I think this week’s reading is harder to read than our typical readings. One reason is that we have to read collections of articles, and poems on the topic of Japanese internments. In order to start, I think it is necessary to talk about the Civilian Exclusion Order No. 82. According to the order, “…all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien, be excluded…”
The order shows clear discrimination against the Japanese Americans. Just because Japan launched an attack on the US does not mean Japanese Americans helped to make it happen. At the time, the US was fighting the Germans and Italians as well. Why did the US government not apply this exclusion act on the people of German and Italian ancestries as well? This point does not make sense to me. As the article from People’s World of February 23, 1942 stated that by imposing discrimination on the Japanese race alone, the US was helping Japan in this war. The fact that “…white Americans are just as barbarously racial-bigoted as the Nazis…” is an excuse for Japan to convince the colored people of the US to revolt against the government. In addition, the article also stated by targeting only Japanese people, the US government was actually protecting the spies that could have come from Germany or Italy. So why would the government do such an irrational thing? I am not sure but it may really have something to do with the long tradition of racial discrimination in the US.
The next thing that caught my attention is the cartoon How to Spot A Jap. The cartoon is so racially biased that it is funny. Obviously, most of the facts stated by the cartoon are untrue, and the cartoon was actually designed for propaganda purpose. In this cartoon, Japanese were seen as always being unhappy, and have “odd” features which Chinese people do not. In a way, this cartoon is similar to those that attempted to demonize Chinese people in the past. However, it is ironic because Chinese used to be depicted that way. Now, Chinese suddenly became the good guy, which is funny. One of the topics which we often talk about in class is that people like to categorize people. In this case, the white public was trying to define what “A Jap” is.
Finally, I want to talk about the Japanese sentiments during this time period. I think one of the poems which capture these sentiments is the poem Inside News. The main point of the poem was to point out that Japanese Americans were treated as “the enemy “in their own country.
We
Are losing the war?
Who is we?
We are the enemy
The enemy is the enemy.
…
The enemy is confused
The enemy is determined
And winning.
The people were confused; they did not know what to do. They were unable to identify themselves. They had virtually no identity. At heart Japanese Americans were loyal to the US, but they were accused by it. On the external side, their appearances, they were Japanese. They look like the “enemy.” What could they have possibly done besides being confused? I guess there were not many options for them.
Below is the song Kenji by Mike Shinoda which I’ve shown last week, enjoy !!!
Quan: thanks for providing an analysis of the historical documents alongside the poems! I think that, read together, they each give us a different perspective on the internment experience. In particular, your comments on "How to Spot a Jap" show how the official RHETORIC of internment, both in policy and in propaganda, created an atmosphere of racial hatred.
ReplyDeleteAs an educator, I can't emphasize enough the importance of everyone being able to critically consume social and political discourse. If you study history long enough, you begin to see that much of what we're told by politicians and the media at any given time is at best skewed and at worst patently false.
In other words, one argument for studying Japanese American internment as part of American history is to become more analytical political actors and reflectors ourselves.
I like this Fort Minor song. I feel like Fort Minor does a lot of political and controversial songs, but I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I think when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the Americans didn’t know what to do and so they made these camps. I think these camps were meant to make the government and military feel as though they still had power and control. Who doesn’t get scared and do something they know is wrong, but still do it because fear consumes of.
America is supposed to be the place everyone wants to be, as if America were so perfect. Yet, the Japanese were able to bomb us, despite our perfection. That bombing shook America up. Americans are all about pride and so naturally we got scared and mad as hell. As a result, we wanted to lock up the Japanese- Americans to make ourselves feel a little better.
I am not saying the camps were justified, but I am trying to further understand the situation. I don’t agree that America is a country that needs to have a race to be discriminatory against. I mean, look how many cultures survive through the U.S. on a daily basis? We don’t lock people up every day because they believe in Buddha or they don’t eat beef.
I think America is a pretty open- minded place that like everywhere else has made mistakes. But when you’re scared, do you really act on justice and morality? Or do your emotions get carried away? Because I believe with the instances of the camps, America was just that.
I definitely agree that the poem readings were harder to analyze than any of the readings we have read in the past weeks. I also agree the Civilian Exclusion Order was definitely racist towards Japanese Americans. It singled them out in a very discriminative way. I agree with you that just because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor doesn’t mean Japanese American had anything to do with it or that they helped them. That’s like saying every person is a criminal just because they have the potential to commit a crime.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason Japanese Americans were singled out unlike Germans and Italians is because of what was covered in class. Japanese Americans are easier to identify than Germans and Italians since Germans and Italians can look different as in different hair colors, eye colors etc. Despite that though, I do feel it was wrong and unjust to single out and discriminate Japanese Americans the way they were singled out and discriminated against. I definitely think the “How to spot a Jap” comic was racist and biased too.
I also like the Fort Minor song. I like a few other songs by Fort Minor too and Linkin Park is one of my favorite bands. Mike Shinoda is awesome! I think Mike really did a good job on “Kenji” and I think the song clearly showed how life in the camps was difficult for the Japanese Americans and how World War II was also a difficult time in history. I think both Linkin Park and Fort Minor focus on songs that have social, political and historical issues a lot and I think that’s why people can relate to their songs so easily and so much.