Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida - Essay Example

Life in an Internment Camp through the Eyes of a Victim: Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida Reading “Desert Exile”, the autobiographical book by Yoshiko Uchida for the first time would shock any American. The author lays bare the unpalatable truth of the ‘internment camps’ in which the Japanese Americans were forced to live in, after Pearl Harbor. Writing in a simple and lucid style, the author describes first hand, the experiences of the Japanese Americans living in the United States before and during World War II. Being a Japanese American herself, born in the United States to émigré Japanese parents, Yoshiko was also subjected to the unsettling experience of the concentration camp, when her family was relocated to an internment camp in Utah. She describes the hard life of the Japanese Americans during the Depression and after they were forced to live in the internment camp The author’s father came to the United States in 1906, and her mother came later to marry him. Belonging to a fairly well-off family, Uchida did not experience the hardships her friends did during the Depression .She describes her angst during her childhood and her mother’s sensitivity and her father’s kindness and hospitality. The book throws light on some of the customs and ways of life of the first generation Japanese Americans. Although the book is well written and is full of insights, Yoshiko Uchida who belongs to the community of Japanese Americans herself, does not seem to give a balanced view of the experiences of her community .According to a critic, Uchida “is too close to her subjects and does not have enough critical distance to give a balanced and accurate account of the internment and experience of Japanese Americans in the years before the internment.” Writing about the deluge of Japanese visitors they had when she was a child, Uchida writes, “I felt as though our house was the unofficial alumni headquarters of Doshisha, and I one of its most reluctant members.”(Uchida p. 11) As the author was but a young child at the time, the number of visitors must have seemed enormous to her. In chapter 2, the author speaks about her insecurities which continued into her adult life. According to her, the insecurity was probably caused by the feeling of being different. “Perhaps it was the constant sense of not being as good as the hakujin(white people)” (Uchida 27) She concedes that although they spoke Japanese at home and observed Japanese customs, her family was more liberal than many of the other Japanese families. “As a result, our upbringing was less strict than that of some of my Nesei friends”( Uchida p 27) As a part of the Japanese American community, Uchida was too deeply immersed in their customs and traditions , which prevented her from taking an objective view of their life in America during her childhood. In addition to this, her constant sense of insecurity could hardly help her to have a balanced point of view. Japanese customs were ingrained into their lives. According to Uchida, they never began a meal without saying “Itadaki Masu” to their mother, a Japanese custom of thanking the hostess; they ordered their groceries from a small Japanese grocery shop, and observed Japanese festivals like the “Dolls Festival Day” on March 2. (p.30) Uchida paints the happy life of her family before the war very eloquently in her book. The happy life was sometimes threatened by the anti-Asian prejudices that were building up. She describes the incident when her father was visited by the three men “who professed to represent the ‘Santa Fe Improvement Association’”(Uchida p 4) “They came not to welcome my parents to the neighborhood, but to tell them to get out”(p.4) Yoshiko’s father tells the men to send the complaining members to him. “If they can bring proof that we are undesirable elements in this neighborhood, we will leave immediately” he assures the men. (Uchida p.4) According to Uchida, racism had not become less as the years passed. “Although such racism had not abated by the time my parents began to raise a family, my sister and I had a happy childhood wrapped in the love and affection of our parents.”(Uchida p.5) She mentions other instances of racism during her childhood like the invisible line drawn by the realtors while selling houses to Asians. She describes her family’s visit to the village Cornwall, where one of its residents, an elderly woman patted her on the head and told her that she spoke English beautifully. “She had looked at my Japanese face and addressed only my outer person, and although she had meant to complement me, I was thoroughly abashed to be perceived as a foreigner.(Uchida 20) . Uchida’s confrontation with racism in America before the war is not substantial, and her understanding of it is too subjective. It was only after the United States entered into war with Japan that Uchida understood the full import of racism. After the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, the United States formally entered into World War II. Uchida’s family like other Japanese American families, was forced to abandon their home and lifestyle, and herded into internment camps. Although there was no record of spying or disloyalty against them, the American government took the decision to put them in concentration camps only because they looked like the enemy. The action of the U.S government was sinister because most of the 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry interred in the camps were American citizens. In a poignant chapter, Uchida describes how everything changed in her life after Pearl Harbor. She writes how her father was seized by the FBI, and how her family was forced to vacate their home in ten days’ notice. She describes the horse stall they had to live in without any privacy. The life of the Japanese Americans changed drastically after they were sent to the concentration camps in the desert of Utah. Although Uchida describes the internment camp as “an artificial, government –spawned community on the periphery of the real world,” and gives a powerful portrayal of the life in the camps, her nearness to the subject has blunted her objectivity. She does not give an accurate account of the happenings in the internment camps. The Japanese Americans showed resilience, courage and a strong sense of community in the face of adversity. Even in the face of hostility and racism, they tried to live a productive life and ensure that their children were educated. Since the author was too involved with the subject, as it concerns her directly, she has not been able to critically analyze the situation. The portrayal of the camp in Utah is crafted well: “a dismal, dreary camp surrounded by barbed wire in the middle of a stark, harsh landscape that offered nothing to refresh the eye or heal the spirit”( Uchida p. 100) The author writes about the badly constructed barracks where they had to live and study. Describing the dust storms which ravaged the camp, she says: “Before the stoves or inner sheetrock walls were installed, we had another violent dust storm”(Uchida p 118) Uchida tells the tale of travails faced by the Issei (first generation immigrants) and the Nisei (Japanese Americans born in America) during the war with restraint and dignity. Although it is a book which enhances our knowledge of the Japanese Americans and their experiences before and during the war, it cannot be considered an accurate historical account of the times because of the intimate relationship of the author to the subject. Works cited Uchida,Yoshiko. Desert Exile: the Uprooting of a Japanese American Family University of Washington Press. 1984. Read More