John Okada's No-No Boy

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the internment of Japanese Americans on the West coast of the United States. On going tension between the United States and Japan rose in the 1930’s due to Japan’s increasing power and because of this tension the bombing at Pearl Harbor occurred. This event then led the United States to join World War II. However it was the Executive Order of 9066 that officially led to the internment of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans, some legal and illegal residents, were moved into internment camps between 1942-1946. The internment of Japanese Americans affected not only these citizens but the

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

When Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942,1 thousands of Japanese-American families were relocated to internment camps in an attempt to suppress supposed espionage and sabotage attempts on the part of the Japanese government. Not only was this relocation based on false premises and shaky evidence, but it also violated the rights of Japanese-Americans through processes of institutional racism that were imposed following the events of Pearl Harbor. Targeting mostly Issei and Nisei citizens, first and second generation Japanese-Americans respectively,2 the policy of internment disrupted the lives of families, resulting in a loss of personal property, emotional distress,

As we read further into the book, into Part II: “The War in Western Eyes”, it allows us to recognize the different types of natures. The kill or be killed, the down-home styled, and the different types of behaviors. It tells about the punishments through prisoners and the freed and even makes the reference of how “for many Japanese-Americans, the verbal stripping of their humanity was accompanied by humiliating treatment” These people were treated with disrespect and as if they were part of a cluster of cattle. Part three of the novel explains and explores the culture of the Japanese to determine racial outlook.

Following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, racial tensions increased in the United States, especially on the West Coast (Divine 898). The anti-Japanese sentiment led to President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which gave military officials the power to limit the civil rights of Japanese Americans (Danzer 802). The order also authorized the forced relocation of all Japanese Americans to concentration camps (Divine 898). These camps were located in desolate deserts and flatlands in the interior of the United States (Sato 67). Two thirds of the 120,000 Japanese Americans who were forced to relocate were “Nisei”, or native born American citizens (Divine 898).

Upon Ichiro’s return to Seattle, he finds himself in an America that is unwelcoming and cold towards Japanese Americans, primarily to those who refused to serve in World War II. Though the book does not delve into Ichiro’s time spent in prison, and only takes place within the after effects of his imprisonment, Ichiro’s response to his mother shows that his imprisonment has continued to follow him into his home life. Though through his birth in America making him a rightful American, he feels displaced by his own citizenship, Okada writes, “I blame myself,” (Okada 17). Ichiro blames himself for answering ‘no’ to the loyalty questions. Ichiro places blame on himself for things that are beyond his control. He is obsessed with his identity being a whole of one thing, as being “half” or

“Herd ‘em up, pack ‘em off, and give ‘em the inside room in the badlands”(Hearst newspaper column). Many Americans were feeling this way toward people of Japanese descent after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The feelings Americans were enduring were motivated largely by wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership. The Japanese-Americans were being denied their constitutional rights, they were provided poor living conditions in these relocation camps, and by the time apologies and reparations were paid to the Japanese, it was too late.

'Even with all the mental anguish and struggle, an elemental instinct bound us to this soil. Here we were born; here we wanted to live. We had tasted of its freedom and learned of its brave hopes for democracy. It was too late, much too late for us to turn back.' (Sone 124). This statement is key to understanding much of the novel, Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone. From one perspective, this novel is an autobiographical account of a Japanese American girl and the ways in which she constructed her own self-identity. On the other hand, the novel depicts the distinct differences and tension that formed between the Issei and Nisei generations. Moreover, it can be seen as an attempt to describe the

and had little to none affection for Japan. To Ichiro, the U.S. was his homeland, and he should be loyal to the U.S. by joining the military. This generational gap between two different immigrant generations, Ichiro and his paranoid and controlling mother, already had the potential to create conflicts; yet the war between Japan and the U.S. intensified the tension. To Ichiro, being a No-No Boy caused by his mother’s powerful influence was destructive to him. His decision was against his will; and this decision not only destroyed his future by sending him to jail for two years, but also made him no longer a true American citizen which he used to identify himself to, because he betrayed his country. However, Ichiro was not a true Japanese either, since Japan was foreign to him in the first place. Thus, Ichiro was neither a true American nor a true Japanese; both side rejected him. Failed to gain back his bright future and seek for belonging and acceptance, Ichiro was constantly in confusion and rage. And this could be seen throughout Ichiro’s character development as he never felt peaceful or relieved, and he kept regretting about his decisions, kept questioning his self-identity and self-worth, kept punishing himself by rejecting any possible opportunities which might provide him a better future… not until his mother passed away. The quote from Ichiro’s mother revealed one of the major sources that caused Ichiro’s

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps

Imagine being taken away from your home, job, school, friends, and family. Just because of what others had done and you; being accused because you look like them or are from the same race. Read this Essay and you will understand how the ‘Japanese-American Internment’ affected many of the Japanese-American and how unfair that “law” had become. This meaning that I am against the Japanese-American Internment.

The Japanese and their rabid ethnocentrism have their effect on the narrator’s family. The family is generally happy and well structured. The narrator lives with his mother, father, little sister and grandfather. As mentioned before, the narrator’s family pressures him to be better than the Japanese students. Upon returning home after being beaten, the men of the house invite him to eat with them and drink wine. This is a strong scene that is filled with the proudness of a parent for their son. Simply standing up to a

Ichiro Yamada’s refusal to serve in the U.S. Army presents the parental and cultural aspects that are influenced by the belief of a monoracial American identity. During the internment, the government administered a Loyalty Questionnaire to all Japanese internees. To Ichiro, this either determined his rejection or acceptance into American society. One major question was Question 27: “willing to serve whenever ordered” (10/9 Lecture). Another major question was Question 28: “swearing allegiance to the United States and forswearing allegiance to the Emperor of Japan” (10/9 Lecture). By refusing to serve in the army, American society regarded him as a disloyal American. However, in Mrs. Yamada’s eyes, his refusal affirms her pride in calling him “her son” (16). During this scene, free indirect discourse, or the “presenting of thoughts of a character as if it is from their POV via character’s ‘direct

Ichiro’s inability to pledge allegiances caused great disdain from those in his community. Filled with Japanese Americans like him, many disapproved of his choice to not fight for the United States against Japan, when a great number of them did. Many of the older Japanese people in this community and around America