'Online Exhibition Essay: A More Perfect Union\r'

'At the height of the internment of the Nipponese Ameri sewers during solid ground War II, the number of fewbodys relocated and housed at the internment dwells reached a staggering 120,000 individuals.Spread alwaysy outer space 10 camps nationwide, that were defined by distance and prohibit from the full general structure of American society, these tribe many of which were natural American citizens lived their lives under lock and key plain because of their heathenish ancestry.Not only men, but women, children, and the senior(a) were classified as â€Å"enemy aliens” pursuit the bombing of ivory Harbor. Using content pledge as justification, the U.S. government dis placed and jug these Nipponese Americans for 2 eld, taking non only their freedom but their assets as well.Given the information contained in the Smithsonian’s exhibition, A More Perfect Union, the justification of matter security was faulty and contend finish prejudice rather than com mon sense. The Nipponese migration to Hawaii and the U.S. mainland began in 1861 and continued through and through to 1940. During this era over 275,000 individuals immigrated. many an other(a)(prenominal) of the first times Japanese who came to the U.S. worked on sugar reproof fields in Hawaii and on fruit and vegetable farms in California. in that location they established communities and were able to surround themselves with cultural familiarity but as their population grew, passion against them also began to grow.Within a couple years of their first arrival, the Hawaii legislator passed laws restricting the immigration of Japanese. By 1907, the U.S. had restricted the travel of Japanese from Hawaii to the mainland. The exhibit notes that by 1940, xl percent of the population of Hawaii owed at least jump of their ancestry to Japanese.In California, the Japanese Americans fought similar odds as their continuity and success do them easy targets of racially fueled jealous y.The racism against them, however, was not particular to the unsuccessful farmer down the highroad but rather reached into every carve up of government. Unable to own land or become citizens, many Japanese placed their properties in the name of their children who had been born in the U.S. and were on that pointfore citizens.The Supreme Court itself, played on the side of the oppressor, ruling against Japanese immigrants and upholding racist laws and restrictions.Anti-Japanese propaganda was also common place in the years leading up to Pearl Harbor, including bubble gum cards sold to children and political cartoons, editorials and speeches. Once the Japanese American population established itself as a living and growing connection in the United States, the hatred became more than concentrated.With the drop of the bomb on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Japanese Americans fate was sealed. Americans had followed the Japanese Army’s support of Hitler and Mussolini, the y were aware of the armed services power. What American’s were not prepared for was for that military power to reach across the peaceable and tap them on the shoulder.The exhibit notes that in the panic that ensued on the West Coast, along with the prejudices already in place and softheadede policy, the Japanese Americans became an easy target for political kowtowing and venting the prejudices which had until then only bubbled. With prexy Franklin D. Roosevelt’s issuance of executive tell apart 9066, the situation exploded into full pursy segregation.What is interesting to note, is that though the U.S. was also in a war against Germany and Italy, Italian American and German Americans were not targeted under E.O. 9066, â€Å" era German or Italian enemies were very much viewed as misguided victims of despotic leaders, Japanese people were referred to as â€Å"yellow vermin,” â€Å"mad dogs,” and â€Å"monkey men.” Racist wartime propaganda fu rther exacerbated fears of onslaught and prejudice against people of Japanese decent.” more than of the political and military justification for the remotion of Japanese Americans was blatantly fueled by individual racism and not level-headed strategy. Congressman from the West Coast, who had their own individual prejudices against their own Japanese American communities were some of the strongest supporters of the measure.The initial order was for the military to remove persons from their jurisdiction who were seen to be threats to national security but the removal wasn’t peculiar(a) to individuals near air bases or the strand but stretched far across the country, uprooting them from their homes and go away them to take only what they could carry. Disobeying the order was not an option nor was it considered correct.Japanese American, Morgan Yamanaka, in recalling her own deliver explains that it wasn’t in their upbringing to refuse the authority of the fe deral government, â€Å"I prize one has to appreciate what our parents, the immigrant parents taught us: â€Å" unendingly respectfulness order coming from the people above you. Respect your teachers, respect the government, respect the law.Be obedient, be reserved, be a broad(a) Japanese according to good Japanese traditions.” Though I doubt it was willing, there was little protest on the part of the Japanese Americans. However, perhaps this loyalty and obeisance to the U.S. government condescension the criminal nature of  E.O. 9066, was also a factor in the survival of spirit and their reemergence back into American society following the camps.The camp come though far less extreme, despite the designation of internment rather than the Nazi concentration camps, did not differ so much from the Jews experiences in Germany during the same time.Fenced in by barbed wire and soldiers with guns, their were housed in substandard barracks and worked for minimal w whiles t o succor support the camp and war effort. Many used their opportunities at work as ways to continue their lives outside the mise en scene of the camp, while remaining imprisoned.The things which occupied their time such as artwork and making of furniture, the expression of their freedom through sight are what I would most inspire to someone viewing the exhibit. The works, though deep disturbing in the recurrence of the fences and general feeling of entrapment present in some, shows a freedom that no imprisonment can stifle.While the body is imprisoned, the mind continues to go frontward into the world even if it is only a recoloring of the same landscape, dusty and isolated. To maintain fine expression under such handcuffs is a true show of the violence needed to survive becoming an unlettered enemy.By 1943, the U.S. government was asking all residents of the camp to fill out a questionnaire to cook their loyalty to the U.S. Some, feeling tricked and manipulated by the ta ke and the questions on the forms, chose to reply no to sure questions, such as â€Å"”Will you set forth unqualified allegiance to the United States… and leave any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or constitution?”The exhibit explains that some of the interned Japanese Americans saw the question as a three-fold edged sword. If they were to answer yes, than they would be implying that they had ever been disloyal to the U.S. government and to answer no was to seal their fate. The ones who were deemed loyal were able to detonate on the road back to a normal life, the others were segregated further.Among these were children and natural born U.S. citizens. At the end of the war, over 4,000 Japanese Americans (all but 100 under the age of 20) were repatriated to Japan.\r\n'