Farewell To Manzanar

WWII was a war fought between world powers. There were many acts done to people that were inhumane; the torturing of minority groups was commonplace practice during WWII. One minority group that was targeted was people with Japanese ancestry. America was at war with Japan. The American people as a whole feared that Japanese Americans would become spies for Imperial Japan, so they ripped them from their homes and their lives, imprisoning them in internment camps across the United States without a trial for crimes they feared they might commit. In the events leading up to their eventual incarceration, those put in internment camps had to sacrifice their homes and belongings; anything that they could not carry had to be sold. The people who were
buying it knew that the Japanese Americans had to sell it, no matter the cost, so they bought everything for dirt cheap (Houston). What allowed internment camps to happen was executive order 9066. This order was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This order targeted minority groups; yet, the only people the U.S. used it against was Japanese Americans. There were almost 122,000 people ripped from their homes because of this executive order (“Essay: Relocation and Incarceration”). EO 9066 allowed for the U.S. to detain anyone with Japanese ancestry and treat them as criminals. The WRA hastily threw together ten internment camps. Though the intention of the camp was not malicious, they ended up causing more harm to Japanese Americans than good for America as a whole. The camps were originally meant to be their own self-sufficient communities; but self-sufficient communities are supposed to have some degree of privacy. These internment camps had horrible conditions, and that did not change much over the entirety of their existence. Of the ten camps, one was Manzanar. Manzanar’s population was predominantly made up of people brought from Los Angeles, CA; Stockton, CA; and Bainbridge Island. In Manzanar alone, there were 10, 056 Japanese Americans imprisoned (Matsuzawa). Manzanar was made up of many rows of tar-paper covered barracks, from which offered no protection from the sun or from the vicious sandstorms (Houston). There was little privacy, and often these barracks held more than one family. Each person’s food for the entire day cost 45 cents; the food was puzzling and they were forced to eat together in large groups, which was unusual for many of them (Matsuzawa). Overall, the conditions were horrid, and it was immoral and unnecessary to inter Japanese Americans like this. Over the course of the war, there were many opposes and supporters of the internment camps. The supporters of the camps felt that the camps themselves were not inherently bad or wrong; the government was only doing it to protect real American citizens from the danger of spies. They called Japanese Americans “enemy aliens” and most felt that anyone with Japanese ancestry would be loyal to Imperial Japan. Opposers of the camps took the notion of “enemy aliens” and called Japanese Americans “friendly aliens” to show their support (Colasurdo). One of the main reasons there was any support for the camps in the first place was because of racism. The University of California even said that, “The fact that so few Japanese Americans were incarcerated in Hawaii suggests that their mass removal on the West Coast was racially motivated rather than born of “military necessity”.” People in the West Coast had called Japanese Americans the “Yellow Peril” long before the supposed need of the military came into play. West Coast Americans used WWII as a scapegoat for enacting their prejudices on Japanese Americans. The popular belief at the time, in government and the general population, was that German Americans and Nazis were different, and that Italian Americans were different from Mussolini; yet many could not do the same for Japanese Americans and Imperial Japan (“Essay: Relocation and Incarceration”). This begs the question; was this mass deportation and imprisonment of Japanese Americans really done because of military necessity, or was there a different reason? Generally, Japanese American people would categorize themselves as a patriotic group. One man who was extremely patriotic was James Sakamoto (Colasurdo). James ran the Japanese American Courier, the first Japanese American newspaper printed in all English. He also was a leader of the Japanese American community, and he founded the JACL (Japanese American Citizen’s League) (Takami). Even after he knew that he was about to be evacuated, in his last edition of the Japanese American Courier, he remained loyal and obedient to America (Colasurdo). He became a spokesperson for his community, and he acted as a liaison between Japanese Americans and the U.S. government (Takami). Even at the cost of his life, his work, his freedom, he was loyal. In his farewell address; the last edition to the Japanese American Courier, he speaks highly of America and even goes as far as to instruct Japanese Americans to go willingly and peacefully along with America. He tells them to hold fast to their beliefs, and not to doubt America. He ends his letter with the words, “… May god bless America, our beloved country…” (Colasurdo). After the war ended, James was left with next to nothing. He did not have enough money to restart the Courier, and he lived meagerly on government assistance for quite a while. He eventually caught a job at a thrift store, working on the telephones. His life ended, tragically, after he was struck by a car on December 3, 1955 (Takami). Some Japanese Americans struggled only towards the end of their life, but others struggled from the time they became aware they were going to be imprisoned to much after their release, some even to the end of their lives.
One story like this is Jeanne’s story, which she tells of in her book, Farewell to Manzanar. Jeanne explains exactly how hard her life was, and depicts a horrid tale of life in Manzanar. Jeanne references is how her life changed, how it was almost as if she had three separate lives: life before Manzanar, life in Manzanar, and life after Manzanar. Her life before Manzanar was well-structured, everybody knew their job and they did it. She had routine and order; like how every Sunday the women in her family waved off the men to sea so they could fish (Houston 3-5). Order like this did not exist in in Manzanar, it was chaotic. This is just another example of how careless the government was when they made the camps (Houston 30). Life in the camps was tough, but life after being released was not easy either. Japanese Americans lost most, if not all of their personal belongings, and they had little to nothing left when they were let out. Jeanne’s parents had trouble finding jobs, and Jeanne and her family had never been so separated before; however, now the majority of her family was spread out across the United States (Houston 38). She tries to continue being optimistic, and she gets excited about going back to a real school. The problem ends up being that Jeanne really isn’t accepted as either part of who she is, society will not let her. Later on in her life, she ends up finding peace, but even then, she still remembers how badly being imprisoned affected her life
(Houston). “The Congress recognizes that, as described in the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, a grave injustice was done to both citizens and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry by the evacuation, relocation, and internment of civilians during World War II.” This quote showcases how the government knew that internment camps were wrong. They concluded that the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was the solution to it, but the problems they caused could never be undone. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 was the U.S.’s apology, as shown here: “As the Commission documents, these actions were carried out without adequate security reasons and without any acts of espionage or sabotage documented by the Commission, and were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. The excluded individuals of Japanese ancestry suffered enormous damages, both material and intangible, and there were incalculable losses in education and job training, all of which resulted in significant human suffering for which appropriate compensation has not been made. For these fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights of these individuals of Japanese ancestry, the Congress apologizes on behalf of the Nation.” Although the U.S. tried to heal relations with this act, it was hard for Japanese Americans to forgive America (“CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT OF1988”). World War II was a horrible, long war that many world powers participated in; the U.S. being one of them. During WWII, many people had their human rights stripped away. This was especially true for people with Japanese ancestry. They were unfairly targeted as a result of EO 9066. There was no reasonable explanation for why German Americans could be separated from Nazis, and Italian Americans could be separated from Mussolini, but Japanese Americans could not be separated from Imperial Japan. In short, Japanese Americans were torn away from their homes for no reason other than blatant racism and prejudice.

Works Cited
“CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT OF1988”. PBS. 1999. www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/civilact.html. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017.
Colasurdo, Luke, “The Internment of Japanese Americans as reported by Seattle Area Weekly Newspapers.” University of Washington. 2004-2017. depts.washington.edu/civilr/news_colasurdo.htm. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.
“Essay: Relocation and Incarceration.” University of California. 2005. calisphere.org/exhibitions/essay/8/relocation/. Accessed on 8 Feb. 2017. Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. Bantam Books, 1973. “Japanese-American Internment Camps During WWII.” University of Utah. www.lib.utah.edu/collections/photo-exhibits/japanese-American-Internment.php. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.
“Japanese American Internment.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 2017. www.britannica.com/event/Japanese-American-internment. Accessed 13 Feb. 2017.
Matsuzawa, Kara. Japanese American Internment Camps. www.mtholyoke.edu/~matsu22k/classweb/index.html. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017.
Takami, David A. "Sakamoto, James”. Washington State. 1999. www.historylink.org/File/2050. Accessed 23 Feb. 2017.