A Summary OfThe Narrow Road To The Deep North?

The autobiography illustrates personal experiences of discrimination and prejudice while also reporting the political occurrences during the United States’ involvement in World War II. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States government unleashed unrestrained contempt for the Japanese residing in the nation. The general public followed this train of thought, distrusting the Japanese and treating them like something less than human. In a country of freedom and justice, no coalition stepped up to defend the people who had lived there most of or all of their lives; rather, people took advantage of the Japanese evacuation to take their property and belongings. The government released demeaning propaganda displaying comical Japanese men as monsters and rats, encouraging the public to be vigilant and wary toward anyone of Japanese descent. The abuse of the Japanese during this period was taken a little too lightly, the government apologizing too late and now minor education of the real cruelty expressed toward the nation’s own citizens. Now we see history repeating itself in society, and if we don’t catch the warning signs today, history may just come full

Roger Daniels’ book Prisoners without Trial is another book that describes the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. This piece discusses about the background that led up to the internment, the internment itself, and what happened afterwards. The internment and relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II was an injustice prompted by political and racial motivations. The author’s purpose of this volume is to discuss the story in light of the redress and reparation legislation enacted in 1988. Even though Daniels gives first hand accounts of the internment of Japanese Americans in his book, the author is lacking adequate citations and provocative quotations. It’s

War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldier, and the civilian. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-American citizens in the United States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POWs, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné Okubo, a U.S. citizen by birth, is removed from society and interned in a “protective custody” camp for Japanese-American citizens. She is one of the many Japanese-Americans who were interned for the duration of the war. Louie Zamperini, as a POW in Japan, and Miné Okubo, as a Japanese-American Internee both experience efforts to make them “invisible” through dehumanization and isolation in the camps of WWII, and both resist these efforts.

While coming up with a topic for this paper, one of my questions dealt with war and cultural groups. I will be the first to admit, Racism was the last thing on my mind. The original question being, “How does war affect a Social Culture and how does it stand today?” When I started thinking about Cultures that had been so deeply affected by war, one of the first that came to mind were the Japanese in World War II. Then I recalled what one person had told me of their younger days at college, when they were attending school. Their name will remain anonymous; I do not want to make the victim’s name public as it has a very personal nature.

According to the novel Farewell to Manzanar, “I smiled and sat down, suddenly aware of what being of Japanese ancestry was going to be like. I wouldn’t be faced with physical attack, or with overt shows of hatred. Rather, I would be seen as someone foreign, or as someone other than American, or perhaps not be seen at all” (158). After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the government saw all Japanese-Americans as enemies even though most, if not all of them, had done nothing wrong. They were taken from their homes and send to awful internment camps where they were treated as prisoners. The Japanese-Americans stayed in the camps four years, just because of where they come from. During this time Americans completely turned against the Japanese people living in their country and bombarded the news with anti-Japanese propaganda which showed how much racial discrimination there was, even back in the 1940s. While Farewell to Manzanar explores this concept, there are many questions in which the reader is left with. First, the Japanese-American Internment was fueled by more than war time panic, which reveals the question: what role did prejudice play in the Japanese-American Relocation? Then, there is the question: what modern day connections can you make with this time in American history? Lastly, this story leaves the reader with the question: do you think something like this could happen today? Farewell to Manzanar gives a glimpse of the lives of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s and

The issues of Japanese-American internment camps is one of the most controversial, yet important time periods of American history. Many have asked: Why should we learn about this event? The event of Japanese-American internment camps has changed the way America and its citizens are looked upon. As Americans, this event is important to learn so that an injustice like this will never happen again in our history. This event has helped many people gain more rights and civil liberties. This event has also helped other groups fight for their rights and freedoms. Although this event had caused fear and pain, it had changed America and its treatment toward citizens of different descents and ethic backgrounds.

Throughout history of not only the United States but also the world, racism has played a huge role in the treatment of other humans. A dark mark in United States history, the Japanese Relocation during WWII is a prime example of this racism coming into play. Whether or not this event was necessary or even justified, however, is a constant question for historians even nowadays. The Japanese relocation of the 1920’s unnecessary and unjustified because it’s main causes: selfish economic plots by farmers, unrealistic military measures, and blatant racism.

In his 1986 commonly known book, “War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War”, American Historian, John W Dower, examined and explained the relationship in Japanese and Americans during World War II and studies links between culture, stereotypes, and ultimately the high levels of violence. From the start he mentions that “World War Two changed the face of the globe”. He further explained that during the Second War, society had to witness the rise and fall cycle of the empires and what it did to everyone. Dower’s statement of “… racism remains one of the great neglected subjects of World War Two” is definitely the most relatable and true quote from the entire piece. This is a large aspect that the world and society views from and that is why it is such a popular topic throughout the entire text. Even in today’s society, more parts of the world than others, racism still controls how we treat people, who we hire for a job, and what we say in certain environments. He goes on to mention the racist code words and imagery that came with the war in Asia and makes remarks in regards to the “dominant perceptions of the enemy” on both sides of the war. Part One of the book focuses on the relationship between the two whom are at war and the correspondence and differences between the “Enemies.

During World War II, thousands of POWs experienced isolation and dehumanization in an Japanesethe attemptefforts of the Japanese to make them feel invisible. In Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, American POW and former Olympic runner Louis “Louie” Zamperini rwas just one of the many soldiers who was dehumanized while in Japanese

In this same poem Suyemoto writes, “And conscienceless, wills not to understand/ That being born here constitutes a right,”1 referencing the two thirds of Japanese on the Pacific-coast that were natural born citizens. Even the cruel, inconsiderate neglect people showed while wondering through Toyo’s family’s home when they were trying to pack their important belonging for departure to a camp the next, demonstrates how little people thought of the Japanese at his point in time. Toyo Suyemoto’s poem “Guilt by Heredity” explains these blind discontent most Americans felt for Japanese during this time in American history, and is shows how little people, or the American government cared about or for these people during World War II.

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3

“They had to take turns sitting and they slept each with his legs draped over the next man, enveloped in a fuming stench of stale vomit, rancid bodied, shit and puke, and on they went, soot-slicked and heart-sick, a thousand miles, five days and no food, six stops and three dead men.” (Flanagan, 2013, p. 38) The men of the Australian POW camps were horribly treated and brutally abused during the building of the Thailand-Burma Railroad in 1942-43. Though many of them volunteered to help build the railway, the majority do regret the decision. The novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a greatly written book by Richard Flanagan, that describes the Australian POW camps and the building the railway of

The novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan is set in the era surrounding World War II and encompasses three separate plot lines. The first story follows the life of protagonist Dorrigo Evans, a young physician in the military, as he is in a prisoner of war camp in Japan, constructing a railroad with the other prisoners. The second plot line predates the first and follows Evans in basic training, where he is sleeping with his uncle’s young wife despite being in a relationship himself. The final plot strand post dates either of the others and shows Evans at seventy seven, still involved in a variety of extramarital affairs; still practicing medicine and still basking in the fame that came from a documentary detailing the

In his work “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live” Takashi Fujitani compares and contrasts the Japanese treatment of colonialized Koreans leading up to World War II with the American treatment of the Japanese residents following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This work highlights how both the Japanese and the Americans treated the Koreans and Japanese Americans, respectively, and offers several different viewpoints. Thus, this work is exceptionally important and provides incredible insight into both cultures and the harsh reality of wartime. Additionally, Fujitani also explains how the Korean and Japanese populations are still influenced today.