The Internment of and Assimilation of Japanese-American - Research Paper Example

Ruoming Dong Carlisi ESL 33B/Project 3/ first draft 18 September The Internment of and Assimilation of Japanese-American In the Meiji period, Japan was a poor country. Therefore, a great deal of Japanese wanted to immigrate to United State to escape poverty. The Issei, the generation of people born in Japan who later immigrated to another country, went to Hawaii in 1885 as Kanmin Imin (Want 577). Later, others went to other parts of the United States. The Issei worked as farmers or they owned a small business. According to the United States census in 1940, there were 6,000 Japanese-Americans farms on the West Coast; Japanese-Americans tilled more than 250,000 acres and owned a great property (Yagami 1996). Japanese-American had a stable live though their hard working. Because of Japanese-Americans’ success, Americans thought that they took their jobs and opportunities and Japanese-American suffered discrimination by Americans (Want 577). Even so, Japanese-American had their own community in little Tokyo which locals in LA. In Little Tokyo, they established Japanese-language schools, maintained their own culture, and celebrated some Japanese traditional festivals. For example, Oshogatsu (the celebtation of New Year) in January, Hina Mtsuri (Girl’s Day) in March, Kodomo no Hi (Boy’s Day) in May, Oban (welcoming Ancestors Day) in August, and Omisoka (End of the Year celebration) in December (Want 558). These festivals were important to Japanese cultural and showed the social activities. Also, they could have their own culture activities and celebrated it. However, that situation was disrupted on December 7, 1941, Japanese imperial Army attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Because of the Pearl Harbor, the United States declared martial law, suspend habeas corpus, and restricted civil liberties (Easton and Ellington 2009). Because Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor, Japanese-American who lived in the United States would be suspected. At on point, a concentration camp was established on sand Island at the month of Pearl Harbor( Easton and Ellington 2009). Also, President Franklin Roosevelt announced “the internment of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast of the United State on February 19, 1942” ( Want 558). Japanese-American were forced to move to camp and lived there for almost three years. During the internment, Japanese-Americans’ lives were changed. “the residents faced problems of housing, food, employments, medical care, education, internal security, and religious worship”(Hurd 1257). Japanese-American had to give up their own culture and started to accept American culture and lifestyle. Although the internment brought a great deal of negative effects for Japanese-American and let them give up a lot of things, the experience of the internment was the turning point of the development and survival of Japanese-American. The experience of internment had an impact on Japanese-Americans’ cultural assimilation. When Japanese-American were forced to move to camps, the life that they established carefully was broken. They had to abandon Japanese traditional culture. Before Japanese-American moved into camps, they only had a few days to pick up their things and most of them had to give up their property (Want 558). In order to prevent from being suspected, they gave up anything that related to Japan, such as letters from Japanese family members, Japanese books, Japanese records and so on (Want 558). This action let Japanese-American broke all connection with Japan or with their family members who still lived in Japan. In the camps, the living environment was simple and crude. Also, Japanese-American who lived in the camps did not have private state of life and their lives were restrained, which made them lost a lot of time with their family and could not preserve Japanese traditional cultural. For example, there was no family type cooking, and everyone had to eat in dining hall (Becker 183). This arrangement made they can not have a dinner table conversation which helped them to keep the connection to another family member. Japanese-American could not celebrate their own culture as they were in Little Tokyo, and they had to follow the rules in the camps. Because of the internment, Japanese-Americans’ lives assimilated into American culture. Although Japanese-American abandoned their Japanese culture, they still had the chance to get the education. All children had to study general subjects such as American history or geography, and some Issei also got this chance to learn English though these class (Becker 53). Japanese-Americans’ education started to assimilation into American’s. 啊啊啊啊 In order to prove that they were not traitors and let American accept them, Japanese-American tried their best to make contribution to America. At the wartime, one of the important thing was joining in the army and did the best of their force. On December 7, 1941, there was about 1,500 Nisei recruits in U.S. Army units in Hawaii and most of them were volunteers and draftees form the concentration camps ( Easton and Ellington 2009). Then, they formed the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (Easton and Ellington 2009). They fought in Europe and made the most highly decorated in American history for themselves. In all, about 33,000 Japanese-Americans served in World War II( Easton and Ellington 2009). Joining in the army was one of the chance to show Japanese-Americans’ loyalty to America( Wu 536). Not only male tried to prove their loyal, but also female tried their best to make some contributions. They helped to translate to documents and recorders and worked as nurses during and after the war (Becker 73). “ They filled clerical positions, worked as doctors and nurses, and served as linguists during and after the war” ( Becker 73). They joined in the army to protect their home and their country. Except these two things, Japanese-American tried to use agriculture production to contribute to America. Thousands of Japanese-Americans who volunteered to work as seasonal laborers during the summer of 1942 and they saved the sugar beet crop of several States ( Banghman 2001). Human beings cannot live without the food. Therefore, this action helped American a lot. All of these things showed that Japanese-American tried to prove Western their loyalty to America. Also, these contributions that they had made had some positive effects on their assimilation into America. Japanese-Americans’ assimilation and they tried to prove their loyal during the camps was a turning point of the development and survival of Japanese-American who lived in the United State. The first things is that they had an opportunity to resume their education after the internment. They could go to American college, such as Oberlin College in Ohio( Takagi 66). They allowed Japanese-American students to relocate and resume their education. It was important for Japanese-American to go to college. This was the chance to resume their education with American and assimilation into American society. In addition, Japanese-Americans found that they had opportunities in term of job and social life and less discrimination in society (Yagami 1996). Japanese-American had the chance to reset their life in this society. “After they assimilated into America society, they found that they were not isolated and they were in the midst of the mainstream of US society” (Yagami 1996). Today, there are almost sixty percent of Japanese-Americans marry Caucasians (Yagami 1996). However, the effect of assimilation was not only reflected on their society life. For the America government, they made a presidential apology to the victims of internment( Jones 2005). America government was not merely make an apology to Japanese-American. They made an announcement which stated that Japanese-Americans became a part of American. In 1952, Japanese immigrants were finally given the right to become American citizens( Jones 2005). Also, in 1988the Civil Liberties Act awarded to survivors of internment or relocation $20,000 (Jones 2005). All of these things showed that internment accelerated assimilation of Japanese-American. Also, internment became the turning point of Japanese-Americans’ development and survival of America society. In sum, the Issei generation who migrated to United States suffered during World War II because they were move to internment camps. The condition in internment camps were harsh and crude and it disrupted Japanese Americans from practicing their culture. Their move to the internment also cut the family and friendly ties of Japanese Americans from their native country so that they will not be suspected as traitors. To prove that they are loyal to their new home country, 1,500 Nisei Japanese American were drafted from concentrated camps. All in all, there were about 33,000 Japanese Americans served during the war with highly decorated records. Japanese-American women also did their part by filling clerical positions, serving as doctors. The stay of Japanese Americans in internment however helped them assimilate into American society because they sent to school. American schools did not only taught Japanese Americans English but also subjects such as geography, history that helped them assimilate into American society. Among the most helpful things that happened to Japanese-Americans was when they were allowed to go to college such as Oberlin College because it enabled them to reset their lives and become productive member of American society. This initiative made them fully assimilate into American society. Eventually, the American government saw the loyalty of Japanese-Americans and realized their mistakes. This prompted them to correct their mistakes and hasten the assimilation of Japanese-Americans into mainstream society. The relationship between the Japanese-Americans and the American government have started rough but eventually went well. Today, Japanese-Americans are not only fully assimilated into mainstream American society but also one of its society’s contributors. Read More