The Internment Camps In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

While the attack on Pearl Harbor was a devastating time in United States history and the attack being conducted by the Japanese government, it didn’t not justify Japanese Americans being put into internment camps. The fear of a Japanese attack on mainland United States soil prompted the United States government to create these internment camps. Such fear lead to innocent Japanese Americans to live in a way that could be considered inhuman. Of the hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans in the internment camps half of them were children. The conditions of the camps where no way of life and Japanese Americans were forced to live in an undignified life that

The novel, When the Emperor was Divine focuses on an average Japanese-American family that lived in the United States during the time period of World War Two. The author, Julie Otsuka, refers to the characters as "the mother," "the girl," "the boy," and "the father."Each member of the family was affected very greatly but much differently by the internment camps in which they were forced to live in. Being placed in internment camps made them act in ways they normally wouldn't. For example, the internment camp made the Girl rebel, while it made her brother step up to be the man of the house. Despite her being of Japanese descent, the Girl was your typical American pre-teen. Being not only born but raised in the united states, she only knew

There are many things that happened to Japanese-American immigrants during World War 2 that people in this time period aren’t really familiar with. A story from a Japanese woman, Jeanne Wakatsuki-Houston, who was born and lived in this era, with help from her husband, James D. Houston, explains and sheds some light during the times where internment camps still prevailed. The writing piece titled “Arrival at Manzanar", takes place during her childhood and the Second World War. In the beginning, Jeanne and her family were living a calm and peaceful life in a predominantly white neighborhood, until disaster struck the world and they were forced to move due to escalating tensions between Japanese Orientals and white Americans. At the time, Japanese-Americans, like Jeanne, were forced to live in an internment camp, which is a prison of sorts, due to the war with Japan. The text is being told through a first person point-of-view in which Jeanne herself tells the story through her experiences during the war. In that story, which contains only a part of the original text, much of the setting took place either prior to and during the time she was sent to the internment camps and describes her struggle with it. This story clearly states the importance of family and perseverance which is shown through her use of pathos, definition, and chronological storytelling.

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

In American history Japanese internment camps had to do with a lot of hysteria. Hysteria was mainly built up because of the bombing on Pearl Harbor. Americans thought that they were no safe until all Japanese were in no way of hurting us. So by putting Japanese Americans in internment camps

The internment and cruel treatment of the Japanese in the U.S. stemmed from a fear of a full-pledged invasion from Japan and also from years of racial prejudice

Another thing that was bad about the internment camp is that there was a lot of racism going on between the Americans and the Japanese. The anti-racism has been going in the United States since the 19th century. There were tensions between the Asian immigrant workers and the whites because they were force to compete for jobs and land. The United States Congress decided to discourage the Japanese immigrants and to prohibit the naturalization of Japanese immigrants. “The state of California banned the marriages between the whites and the people of Asian descent” (KIM). This is also racism also because the Japanese were the only race that was send to the camps. There were signs on street and billboard on stores

Imagine what it would be like if you and your family. Had to leave your home and live in a camp. In World War ll, life was challenging for Japanese Americans living inside internment camps. It was not necessary for so many reasons. It caused economic, political, and racial problems.

The Manzanar internment camps were very inconvinient for the Japanese- American citizens as the attack on Pearl Harbor was very inconvinient for the U.S. Military. In the end, both fought through the tough times and came out more determined to make things right. I say this because according to the excerpt above, "Of the hundreds of men wounded in the attack, only 10 percent stayed in their hospital beds more than a day. The rest went almost immediately back to their duties." This shows that the Military was very determined to fight for their country and wouldn't let their wounds stop them. This is the quite similar for the Japanese- Americans that were forced to go to camps around the U.S. because the Americans were scared that they would turn against the U.S. during the war against the Japanese. When the Japanese- Americans had the chance to get out of the crowded camps, they went on with their lives, some with schooling, going back to make buisnesses, etc. This shows how the Japanese- Americans still had hope for their country and didn't give up on it because they were treated wrong.

Many Japanese Americans were actively being sent to the internment camps against their will by the government. This forced exile likely instilled feelings of fear, confusion and betrayal amongst the Japanese-American people.

     Unfortunately, the Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were given no time to show what their loyalties were: they were expelled from the area. They were shipped off to remote locations in the more barren sections of the country. The living conditions at the camps were inadequate at best. Residents were forced to endure extreme cold and extreme heat, cramped living spaces, poor meals, and a lack of indoor plumbing. The whole time, they were under the watchful eyes of armed military police. They were treated as prisoners.

“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.

Education for Japanese at the time was not very effective, so you can only imagine how education for children in the internment camps was at the time. Out of the nearly 120,000 inhabitants of the camps about 30,000 of those people were children, and these children needed to be educated in some way. Most of these classrooms were taught in Japanese and was the exact opposite of what these children needed. The fact that not all the education was in English was detrimental to the kids who were mostly all citizens. The teachers never had the appropriate material to teach their students, these crowded schools were just a way of making it seem like the government cares about the children. The materials that the teachers did have were not knowledgeable

At the internment camp the Japanese suffered from malnourishment due to only receiving one meager meal a day. They also suffered from chronic sunburns because there was a lack of shaded areas. The Japanese also suffered mental trauma. One example of mental damage is the mother. Near the end of their imprisonment, the mother began to lose all hope of ever leaving the camp and mentally gave up. She refused meals and mentally checked out. Lastly, the Japanese also suffered emotional damage from their internment because they lost their self worth as well as their dignity. While they knew they were innocent and had done nothing wrong against America, they began to feel as if they were criminals and were less than

how strict it was in those camps. There were ten such camps: Amache in Colorado, Topaz in Utah, Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Poston and Gila River in Arizona were some of them. They were surrounded by dust, sand, and barbed wire fences with armed guard towers. The internees had no idea as to what was to become of them. All families lived together in a single room, and others had to share their rooms with people who they had never seen. Camps were filled with wooden house and they had only one electric light. They had to stay in the line for meals. Children did not receive any education even though some young Japanese women struggled to provide some education by setting up makeshift schools. Those Soldiers were not protecting these innocents they were just monitoring them but Japanese had a good view of those soldier, they knew troops were just doing their job. But If they try to escape, they may get shot. They only had basic needs. They live frightened in these camps. There was a line for everything such as using toilets, shower and laundry. Compered to how they live earlier as described above, life in camps is like living in a hell.