An Afternoon Walk Essay

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

A Long Walk to Water is a novel by Linda Sue Park. This novel is about Salva, an eleven-year -old Sudanese boy who grows up in South Sudan. Later in the novel, he has faced challenges one wouldn’t dream of facing, through a long period of time. He has learned, if one helps other people, those people will then help more people, which will result in more happiness in the world. He is a round character, who changes throughout the novel. Salva is a different person at the end of the book. He has gone from hearing his death journey to fighting for survival to helping transform people’s lives forever.

“When I think of how that secret lived in all of our lives, I remember the way Kiyo and I responded to a little incident soon after we got out of camp. We were sitting on a bus-stop bench in Long Beach, when an old, embittered woman stopped and said, ‘Why don’t all you dirty Japs go back to Japan!’ She spit at us and passed on. And over the years we never spoke of this insult.

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.

In her novel When the Emperor Was Divine, author Julie Otsuka presents the long-lasting effects that isolation and alienation have on a person’s self- image and identity. During WWII, Japanese-Americans living in the United States were forced to move to isolated and horrific internment camps. The US government ensured they were separated from the rest of the country. This even included their own families. When the Japanese-Americans were allowed to return home after the war, the result of the isolation they experienced created irreversible damage. They continued to experience alienation, often making it impossible for them to recover emotionally, mentally and financially. Otsuka uses characterization to bring to life the traumas of the war and the effects it had on her characters, the girl, her mother and her father.

Do you know what a Japan family goes through once they move in America back then? In the novel,” Under the Blood Red Sun”, Graham Salisbury writes about a Japanese family moving into Hawaii and what activities and hobbies they do. The Japanese army attacks Pearl Harbor and because of this event their racer pigeons and Tomi’s Papa and Grandpa are taken away. The author teaches the reader about how everything isn’t fair, bravery, and to treat others the way you want to be treated.

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

Among this group of “Nisei” was the Uchida family from Berkeley, California. Yoshiko Uchida, the youngest daughter in the Uchida family was a senior at the University of California at Berkeley at the time of the attacks. Years later, Yoshiko became a prolific writer of children’s books (Sato 66). In her book, “Desert Exile”, published in 1982, Uchida gave a personal account of the evacuation and incarceration of her family during World War II (Sato 66). Uchida’s book raises awareness to the specter of racial prejudice and the hope that no other group of Americans would have to endure this type of injustice and violation of their human rights (Sato 66).

Ruth raised her children as Jewish parents would’ve, even if she wasn’t aware of it. Like other Jewish families, she raised her children to be scholastic standouts. They were kept out of the public school system and kept in certain communities. Ruth was particular about the teachers who taught and disciplined them. She wanted he children to receive the best education.

The Pearl Harbor attack gave an opening for racist propaganda to take affect. One of these propaganda posters, “Waiting for the Signal From Home” shows many stereotypical Japanese people in line to receive TNT all across the western coast (PM Magazine). This racist picture illustrates the Japanese with lines as eyes and all looking the same. The building in the picture named “Honorable 5th Column” stands for a group of people that undermine a nation within. The message here shows how the Japanese are preparing for another attack and waiting for the signal to attack

Mitsuye Yamada in her thirty-six line poem “To the Lady” (1243) tries to address the question which was asked from the lady in San Francisco about the injustice the Japanese Americans experienced in the United States concentration camps during World War II. She asked “why did the Japanese Americans let the government put them in those camps without protest?” (Yamada 1243) As Mitsuye think about the question, she rewrite her experience in an imagery conversation with the lady from San Francisco.

Lost Names: Scenes From A Korean Boyhood by Richard E. Kim is an autobiographical fictionalization of the author’s youth in Japanese occupied Manchuria. Though not a traditional autobiography, the author tells his own story through the eyes of a nameless young man. The story takes place between 1932 and 1945. The young man grows and changes from the start of the novel to the end and meditates on the nature of war, family, duty and education among other things. However, the most important aspect of the novel is the way in which it portrays the Japanese occupation and the state of the main character’s family as a result of it.

The world view of the Navajo who had lived for many centuries on the high Colorado Plateau was one of living in balance with all of nature, as the stewards of their vast homeland which covered parts of four modern states. They had no concept of religion as being something separate from living day to day and prayed to many spirits. It was also a matriarchal society and had no single powerful leader as their pastoral lifestyle living in scattered independent family groups require no such entity. This brought them repeatedly into conflict with Spanish, Mexicans and increasingly by the mid-nineteenth century, Americans as these practices were contrary to their male dominated religiously monolithic societal values. The long standing history

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy’s “human resources were stretched thin,” forcing the Japanese government officials to turn towards Korea for extra manpower. In 1942, the government-general of Korea (GGK) announced that twenty-year-old Korean men would be conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. To promote Korean acceptance of conscription, the Japanese encouraged assimilation of Koreans into Japanese culture and society. This included learning Japanese and taking on a Japanese name. The attempts at assimilation and the draft left Koreans wondering whether they would become full citizens or “remain second rate subjects” after the war. Even Korean soldiers, who were supposedly equal to Japanese soldiers, were left wondering about their position in Japanese society. Through an analysis of Kasayama Yoshikichi’s recount of “The Korean Guard,” this paper argues that Kasayama reveals the nature of Korean conscription in the Japanese Army. In doing so, this paper shows how Korean soldiers were forced to comply to Japanese official orders, otherwise they would be punished; although, some Korean soldiers resisted towards the end of the war.

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.