Chase Van Etten
Ms. Ochoa
English 1A/27
10/20/09
Expository Essay 2
Women of the Camps
For the Japanese that lived in the internment camps of World War II, life was
unforgiving. Dust storms plagued the internees during the summer and sub-zero temperatures
haunted them all winter long; they were faced with humiliating and demeaning living quarters,
and their traditional customs were shaken to the core. As the months went on the internees
began to adapt to their new home and changes began to take shape. These changes hurt the
Japanese-Americans and caused many problems that would not surface until their subsequent
release after the war. More than any other segment of the interned population, women faced the
most serious long term effects because of the drastically different environment inside the camp
compared to the outside world they had come from.
After arriving at the internment camps, Japanese women were shocked to discover the
standard of privacy they were expected to accept. In a personal interview with Valerie
Matsumoto (Ph.D., Stanford, Associate Professor at UCLA), Chieko Kimur described two rows
of separated toilets “with nothing in front of you, just on the sides. Lots of people were not used
to those kind of facilities, so [they'd] either go early in the morning when people were not
around, or go real late at night’” (Matsumoto 8). These conditions humiliated the reserved and
modest Japanese women. This degradation followed the women back to their barracks as well,
where they had to live with the noise of other families constantly reverberating through the thin
walls. Inside these small spaces the Japanese women were expected to carry out some
semblance of a normal life. All in the same room they would cook, clean, hang their laundry,
and try desperately to maintain a family life. These circumstances led to women facing higher
pressures from their surroundings than any other segment of the population. Small children and
teenagers found solace in their peers; the men that were at the camps spent much of their time
together; the women were left to go about daily activities that had once been easy but now
stretched their coping abilities to the limit. Some of the younger, childless women were able to
find leisure time among the mounting stresses and better themselves in a number of ways.
Not all of the long term effects felt by the detained Japanese women were negative.
Since immigrating to the US, these women had been limited in the jobs they were allowed to
hold; it was difficult to find work as anything other than a farm laborer or a domestic service
provider. While in the camps, women could apply for any job that was offered and were paid
the same low wages as men. In a newspaper printed by internees at Topaz, Utah entitled The
Topaz Times, director of the Center Service departments, George A. Greens, is quoted as
saying, “that this policy of employment has been adopted in order to give qualified persons
equal consideration for work as openings occur” (par. 5). Women were able to apply for jobs
ranging from accounting to agriculture, and from medical care to journalism. They also had the
option to take adult night classes in which they could learn arts such as calligraphy, wood
carving, and tailoring. Once these women began relocation after the camps closed, they entered
into various jobs that had been unavailable to them before. They were hired quickly because of
the labor shortage and were accepted into many vocational schools and universities. The time
spent in the internment camps allowed Japanese women to break away from traditional jobs
and gain more independence. This new found autonomy correlated to the declining intimacy of
family kinship which had already been strained from the internment process.
The environment at the camps was chaotic at times and weakened family ties. Julie
Otsuka describes one daughter’s change in her novel, When the Emperor Was Divine. This
young girl begins to break away from her mother and brother as she becomes more peer
oriented: “She was always in a rush now…. She ate all her meals with her friends. Never with
the boy or his mother. She smoked cigarettes” (Otsuka 92). Meal times were hectic and people
hardly ate with their families. Young girls relied heavily on their friends and through the
months of internment they grew farther apart from their immediate families. Traditions that
their parents had learned from grandparents were not as easily taught to the newest generations
and generational intimacy waned. As women began relocating after the war they found
themselves inundated with friends trying to readjusted to post-internment life. Peers’ homes
were often used as stepping stones until a permanent residence could be found. The World War
II internment camps had helped to create more independent women while subverting traditional
Japanese relationships.
The internment process started a new era for Japanese women. They suffered
tremendous indignities and powerful psychological changes that would stay with them for the
rest of their lives. As they fought the elements they challenged themselves to expand their
knowledge and job experiences. Upon leaving the camps Japanese women faced an uncertain
future (perhaps the most frightening part of their predicament) and racial tension everywhere
they traveled. They experienced a greater multitude of change than any other segment of the
internees. Some of these changes were for the better, most of them were for the worse. The
Japanese internment camps were a dark period in our history and we can never allow a
comparable condition to arise again.
Works Cited
“Employment Procedure Established.” Topaz Times. 23 May 1942. Utah Digital Newspapers.
The University of Utah. Accessed: 26 Oct. 2009
Matsumoto, Valerie. “Japanese American Women during World War II.” Frontiers: A Journal
of Women Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1984), pp. 6-14. JSTOR. Accessed 26 Oct. 2009
Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor was Divine. New York: Anchor Books, 2002. Print.