Japanese Interment
Who is Writing:
Document One- General John DeWitt
Document Two- Kazue Yamane
Document Three- Charles Kikuchi
Who is the Audience:
Document One- United States Secretary of War, February 14, 1942
Document Two- Any reader
Document Three-Any reader
Who do the Writers Represent:
Document One- DeWitt represented Americans who believed that all Japanese people in America, citizen or not, were potential enemies.
Document Two- Yamane represents everyone that was sent to an internment camp and all of the feelings and questions that they had harbored among themselves before, during, and after being sent to a camp.
Document Three-Kikuchi represents all of the Japanese-Americans who were legally U.S. citizens who were sent to Japanese Internment Camps regardless of their citizenship.
What is Being Said:
Document One- DeWitt was requesting for the removal of anyone with Japanese ties, by blood or marriage, be gathered and moved into concentration camps. He said that all Japanese, even those who were U.S. citizens, would remain loyal to their homeland thereby making all of them potential enemies to the United States.
Document Two- Yamane basically speaks about how unfair it was to be forced into an internment camp and how families would get split apart. Even letters sent to and from their loved ones were not confidential, but often censored. They were given no privacy and their health deteriorated during their life in camp.
Document Three- Kikuchi writes about his thoughts on the bombing of Pearl Harbor, how America is officially involved in WWII, and what he predicts will happen to Japanese-Americans. He discusses his views and those of his family on democracy and how they wanted to prove their Americanism and fight for democracy.
How is it Being Said:
Document One- When requesting the evacuation of the Japanese into internment camps, DeWitt provides a list that states the mission of the Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. It really shows his seriousness of the matter. He is also very blunt and straightforward in his way of describing the Japanese therefore proving that he holds an unfair bias against the whole of Japan.
Document Two-By the way that she writes you can tell that she was still bitter about her time spent in camp. Yamane, to this day, still can’t get over the fact that she was forced to go even when the government had no proof whatsoever that she was in any way planning something against Americans.
Document Three-This document is Kikuchi’s personal diary therefore everything written were his own personal thoughts and accounts. Even though he was kicked out of Berkeley and forced into an internment camp, his last diary entry someone makes me think that he is an optimist. None of his diary entries were negative. For example, his last entry talks about how the camp gave him an opportunity to connect with his family.
Proof:
Document One- DeWitt said that children who were born of white parents in Japan would end up fighting for Japan even though it was a fight against their parents’ country. With that being said, it was obvious that DeWitt was suspicious of anyone with even the slightest connection to Japan. DeWitt Stated that, “The Japanese race is an enemy race…” which further enforces that he felt very strongly against Japan and its people.
Document Two-She speaks of true events that happened to her and her family. For example, she says that she and even her kids questioned why things were the way they were. I think that her inability to give her kids a clear and acceptable answer made her even angrier at the government. Her husband wasn’t able to visit to attend his own mother’s funeral and the fact that the government censored their letters just goes to show how unjust the government was.
Document Three- Since these were diary entries, he just tells it like it was without trying to convince anyone of anything. He recorded events like they were. For example, he wrote about his family’s thoughts and comments on democracy.
What is the Historical Significance/Relevance of the Documents:
Document One-This letter probably helped spread the fear against the Japanese. This marked the start of Japanese Internment camps from which the Japanese had to suffer years of sorrow, poverty, and humiliation due to the unfair biases and judgments of Americans.
Document Two-This document gives us insight to what the people in internments camps thought and felt. It also shows us a little bit of what they had to go through.
Document Three-Kikuchi’s diary entries show us the Japanese Internment Camp period through the point of view of a Japanese-American. Kikuchi was a U.S. citizen yet he was forced to leave his university and was condemned to life in an internment camp, this gives us another view to look at besides just those of Japanese immigrants.
How does the Documents Premise or Theme Fit into the Historical Context You are Reading About in Your Textbook:
Japanese Internment definitely fits into the historical context of what we are reading because we are now in the WWII section. The whole reason America became involved in the war was because the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. As a result from the bombing, Americans thought that the Japanese in America were all potential enemies, therefore, they evacuated anyone who they thought had ties to Japan and sent them to internment camps.
Trang,
ReplyDeleteYou did an excellent job on your TA! Well first off, Dewitt was definitely not a nice man. He went straight to conclusions that ALL Japanese tied people (blood or marriage) were all for the enemy. It was such a shame that Yamane and Kikuchi were sent to Internment Camps. Kikuchi was a LEGAL U.S CITIZEN :( I could not imagine myself in his shoes or Yamanes. Overall, nice analyzing on your TA Trang!
-Victoria.
Great job on the TA! The Japanese internment is definitely a black spot in America's history. It's a shame when even the US Supreme Court approved of the segregation of the Japanese, even though it 100% violated the rights of the US citizens. It was a time when fear, paranoia, and hysteria ruled the land instead of sound judgement and rationalism. Like you and several other students in the class, I'm Asian-American and when I think about the idea of being segregated, there's a 100 different things that come to mind. It's like anger, depression, betrayal, bitterness, worry, etc. Great job on the TA!
ReplyDeleteDoc #1
ReplyDeleteIt was so unfair what they did to the Japanese. Even after U.S Government officially apologized, the damaged was done. The good thing is that these Japanese where given monetary payments to survivors.
Doc #2
It's so sad what these families had to go through. Family members where in their dead bed and not even sick would they let them reunite with family members, and all because America thought that just because they were Japanese there were a threat to America.
Doc#3
Kikuchi's diary helps you understand what he was thinking and going through. He was very confused and didn’t know how to prove his Americanism. He felt so degrading. The only positive thing about the Japanese evacuation was the strengthening of family bonds.
i really liked how you analyzed your 3 documents, it fits right in and I found it horrible that most of Yamane's letters never made it to her husband in Santa Fe and that they would not allow him to come to the same camp when his parents were there as well.
ReplyDeleteI thought the fact that the last two documents were first hand accounts of what had happened, one being a diary and one an oral description, was particularly effective. I also liked them because they gave the full picture; document two told us what it was like to be in an internment camp, and document three talked about what it was like before placement in an internment camp. And I definitely agree with Victoria up there about Dewitt not being a nice man. He seems to be very judgemental. An entire race can't be stereotyped by the actions of a few people.
ReplyDeleteNice work, Trang!
ReplyDeleteI also find it quite intriguing how General DeWitt was able to so easily stereotype Japanese-Americans as "potential enemies!"
He even went so far as to mention, that even with many Japanese-Americans being second and thrid generation American citizens, they still had the potential to become "enemies of the state!" And sadly enough, President Roosevelt, along with the U.S. Congress, actually accepted his proposal for the immediate extraction of Japanese-American citizens from the civilian population.
Does this mean then, that we should also start "interning" second and third generation Arab-Americans - in light of 9/11 and other international threats in recent years?
I think that it's really shameful how our nation readily portrays itself as a land of "freedom," "justice," and "good-will," when in reality, the entire history of the United States is filled with nothing but racial inequality, suppression (along all lines - social, gender, and ethnic), and outright subjugation of the poor and destitute!
Nicely done, Trang. It's quite fascinating in reading these 3 documents in that all angles are portrayed to us. I truly find it bizarre in that General John DeWitt was able to persuade the president in creating internment camps for Japanese Americans. It is such a horrid event that took place and the Japanese American endured this for what? Because of fear? To hear the stories of both Kikuchi and Yamane saddens me. In both of those documents both consist of confusion and fear.
ReplyDeleteGood job! I thought your TA was great. It is amazing to me that internment camps are not really discussed too much these days. We all are reminded of the holocaust, and how it is something we should always remember.This is something we tend to push out of our history, but something we should also always remember. It's sad that we cannot accept our mistakes as a country, as oppose to somewhat igoring that part of history.
ReplyDelete