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Short note on war poetry
Short note on war poetry
Short note on war poetry
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World War II Poetry
World War II was a gruesome time. Many people were captured and kept as prisoners of war just because they were soldiers on the enemy's side. The saddest part though is that innocent families, from children to elders, were kept in camps because of their race. The country feared they were still in conspiracy with their homeland which was the enemy. In extreme cases, like the Holocaust, the Germans were kept the Jews hostage and killed by the thousands all because they felt their race was inferior. (United) Each of these groups of people wrote heartwarming poems about their experiences, from the hate they faced to the conditions they lived in.
The Japanese interim camps during World War II trapped all the Japanese living in America during the time of the Pearl Harbor and World War II in fear that they were still trying to collaborate back home to Japan. During the time in these interment camps the Japanese wrote many poems. The adults, along with the children wrote poems about what they were experiencing and how they were feeling. (Japanese-American)
The children in the interment camps didn't understand what was going on in the world around them. They thought of themselves as a part of America just like the non-Japanese American citizens around them. They thought of these camps as just a new adventure. But it's far from that. As they grew up they began to understand where they were and why they were there. All of the Japanese-Americans received fierce hatred, from verbally get called insulting names to get their homes and cars trashed or burnt down. (Wakatsuki)
A Japanese adult at a Japanese interment camp wrote a poem called Barracks home. The author writes about the conditions of housi...
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...ll to Manzanar. 2nd ed. . New York, Toronto,
London, Sydney, Auckland: Bantam Books, 1973. Print.
Friedler, Sorelle. "World War II Poetry ." poetry written in the Japanese internment camps in the
U.S and in the ghettos and concentration camps in Europe. N.p.. Web. 8 Mar 2014.
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"Holocaust poetry and art." . Web Mania. Web. 8 Mar 2014.
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Trueman, Chris. "Prisoners of war ." History learning site . N.p.. Web. 8 Mar 2014.
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Smith , Mary, and Barbara Freer. "World War II - Prisoners of War - Stalag Luft I ." The poetry .
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Knowles, John. A separate peace. Macmillen, 1975. Print.
But for some of the Japanese Americans, it was even harder after they were discharged from the internment camp. The evacuation and the internment had changed the lives of all Japanese Americans. The evacuation and internment affected the Wakatsuki family in three ways: the destruction of Papa’s self-esteem, the separation of the Wakatsuki family, and the change in their social status. The destruction of Papa’s self-esteem is one effect of the evacuation and internment. Before the evacuation and internment, Papa was proud; he had a self-important attitude, yet he was dignified.
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.
Poetry has been used for centuries as a means to explore emotions and complex ideas through language, though individuals express similar ideas in wholly different forms. One such idea that has been explored through poetry in numerous ways is that of war and the associated loss, grief, and suffering. Two noted Australian poets shown to have accomplished this are Kenneth Slessor with his work ‘Beach Burial’ and John Schumann’s ‘I Was Only Nineteen’. Both of these works examine the complexities of conflict, but with somewhat different attitudes.
As Inada points out with his analogy to a constellation, the United States government had constructed many camps and scattered them all over the country. In other words, the internment of Japanese-Americans was not merely a blip in American history; it was instead a catastrophic and appalling forced remov...
I wish I could say that I would have been against the internment camps, but had I lived during that time frame, I probably would have agreed with society’s fear of Japanese-Americans. Currently working in an assisted living facility, I spoke with many of my residents about this subject. Although they are somewhat ashamed of their actions made by the government, they reminded me that they all had anxiety and concern about immanent invasion of the Imperial Japanese Army attacking the west coast of the United States.
Japanese Internment Camps were established to keep an eye on everyone of Japanese decent. The internment camps were based on an order from the President to relocate people with Japanese Heritage. This meant relocating 110,000 Japanese people. “Two thirds of these people were born in America and were legal citizens, and of the 10 people found to be spying for the Japanese during World War II, not one was of Japanese ancestry” (Friedler 1). Thus, there was no reason for these internment camps, but people do irrational things when driven by fear. In theinternment camps, many of the Japanese became sick or even died because of lack of nourishment in the food provided at these camps. The conditions in the internment camps were awful. One of the internment camps, Manzanar, was located to the west of Desert Valley in California. “Manzanar barracks measured 120 x 20 feet and were divided into six one-room apartments, ranging in size from 320 to 480 square feet.
Taylor, Sandra C. Jewel of the Desert: Japanese American Internment at Topaz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
This caused the Japanese to become a scapegoat of America’s fear and anger. The Issei and Nisei who once moved to this country to find new opportunities and jobs were now stripped of their homes and businesses and were forced to live in poor living conditions (DISCovering). Although many Americans believed that Japanese American internment was justified because it was used to protect us from attacks by Japanese Americans, it was very unlikely that they were ever going to attack us in the first place. For example, in Dr. Seuss’ political cartoon, many Japanese Americans are lined up to get TNT and waiting for a signal from Japan to attack (Seuss).
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)
Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe (around Germany and Poland). Many of these camps were death camps that were created solely to murder in...
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
World War I and II brought the worst of times for some people; loved ones were lost, families were separated, homes were destroyed, and innocent lives were taken during this time. There are many ways to deal with these hardships; Jewish poet, Avrom Sutzkever, used his hard times as inspiration for his writing and as a way to deal with the war and survive it (INSERT CITATION). This part of history also resulted in other great works of art as a way to deal with what the war brought, during and after the war was over. Avrom Sutzkever wrote his poem “Frozen Jews,” using such dark and depressing imagery, connotation, and diction because of his historical and biographical background.
There are a number of reasons why the internment of the Japanese people had to take place. Japan was a major threat to the United States which made anyone of Japanese descendent a potential traitor and threat to America’s security. No one was quite sure what they were capable of.
22. Muller, Eric,Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II . 2001, University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition
The internment camps were permanent detention camps that held internees from March, 1942 until their closing in 1945 and 1946. Although the camps held captive people of many different origins, the majority of the prisoners were Japanese-Americans. There were ten different relocation centers located across the United States during the war. These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis, in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.