In the poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066” a girl unknowingly experiences the effect of the injustice towards her race brought on by World War II. The executive order that is reference by the poems’ title is an order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt stipulating that all Japanese Americans must report to relocation camps to be interned for the duration of World War II. It tells the story of a young Japanese American girl in the days shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The author Dwight Okita wrote the poem from the perspective of his mother's personality and by using his own opinion about what might've happened if she had been in high school the day the order came out. (“Dwight’s Poetry”) The friend of the narrator, Denise, says that "You're trying to start a war," she said, "giving secrets away to the Enemy. Why can't you keep your big mouth shut?" (Okita 199) The narrator is stunned by this turn of events and even though her friend was being cruel, the narrator still gives Denise the seeds her father gave her. (Constantakis) This shows the depth of the stereotyping and injustice that was leveled toward Japanese Americans during this time. Our society had the responsibility of protecting all Americans, not just everyone except Japanese …show more content…
The story is a synopsis of an experience George Orwell had while observing a prisoner who had been condemned to death by hanging for his crimes. This story was inspired by this experience and others that he had while serving the British Empire in Myanmar. Those experiences would form the basis for multiple of his stories throughout his career. (Rodden 4) In the story you can see the author’s point of view change in the section where he reflects on the prisoner stepping over the puddle, “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.” (Orwell 596) This revelation in thought by Orwell shows how a society’s sense of justice can change the moral character of a