mr Hecker told us to all get up and get into our work clothes our work clothes were bright orange. The move was confusing, frustrating and confusing. All...
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...s in a foster care unit but no one wanted us everyone was prejudice and thought we were spies. I thought to myself, “The president freed us and expects us to recover and rebuild our lives but how can we rebuild our lives if we don’t even have our parents, we are too young to fend ourselves? To top it all off America are now very racist to Japanese people they now call us Japs so what’s next Ms Breed is my brother and I going to get adopted or are all Japanese people going to lose all their possessions, friends, businesses, houses and ways of life? Also do you think that America will become a country with no Japanese people because they can’t rebuild all their lives or are being banned from America because of all this prejudice????? Once you’ve read this letter Ms Breed hopefully Zyanku and I are adopted and have a better life than we had.
You’re sincerely
Xian x
This place was so overcrowded and miserable. The family stayed in Block 16, it was no privacy, gross food, and disgusting toilets. It was nothing like home while staying at the camp. The camp was located in the middle of the desert, so the Japanese will not escape. In California where Jeanne and her family were located there was attitudes towards the Japanese from the Caucasians.
Soon after Papa’s arrest, Mama relocated the family to the Japanese immigrant ghetto on Terminal Island. For Mama this was a comfort in the company of other Japanese but for Jeanne it was a frightening experience. It was the first time she had lived around other people of Japanese heritage and this fear was also reinforced by the threat that her father would sell her to the “Chinaman” if she behaved badly. In this ghetto Jeanne and he ten year old brother were teased and harassed by the other children in their classes because they could not speak Japanese and were already in the second grade. Jeanne and Kiyo had to avoid the other children’s jeers. After living there for two mo...
It is not a well known fact that around the time the Holocaust took place in Europe, another internment (less extreme) was taking place in the United States. “Betrayed by America” by Kristin Lewis gives readers an insight on what happened to Japanese-Americans in America. The article tells us about Hiroshi Shishima, Japanese-Americans internment, and what was going on during the regime. During WW2, America went into a frenzy after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Many Americans believed what was being said about Japanese-Americans even though it was proven to be false. Since the whole fiasco with Japan took place, many Japanese-Americans were forced into internment in certain parts of the United States. The reason for the internment of Japanese-Americans was due to fear & hysteria, racial
In a portion of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s memoir titled Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne’s Japanese family, living in California, is ordered to move to an internment camp called Manzanar. Society impacts the family in many ways, but in this segment of the story we primarily see its effects on Jeanne. The context and setting are as follows: the Pearl Harbor bombing was a very recent happening, the United States was entering into war with Japan, and President Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066, allowing internment. Anyone who might threaten the war effort was moved inland into defined military areas. Essentially, the Japanese immigrants were imprisoned and considered a threat; nevertheless, many managed to remain positive and compliant. Jeanne’s family heard “the older heads, the Issei, telling others very quietly ‘Shikata ga nai’” (604), meaning it cannot be helped, or it must be done, even though the world surrounding them had become aggressive and frigid. The society had a noticeable effect on Jeanne, as it impacted her view of racial divides, her family relations, and her health.
Issei, first-generation Japanese immigrants in the America, would give birth to their children within the United States, giving them automatic citizenship. This new generation of Japanese-Americans would be given the name “Nisei”, as society would question their loyalty, while being racially and legally discriminated against, by their community and government.
During the 1900’s, it was common for people to immigrate to America. They saw it as a land of freedom and opportunity. Some thought that this was a great way for the US’ economy to boom, but some thought otherwise. With the shortage of jobs, many believed that the immigrants were stealing their precious jobs. Because of the competition over jobs, immigrants became the new public enemy to many. Immigrants such as the Japanese. The Japanese had already been through some racial discrimination, but it wasn’t until World War II that it got much worse. During the war the US decided it was best to be neutral, but the longer the war went on for, The more the US’ neutrality was on the verge of breaking. It wasn’t until December 7, 1941, that the US
The United States of America a nation known for allowing freedom, equality, justice, and most of all a chance for immigrants to attain the American dream. However, that “America” was hardly recognizable during the 1940’s when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering 120,000 Japanese Americans to be relocated to internment camps. As for the aftermath, little is known beyond the historical documents and stories from those affected. Through John Okada’s novel, No-No Boy, a closer picture of the aftermath of the internment is shown through the events of the protagonist, Ichiro. It provides a more human perspective that is filled with emotions and connections that are unattainable from an ordinary historical document. In the novel, Ichiro had a life full of possibilities until he was stripped of his entire identity and had to watch those opportunities diminish before him. The war between Japan and the United States manifested itself into an internal way between his Japanese and American identities. Ichiro’s self-deprecating nature that he developed from this identity clash clearly questions American values, such as freedom and equality which creates a bigger picture of this indistinguishable “America” that has been known for its freedom, equality, and helping the oppressed.
didn’t show any love or care towards the Japanese Americans, even though they were just as loyal as an American-born person. The Civil Control Station is where Ruri’s family went to move to a camp. Each family had to get a number. “We were family number 13453.” Ruri doesn’t say much about family numbers, probably because she feels demeaned and ignored by the United States. Ruri states that “...there was a law that prevented any Asians from becoming a citizen.” This proves that Asians, and in this case, Japanese people, were not cared about and were treated unfairly by the U.S.. Because they didn’t care, the government figured that by interning Japanese Americans the U.S. would be
What were the Japanese internment camps some might ask. The camps were caused by the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1942 by Japan. President Roosevelt signed a form to send all the Japanese into internment camps.(1) All the Japanese living along the coast were moved to other states like California, Idaho, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona. The camps were located away from Japan and isolated so if a spy tried to communicate, word wouldn't get out. The camps were unfair to the Japanese but the US were trying to be cautious. Many even more than 66% or 2/3 of the Japanese-Americans sent to the internment camps in April of 1942 were born in the United States and many had never been to Japan. Their only crime was that they had Japanese ancestors and they were suspected of being spies to their homeland of Japan. Japanese-American World War I veterans that served for the United States were also sent to the internment camps.(2)
Over 12 million people alone were killed in the holocaust alone. Internment camps and concentration camps were designed to oppress one group of people by the government. Both of these tragic events happened during ww2. our goal was to suppress one race theirs was to destroy theirs. The concentration and internment camps were essentially the same thing because, they put a economic burden on them, then they were forced to do unreasonable task, and finally they were both suppressed by the government.
How would you feel if you were forced out of your home to go to a camp where you shall be incarcerated for an unknown amount of time in an unknown location. You have no idea what will happen to you and your family. Why were you forced into the camps? Because of your ethnicity or beliefs. Japanese internment camps and Holocaust concentration camps both left their hateful marks in the fabric of history. During World War II, the Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe while the Japanese internment camps were located in the Western United States. Both types of camps have interesting similarities. However, one must realize that despite this similarities, these camps were very different in many ways. Yet, one thing is certain. We must learn more about this dark time in history in order to prevent such acts of hatred and paranoia from ever happening again.
The federal government ruled most of the reasons behind Japanese internment camps. Further than two-thirds of the Japanese who were sentenced to internment camps in the spring of 1942 were in fact United States citizens. The internment camps were the centerpiece for legal confines of minorities. Most camps were exceedingly overcrowded and with deprived living conditions. The conditions included “tarpaper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind.” Unfortunately, coal was very hard to come by for the internees, so most would only have the blankets that were rationed out to sleep on. As for food, the allotment was about 48 cents per internee. This food was served in a mess hall of about 250 people and by other internees. Leadership positions within the camp were only given to the American-born Japanese, or Nisei. Eventually, the government decided that...
There are many events throughout history that have shown civil liberties being taken away from people. America still dedicates a day every year to a man who killed and nearly eradicated an entire race of people. Christopher Columbus is honored with a national holiday in his name. The attack on Pearl Harbor is taught to every child in the American school system, but Japanese Internment during World War 2 is taught in significantly less schools, and not until middle school. The government was suspicious of all Japanese-Americans during World War II, and so in all the camps they sent out a loyalty questionnaire. Tule Lake was a maximum security camp that was more like a prison than all of the other camps. The questionnaire and Tule Lake are correlated:
News came to use that we were going to have to move to internment camps. We had a couple months to prepare to go to the internment camps. Some people in other areas only had a couple of days. We learned about the Relocation Centers through posters that had been posted and from talking to other people. The United States called it a Relocation Center so it didn’t sound as harsh as internment camp. Other than that we heard nothing and had no idea what to expect. We had to report to Tulare Relocation Center. We had no idea how long we were going to be at the center. Later, when the relocation camps were built, we were taken by troop trains to Gila Relocation Center in Arizona.
How do you judge the atrocities committed during a war? In World War II, there were numerous atrocities committed by all sides, especially in the concentration and prisoner of war camps. Europeans were most noted for the concentration camps and the genocide committed by the Nazi party in these camps. Less known is how Allied prisoners were also sent to those camps. The Japanese also had camps for prisoners of war. Which countries’ camps were worse? While both camps were horrible places for soldiers, the Japanese prisoner of war camps were far worse.