The Japanese American Internment Camps: A Psychological Analysis

During the midst of WWII, when most Americans were focused in liberating Europe and winning the Pacific battlefronts, a group of American citizens was persecuted at home. Japanese Americans were forced to move out of their homes to relocation centers to, according to the government, participate in the war effort for the greater good of national security. Although the treatments of these two groups of people differed greatly, the psychological effects of relocation were equally detrimental. The Japanese American Internment Camps treated the Japanese Americans as potential spies and enemies, which imbued the Americans to reject the Japanese from the community, stripping away their identity in the process. In Julie Otsuka's novel When the Emperor

Was Divine, the author showed the identity shifts of several characters in detail. By the end of the book, the daughter in the main character's family has become more American than Japanese because of her experience during the relocation.
The girl was a confident and normal child before the family left their house. She knew who she was and enjoyed spending time talking to her mother about school. On the day before the family left for relocation, she started to present to her mother what she had learned in school that day, immediately after she came home: "'Do you know what a coniferous tree is?' the girl asked...She was ten years old and she knew what she liked. Boys and licorice and Dorothy Lamour," (Otsuka 12 13). The daughter actively interacted with her mother by telling her about what she learned about coniferous trees. She had a strong sense of family and knew who she was. She understood her likes and dislikes. Her original and unspoiled identity was evident in her intimate interactions wither her mother and clear definition of who she was. She accepts the family's Japanese identity because she affiliates herself closely with her Japanese parents. She had some American qualities because she liked Dorothy Lamour. However, she was only introduced to American celebrities so her idol preference was justified. At the time she was more Japanese than American because she did nott doubt her Japanese identity.
The first signs of transition from Japanese to American happened soon after the last day of school.

When the daughter came home she asked her mother if there was something wrong with her face. Clearly, she was being made fun of at school. She was unsure about her identity after some schoolmates pointed out her Japanese appearance. Puzzled by the discriminating comment, she asked her mother if she was alright: “‘Is there anything wrong with my face?’ she asked…’People were staring.’...If there was something wrong with my face,’ the girl asked, ‘would you tell me?’” (Otsuka 15). The daughter wanted to belong in the school and be accepted. She thought something was wrong about her so people stared at her hostilely. However, nothing about her has changed yet. Her classmates started to generalize all Japanese people as enemies of the state and began to alienate Japanese Americans. Her Japanese appearance was something that she could never change, and that very aspect of her identity antagonized her from her classmates because the US was at war with Japan at the time. Since the daughter does not want to feel left out of the community, she started to change her identity. She began to doubt who she was and who she should be. After the incident, the daughter tried to become someone who she was not, abating her Japanese identity little by

little.
The identity shift became apparent when she started to lose connection to her family at the relocation camp. The daughter was staying out until late at night and was no longer close to her family. She spent all day outside of the bunker with her new friends. She stopped sharing feelings with her younger brother. She was so emotionally isolated from him that she was barely noticing her brother: “‘Where are you going?’ ‘Out.’ She ate all her meals with her friends now... One day he saw her standing in line at the mess hall in her panama hat and she hardly seemed to recognize him at all,” (Otsuka 92). She had withdrawn herself from her mother and brother and spends most of her day outside. She started to pick up unhealthy American habits like smoking and hardly interacted with her brother. Her Americanization had imbued her to ignore her family, the sole source of her Japanese identity, because she wanted to fit into the American society. She had turned away from the family’s Japanese culture. She was only Japanese on the outside.
Some readers may point out that the daughter had maintained her Japanese identity because she did realize that she was Japanese.

She kept a low profile out of guilt after she returned to school. However, the daughter merely conceded her Japanese heritage and appearance in order to survive. Most of her character was already Americanized after the relocation camps. She had to conceal what was left of her Japanese identity to avoid conflicts with the racist neighbors and schoolmates. Due to peer pressure, she ate American food, spoke only in English, and did not share her ideas in class: “We spoke softly and did not raise our hands, not even when we knew the answers. We followed the rules. We took tests. We wrote compositions...What I Would Like to Be When I Grow Up (a fireman, a movie star, I’d like to be you!)” (Otsuka 122). The daughter followed the guidelines that the war relocation gave her. However, she had lost pride in her Japanese heritage and did no want to be Japanese. While the siblings’ classmates wanted to become movie stars and firefighters, they just wanted to be their classmates. They would rather become somebody that they never were than to embrace their own culture and heritage. One’s identity is not innate and ethnicity only makes a small portion of

it.
Identity plays a paramount role in shaping one's personality and aspirations. After spending almost four years away from home, the daughter had undergone an identity shift and became more American than Japanese. The potential effects of the identity shifts of the Japaense Americans, including the daughter, who lived through the internment camps were inmeasureable. Their careers, social lives, and family lives were all disoriented because they tried to be somebody else. Their penchant to become Americans were results of widespread hatred towards their Japanese identity. Though the United States and the Japanese Empire were at war, neither group should have been demonized for their hertiage. The American government failed to recognize individuality within the Japanese population. The government’s ignorance during the relocation period ultimately led to the destruction of not only individual families, but also the entire Japanese American community.