For the article "Only what we could carry", I want to talk about two specific things. The first one is why in a country like America, who advocate democracy, liberty and freedom, will do these cruel things to their fellows? In the article "All-out Victory", there are sentences "The anger of the American people have been aroused to the maximum and nothing short of victory will satisfy us now. ... Japan began this war and it is now up to United States to end the war by crushing the Japanese empire and her ruthless, barbaric leader." We can see how angry America and Americans were at that time. There are many innocent women and children, who are not soldiers died during the Pearl Harbor Attack. Their family, the country lost them in a sudden, without any notification. For human beings, when somebody beat you, it's the instinctive feedback for you to beat back. That's what happened that time, so America decided to start the war with Japan Empire. And they bring the hate to the Japanese Americans too. They begin to suspect them, because they have the yellow skin, the Japanese face and the blood of Japanese. They begin to forget that they are also American citizens. When one's heart is occupied by thought of revenge, he cannot think normally. They totally forget liberty, democracy and equality. And they are frightened, who just want to protect themselves in any possible ways. I must say this behavior for the US government is understandable, but at the same time, it's very unfair and inhuman. The second thing I want to talk about is the Japanese American soldiers' true feeling, who serve in the army after the attack to show their loyalty. I cannot exactly tell what's their feeling, because I didn't experience what they got through. And I guess their feeling is really complicated. In the article "Give us a Chance", it says, "In our willingness to sacrifice our lives, we ask fellow Americans to give us the opportunity to serve our cause at the front ranks, not in the back lines, relatively unimportant places, but where the danger is most conspicuous." I feel there are several possibilities of emotion they may have. They may want to join the army and fight for America, because this is also their land, which they want to protect with their lives. There maybe another possibility is that they want to escape from the camp, because from the poems I can see what kind of life it is. It's the hell without freedom. So maybe they tell the government they want to fight so that they can get away from there, at the same time, it will also help their family in the camp. For the good behavior of them, maybe their family members can leave there earlier too. I think in their inner heart, they must struggle a lot. I don't think they can fight like the other American soldiers. They have roots in Japan, and maybe some of them still have relatives and friends at Japan.
For the poems, the one I like the most is "The legend of Flying boys" I can see how his life is at the camp. "There was a boy/ who had nothing to do/ No toys, no nothing./ Plus, it was hot/ in the empty room" We can see that the boy has no choice that he cannot live like other children. His childhood is ruined. He has no freedom at all. "You had to be there/ Including the activity/ that followed." Flying boy refers to a boy who actually cannot fly, but dream to fly to the free world. Who can he blame? The America government? or the Japanese government? or the war? I feel that nobody can "fly" during the wartime. You have no choice to choose your destiny, but the destiny choose you. Hopefully, I wish the world will have no war anymore, even sounds impossible, but I really hope so.
Here is a video about the Interment on youtube I want to share with you guys.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkaQqzumMGE
Sophie--if we had had time in class today, we would have talked about your blog post (alongside Peter's). Both of you wrote really prescient analyses of Inada's "Legends from Camp." I like your reading of "The Legend of Flying Boy," who "needed something to do" (13), and so he dreamed of flying. All children dream of flying, but in his case it's a particularly revealing dream, because it implies a kind of superpower that would allow him to go anywhere--the opposite of his situation.
ReplyDeleteSophie,
ReplyDeleteI really like what you have to say about japanese internment and also about war. In your first paragraph, you say that "democracy and liberty automatically change meaning". I think these words are a perfect summary of what happened during World War II. We all know that the liberties of the Jewish people were taken away by Hitler's Third Reich, but we never stop to think that the same liberties were destroyed in similar ways on our own soil. With Executive Order 9066, democracy's meaning changed for the whole country. Of course, this only targeted Japanese-Americans, but the document itself allowed any American to undergo whatever the military deemed necessary for the security of the nation. In Ashley's presentation, she pointed out how this order is similar to the USA PATRIOT Act. Both documents do not single out any specific culture or ethnicity, but they do limit the liberties of Americans.
You also state later that "when one's heart is occupied by thought of revenge, he cannot think normally. They totally forget liberty, democracy and equality". I agree. When revenge is the only thing on someone's mind, it's all they can think about, and all other thoughts of equality and liberty get thrown out the window. All they care about is their own personal justice, even if innocent people are the one's who end up paying the price. After Pearl Harbor, the American people could only think about revenge on Japan, and unfortunately, government officials believed the only way to keep our soil safe would be to take away the liberties of those who look like the enemy and put them in our own personal concentration camps.