Mine Okubo's Citizen 13660 - Japanese Americans Have No Rights

Mine Okubo's Citizen 13660 - Japanese Americans Have No Rights

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”(Weiler). As stated in the Declaration of Independence, all American citizens are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right ”(Weiler) website. However, the United States did not hold true to this promise when removing all Nisei, Japanese Americans, from the pacific coast and transporting them to various relocation centers. In these relocation centers, the Nisei, also referred to as evacuees, were burdened to live in harsh environments, secluded from the outside world. The novel Citizen 13660 describes how the United States stripped the Nisei of their unalienable rights nor other rights entitled to United States citizens.

All American citizens are entitled to the right to vote. While in the relocation centers the Nisei had very little contact with the outside world. In an act to solidify and come together as a camp, the evacuees decided they would try to form a type of self-government which would consist of a Center Advisory Council. For some this would be a completely new experience. “The election gave the Issei their first chance to vote along with their citizen offspring” (Okubo 91). The Issei, not being American citizens having emigrated from Japan, did not have the right under the United States Constitution to vote. However, their only chance at voting was shortly taken away when army orders said that only American citizens would be able to vote. Soon however, all forms of voting for the self-government were disassembled when army orders stopped the planning of the Assembly Center government. This goes against Amendment XV of the United States Constitution which state, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude” (“The American Presidency”). Also, when taken to the relocation camps, the Nisei lost all representation in the United States government. They no longer had a representative to tell about problems with the camp or to even protest being there. By being relocated they lost their right to vote a representative.

In the United States, it is illegal to hold a person against their will without probable cause yet the Issei and Nisei were both stripped from their homes and brought to a foreign location.