Julie Otsuka's Injustice: Whe When The Emperor Was Divine

Imagine putting yourself in a scenario where extreme racial discrimination was in action and you were being taken into an internment camp, whether you were pleaded guilty or not. This was reality for the majority of Japanese American during the time of world war two. In the memoir Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes the injustice committed against the 110,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry who were interred by America during World War 2.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America felt exposed as potential dangers, now realized, ominously lurked along the home front. False reports of Japanese espionage spread rapidly fueling hostility, fear, and racial prejudice. In an Executive Order signed by president Roosevelt, America responded, removing Japanese-Americans from their homes and shackling them within internment camps. Relocation was not obligatory but mandatory. Based on the experiences of close family members, Julie Otsuka, in her novel entitled When the Emperor was Divine, captures the transition of a nameless Japanese-American family from normalized citizens to ostracized foreigners. Oasis to desert, her vivid imagery nuances a deeper sense of meaning

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.

In 2018, 88% of police stops involved black or Latinx people, while 70% of those stops were completely innocent (dosomething.org). The idea that 70% of these stops were completely innocent portrays that these stops all had one thing in common, race. Racism and marginalization affect communities with education, graduation rates, jobs, and everyday lives. But how does marginalization affect society as a whole? When the Emperor was Divine by Julia Otsuka is a memoir of Japanese Incarceration camps of WW2 in the USA.

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.

The American government evacuated approximately 120,000 Japanese Nationals, American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II, and placed them in internment camps at the beginning of World War II. Japanese Americans were forced from their homes and businesses, forced into relocation camps in the deserts of California, Arizona, into the mountains of Idaho, and small towns in the southern United States. These were Japanese American people of unquestionable loyalty to the United States. These were citizens denied the rights of normal citizens under the United States Constitution. Americans who had volunteered to fight in the war for the United States, and against the Japan. They wanted to fight for the United

Japanese-American Internment was the relocation of many Japanese-American and Japanese descendents into camps known as “War Relocation Camps” during World War II (specifically after the attack on Pearl Harbor). In 1942, the United States government relocated and interned approximately 120,000 Japanese-American citizens and people of Japanese descent into relocation camps. This internment lasted for about four years, and was backed by the government as well as the president. The last relocation camp was closed in January 1946, five months after World War II officially ended.

First of all, many Japanese Americans had to relocate to a different place. In article (Japanese American Internment Article) it says “ Japanese Americans were relocated for their own protection”. What this means is that even though some Japanese Americans were not associated with World War ll they’d still have to relocate to a different area. For concerns and safety issues.

During Japanese internment, thousands of Japanese were forced to move to internment camps. These camps were hastily constructed with small rooms, tar-papered walls, and no privacy. All aspects of life were scheduled and governed (Matsumoto). Japanese Americans lost income and property estimated at $350 million (Gorman). Biased actions are another quality of witch hunts, and this internment was racially based.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, United States officials believed that have Japanese- American citizens posed a security threat. Since there was a great deal of Japanese-American citizens living on the west coast, fear of attack within the nation spread like wildfire. As a result, these people were wrongly imprisoned in a similar fashion to Hitler's concentration camps. Although the camps were not as brutal, the prisoners were given only the necessities. To the families that were imprisoned, internment meant the false accusation of being a terrorist. It also meant that they would be stripped of their rights while detained, and also stripped of their dignity when eventually released. Eventually, the Supreme Court decided

Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in internment camps around America. This stripped the rights of property and freedom straight from the innocent Japanese-Americans (Japanese). This only occurred because nobody in political power was Japanese. On January 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed an order to remove anybody with Japanese descent from West coast states to be forcefully taken by the military and imprisoned in internment camps. It was about 110,000 Japanese-Americans stripped of their rights that are clearly stated in the constitution because a white man signed a paper based off of rumors due to racism

The camps that the Japanese-Americans were taken to had the worse conditions imaginable. “More than 120,000 Americans of Japanese Ancestry were incarcerated in 10 camps scattered throughout the Western United States during World War II” (Children of the Camps Project 1). Detainees spent many years in these camps. They were locked behind barbed wire fences, and armed guards patrolled the camps. The conditions were comparable to the Jewish camps in Eastern Europe. Entire families lived in quarters that were poorly constructed and horribly cramped. These areas were also unbearably cramped and unclean. There was also no hot water for dishes or showers in the living quarters. In addition, lice was a huge problem in the internment camps. These camps and the laws that our government passed against the Japanese community were atrocious. The United States experienced a terrible tragedy when Pearl Harbor was attacked. However, the American government had no right to make these innocent Americans prisoners of war. During the 1940s and 1950s the Japanese

Americans citizens should recognize the importance of the Japanese American Internment Camps. After the was made attack on Pearl Harbor, a U.S. military base was bombed, Americans were filled with terror. World War Ⅱ was an all-out event like no other. Residents living on the Pacific Coast of the United States were emotionally unstable and thought the Japanese were going attacks again but this time their homes or cities. Many Americans were accusing the Japanese living in the U.S. for being accountable for bombing of Pearl Harbor, which cause racism and suspicion towards the Japanese Americans living in the United States.

The Japanese-American placement in internment camps was wrong and unconstitutional. The Japanese-American people had been living in the United States without question until the uprise of racial prejudice brought on by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Many Japanese-Americans had been born in America and lived an American life, integrated into American schools, speaking with American accents, and enjoying American culture. But, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Japanese were suddenly seen as threats that needed to be controlled. Without any consent, these Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps with poor conditions and treated as if they were ticking time bombs themselves.

The Japanese-American Internment was a necessary choice, made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It helped to make our nation secure during times of extreme emergency and it also helped the US government to keep their enemy under watch. “The story of how Japanese American soldiers from the war’s most highly decorated US military unit came to be there is just one part of a remarkable saga. It is also a story of one of the darkest periods in American history, one filled with hardship, sacrifice, courage, injustice, and finally, redemption. It began more than a hundred years ago” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). At the turn of the 21st century began the immigration of the Japanese to America for various reasons, but all with one thing in mind: freedom. “We talked about America; we dreamt about America. We all had one wish – to be in America” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). The decision by these many people was a grueling and tough decision, but they knew it would benefit them in the long run. “…like their European counterparts, they were willing to risk everything to begin life anew in what was regarded as a golden land of opportunity” (Sandler, 2013, p. 6). When they came to America, they were employed and were able to begin their new lives for the first part of it.