Race and Power in the US: The Evil Hearts of Mankind - Essay Example

Race and Power in the US: The Evil Hearts of Mankind The struggle for power and oppression starts within the evil hearts of mankind. For, as we browse deeper into the annals of history, it is too sickly to dismiss the fact that man has taken the ultimate pride and joy in another person’s downfall. Civilized society’s insatiable avarice for power under a cloak of sovereignty insists on their rights over another, consequently demeaning equal justice. Conflicts escalating into full-blown wars allowed warring factions to employ every available resource to destabilize and eliminate its foe. Psychological warfare is nurtured to harden and manipulate the public to fight small battles against its easy prey. Yet after the sound of the victory cry, for some the vestiges of war refused to settle and will forever haunt them throughout their lives. In its clamor for freedom and equal rights, the US Congress, in its Act of March 26,1790 states that “any alien, being a free white person who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for a term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof.” This provided a welcome avenue for the Japanese who began arriving in the US soil primarily to work as agricultural laborers. However, a US District Court in 1894 ruled that Japanese Immigrants or “Issei” could not be labeled as “free white person” based on the Naturalization Act of 1790. This came as a disappointment for the immigrants who have learned to regard America, their native soil. When the World War II escalated after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, the plot to heighten racism towards the Japanese–Americans considered as an ethnic minority group mostly living in California also prospered. Foster asserted in an essay that, “In the first discharge of emotions touched off by the Japanese assaults on their nation, U.S. citizens have been demonstrating a distressing ignorance on the delicate questions of how to tell a Chinese from a Jap.” This literary piece showed Japanese men whose pictures were marked to distinguished their physical profile and descriptions. Another picture showed Chinese journalist Joe Chiang, advertising his nationality as a non-Japanese “to gain entry to White House Press Conferences” in his chest. In the same article, Foster seems to insist that LIFE MAGAZINE is commendable for properly identifying friendly Chinese allies from the enemy Japanese. Statements like such encouraged hostility towards the Japanese-Americans and is further proven in his sentiment that, “At LIFE, we are here to direct your hatred to its proper object.” TIME Magazine, not to be outdone also added their own description and grave remarks over the Japanese by using slurs like “Why The Yellow Bastards!” It would have made an understatement if the Japanese-Americans had committed a grievous offense to the American public. But the hardworking Japanese-Americans actually are not aliens to a country whose laws literally welcomed them. After the devastation of Pearl Harbor, these set of ethnic Americans of Japanese ancestry like any ordinary citizens contributed to several recreation drives to restore morale in Oahu, Hawaii. Their obvious attempts were deemed useless and soon they were expelled from their own homes, stripped off their personal properties and jobs. They became prisoners and enemies of their own country under a military justification that explained “its necessity for fear of sabotage in cases of invasion”. A “Munson Report” commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on November, 1941 however “concluded that a great majority of the Japanese-Americans in US soil are loyal and does not pose any threat at all.” But the American leadership sought to dismiss this finding. FDR’s declaration of World War II further fanned and fueled anger against the helpless Japanese-Americans thereby admitting one of the most pronounced activities of racial discrimination. Hate Propaganda articles in a New York Times created an analysis of the Indian War and the Japanese in their manner of fighting. However, they added: “even a dead Jap isn't a good Jap...Yet such are the Nipponese. In death as in life, treacherous." Most tabloids and magazines made no secret of their blatant hate for the Japanese-Americans or “Nissei” and their support of the war. Life published an almost decent picture of kids at play marred by the little boy carrying a gun which carries the caption: “Like any boy with a new toy, Bob enjoys the admiration of his sister”. An article in TIME regarded the Korean invasion as a Japanese obsession because of Korea’s move to civilize Japan. While camps were built to facilitate the incarceration of the “Nissei” citizens, the lack of workers to till the American fields were blamed on them. An article sarcastically wrote:“…to build a new camp to house the Japanese who were originally from California and owned farms there. Now they casually sit in the shade and watch the building of a new camp…” At the turn of springtime and in April, the Japanese-Americans begin arriving at the internment camps, San Francisco News carried headlines and LIFE Magazine posted pictures of the “Nisei” citizens carrying their luggage. The picture shows a grim similarity to the Holocaust pictures of the Jews carrying their few possessions with apprehensive faces into their “new homes” while the army looked on. Another picture showed the imprisoned citizens hungrily enjoying their meal of beans and chowder prepared by a fellow “Nissei”. If the squalid prison camps in the Philippines housing the American POW have raised mixed feelings of anger and hysteria, why was the government quick to enforce drastic regulations involving the same condition to its own citizens? The imprisoned soldiers were combatants and officers of the enemy infantry. Logically, hostile encounters are prevented if the armed enemy is subdued. But to regard the Japanese-Americans as enemies by virtue of their ethnicity is a clear violation of their rights. The war was a question of ideologies brought about the healthy desires of a leadership for geological expansion, economic and political gains. One nation is at war with another nation in the battlefronts. At home, regardless of one’s ancestry and affiliation, every citizen is afforded equal rights. The state and the government have a responsibility to protect and guard its constituents despite its biological origin and race. But the US Government actually did not turn a blind eye on the Japanese-Americans! They were picked out from among the many nationalities in the State of California and stripped off their rights and freedom and worst, subjected to public ridicule and regarded as uncivilized, barbaric and bloodthirsty! As the raging war waged on in the Pacific Isles, it also dawned the use of blood-thirsty military slogans: “KILL JAPS !KILL JAPS !KILL MORE JAPS…! You will help to kill the yellow bastards if you do your job well ". Such slurs and slogans may be tolerated during actual combat, but the placement of billboards on strategic locations for public view was tactically used to psychologically instigate a reminder of hate. American government made sure that the constant call to sympathy over the fallen American soldiers enables the already delicate society to channel its anger to the nearest community of similar ancestry. By May 1942, when gasoline rationings were imposed, hate prints against the Japanese started coming by droves. Although they were already in their respective prison camps, Americans made sure that every Tom, Dick and Harry would close their doors on their forsaken fellowmen. Propaganda materials and advertising campaigns dominated with numerous commercial entities cashing in on the target of its hatred. The promotion kick-off and sale of war bonds which killed Carole Lombard for Victory Bonds was just the start of the campaign. A publication would show an illustration entitled “Shadow of Death or Symbol of Peace?” inflicting fear among the American citizens. Colored poster military campaign ads for recruits into the army were plastered near areas of public interest commonly identified through history as “We want You” ad. The same poster was later on used as a tool for the drafting of Japanese-Americans into the army for them to ironically prove their patriotism. Recognized as physically and mentally gifted over other forms of life, man continues its bitter quest for strength amongst its own group. For a country that valued its freedom so as to “fight until death” and yet radically limit or strip the same from another by virtue of one’s ancestry, practices racial discrimination. Over the years, Americans of colored ancestry have been subjected to social ridicule and even death at the hands of their own countrymen. This exercise of lunatic superiority is akin to the acts of a barbaric society. As civilized citizens of a humanized society, we need to co-exist with others and accept that we are the products of small ethnic groups which successfully intermingled forming a remarkable country of people capable of caring for one another. Works Cited Foster, Sesshu. “How to tell Japs from the Chinese”. LIFE 22 Dec. 1941: 81-82 “How to Tell Your Friends from the Japs”. 22, Dec.1941 Time.com 4, Mar 2006. Read More