Prisoners by Race
Mary Holmes
Word Count: 2309
1
Mama has been insisting that I write down the events that happened to me
when I was young, ever since my family got out of the camps. Now that she’s passed,
I feel as if I should respect her wishes. I had never seen the point of recording my
past. I have been so scarred from the American Government imprisoning me. How
horrifying it was to be feared by my country’s fellowmen. Thus, I’m sitting at my
work desk, recounting every detail from 1942 to 1945, writing how the United
States Government cast away my family’s rights. Eventually, they did take a small
amount of responsibility, to try to fix some of the damage they inflicted upon us. It
wasn’t enough, not for me anyway. This is my story of being impounded in Tule
Lake’s Internment center, because I am a Japanese American.
****
December 7, 1941 was the day that changed my life. Glued to the radio, my
family and I listened, horrified, as the events in Hawaii unfolded. No one had
expected the attack. Who could have known hundreds of Japanese planes, carrying
torpedoes and bombs, would manage to get to the Naval Base and blow it to pieces?
(Turning Points of World War II) I was only ten when the attack on Pearl Harbor
occurred and even though I didn’t understand the significance of the event, I knew I
should be frightened. Mama and Papa kept hard faces, trying to be brave for my
younger brother, Keiko, and me. They didn’t fool me; their terror hung heavy in our
small living room. Deep down, we felt something bad would happen; we just didn’t
want to believe it would come true.
My people’s nightmares materialized on February 19, 1942 when President
Franklin Roosevelt authorized that “all of the Japanese from the West Coast be
2
confined in relocation camps” (Stanley 4). Non-Japanese Americans wished us gone
long before. For example, General Henry McLemore, a racist man, had said, “I am for
immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast… Herd ‘em up, pack ‘em up.
Let ‘em be pinched, hurt, and hungry. “(Stanley 16.) How hurt and betrayed we felt
when the President said he’d remove us, just like McLemore suggested. How could
President Roosevelt take our rights away? His responsibility, as President, was to
uphold an America with equal rights for all. Clearly, he failed us.
President Roosevelt said the internment secured our safety from those who
strongly disliked us. My question - why blame us for that which we didn’t do? We
are American citizens! Why weren’t American Germans and American Italians
imprisoned in World War II? Was this decision due to our physical and cultural
differences? There were American Germans and American Italians in the war. Why
didn’t the government imprison them? “I am American yet I don’t look like one, I am
Japanese but ashamed I am” (Mary Gruenewald).
Sadly, army officials swamped our neighborhoods in the following months.
They yelled orders for us to pack what we could carry and head to a Civil Control
Center in town to obtain our identification number and further directions.
Everywhere, publicly posted signs made sure we understood the orders. Our
family’s number was 7765; we were forced to leave in one week (Stanley 28).
With our number, our rights vanished. To keep us from running away, the
government enforced house arrest-like rules. We could not walk or drive more than
fifteen miles from our home. I didn’t see the point of containing us since we couldn’t
leave our house without something horrible happening. News of gangs and riots
3
killing Japanese Americans filled the radio airwaves. Even if we wanted to go out,
there wasn’t much we could do. We couldn’t go to movie theatres or cafes. We
couldn’t even go to some parks and restaurants! (Stanley 26.) We weren’t welcome
there. My parents left the house only when we needed groceries; even then, people
swore, spit, and tried to hurt them. Keiko, my little brother, and I never left our
house. We remained glued to the radio, listening to the petrifying events that were
unfolding in the world around us.
****
What bothered me immensely was that people used our advancing departure
to their advantage. People knew we couldn’t bring our whole life to our new “home.”
They’d come to our door and ask what we had. We were forced to give up our home,
farm, my parent’s business, our personal property, and our freedom (Tule Lake
Segregation Center). Just about everything was snatched by people a day before we
had to leave. They bought everything cheap (Stanley 30). When we said goodbye to
my childhood house, I lost my fight for freedom. It wasn’t my freedom anymore; it
belonged to someone else.
My distrust of all non-Japanese Americans grew day by day. The morning
before evacuation day, I remember my best friend coming to my door asking, “Were
you a part of the Pearl Harbor attack? ” (Uchida 53).
“What did you just say?” I had asked confused.
“You heard me, Jap.”
I slammed the door in her face so she wouldn’t see me break into tears. I had known
her since I was three. We had grown up together, yet she judged me, just like
4
everyone else. She saw me as a monster. Fear and hatred burned in her eyes. Was
this really how people looked at me? My friends and teachers at school, church, and
my neighborhood, did they think I was a monster too?
On Evacuation Day, officials shoved us into buses and transported us to
Assembly Centers. We clutched what little we had left. We were forced to stay there
until the Internment camps were ready.
Santa Anita racetrack and stables was our Assembly Center. “I don’t know
what I expected, but as a kid… I was really excited about” being there “and thinking
that maybe that this was gong to be an adventure. It was an adventure, but certainly
not the kind I had anticipated” (~ Sato Hashizume). It should have been obvious that
our living space would be terrible. Yet, my little mind had allowed its imagination to
fly. Why would they give us nice housing if they had been treating us like criminals
thus far? Our housing ended up being a horse stall that was quickly refurnished into
a temporary room. This was evident due to the stench of horse manure that hung in
the air. Our beds were straw-filled bags. It became apparent to everyone that they
considered us to be animals. (Tule Lake Segregation Center)
The days dragged slowly. Mostly, our lives consisted of sleeping, eating, and
fearing the guards who kept constant watch. An observer, sent by the government to
explore the centers wrote that, “The guards, had been instructed to shoot anyone
who attempted to leave the Center without a permit, as well as those who refused to
halt when ordered to do so. The guards were armed with guns that were effective at
a range of up to 500 yards” (Unidentified observer). The government had said they
5
evacuated us from the West Coast because they were “protecting” us. If that were
true, please tell me why they were pointing the guns at us?
It was a dull life. I found myself constantly looking for anything to keep me
entertained. Many times, I tried counting how many pieces of hair were on my head.
Or, I stared at the clouds and imagined I could lie on them or fly away. If only I could
escape from this world and start anew. I would go to a place where wars would
never happen. Where everyone was treated equally. Where my rights, that had once
been mine, would be granted to me once more.
After months and months, we moved to the Internment Camp. We packed
our few possessions from our little horse stall and loaded onto a bus, now headed to
Tule Lake.
****
Audible gasps were heard upon arriving at the internment camp. The camp
was a prison. Barbed wire fences circled our camp, ensuring no escape enclosed
(Typical Block). We were treated like criminals.
Upon checking in, we received a room – ward 6, block 4, barrack 3. We
shared a barrack with three other families. Our room consisted of a single light bulb
that hung from the ceiling, a coal burning pot-bellied stove, and a couple of cots. In
our block, there were men’s and women’s bathrooms, showers, laundry and ironing
rooms, a recreation building, and a mess hall. I think they were trying to make the
blocks seem like little communities. They wanted to make us feel as if this could
actually be our home. My home was in Southern California, not in that jail (Typical
Block).
6
Many families seemed to make the best of the situation we were forced into,
including ours. Mama started to plant a little garden, something to keep her
occupied. Papa made furniture for our little house so we could have chairs and a
table. Keiko found some kids around his age to play with; I helped with whatever I
could. I liked to go to the recreation building with Mama. It always seemed to be
something different. At times it was a store or a canteen, a beauty parlor, judo hall,
or a church (Typical Block). The Harvest festivals, dances, and baseball games were
highlights of our time in the camps as well. We could forget about where we were
and why we where there and just focus on having a good time.
During our stay, our parents demanded that we go to school. They knew it
might be a long time before the war ended. They didn’t want their children’s rights
of education to be gone as well. Before long “schools at the centers opened in
unpartitioned barracks meant for other purposes and were generally bare of
furniture. Sometimes the teacher had a desk and chair; more often she had only a
chair. In the first few weeks many of the children had no desks or chairs and for the
most part were obligated to sit on the floor – or stand up all day” (Sandler 84).
School was not what I expected. “I recall sitting in classrooms without books and
listening to the instructor talking about technical matters that we could not study in
depth… There… [were] no experiments, demonstrations or laboratory work” (Kaji).
As much as we tried to believe we led a normal life, in reality, we didn’t.
Troubles surrounded us daily. The unpaved side streets were awful; the dust and
dirt from the roads got in our houses, laundry, and food (Tule Lake Segregation
Center). The dirt followed us like a shadow. Diseases including typhoid, dysentery,
7
and tuberculosis, riddled all ten camps and sometimes resulted in death. Younger
camp women quickly became trained nurses. One of the girls, Sachi Kajiwara
testified, “I took three weeks of instruction from one of the five Registered Nurses
assigned… and went on duty as a Nurse’s Aide. I didn’t even know the names of the
instruments – I felt terribly inadequate to take care of some very sick people” (Sachi
Kajiwara).
The US Army also created internal conflict between them and us. This
resulted in harassment, beatings, riots, massive demonstrations, and military
interventions (Tule Lake Internment Camp). Wasn’t it bad enough that they had us
locked up? Now, they had to create trouble too. Why couldn’t they let us be?
****
At one point, everyone over 18 had to take a poorly worded two-question
questionnaire named the “Application for Leave Clearance.” This decided if we were
going to be part of a military recruitment process as well as reintegration into the
community. I was too young to take this test. The survey that seemed harmless
made people give up their citizenship and become nationless people (Tule Lake
Segregation Center). Many times, people had to choose between their country and
their family. The test was a manipulative way to get men to leave their families and
risk their lives for a country who took their rights away. What did we do? Look at
me in the eyes and tell me why I was locked me up. Why were my rights taken away
along with my home and my freedom. Why was I, a ten year old, punished for
something I wasn’t a part of? Why did I have to watch my mother, father, and
younger brother struggle? Why?
8
****
Eventually, I came across an old newspaper that stated why we had to take
the questionnaire. Usually Japanese Americans had abandoned their homes easily,
without resistance. Occasionally people had refused to leave. Fred Korematsu was
one of those people. He had refused to vacate his home and was convicted because
his action violated the Executive order 9066. He quickly appealed. His court case
reached the Supreme Court in 1944. It was there that the Court decided that nation’s
security concerns outweighed the Constitution’s promise of equal rights. (The
Supreme Court)
Surprisingly, many Justices agreed that putting Japanese Americans away
was unconstitutional. Justice Murphy stated that, “This exclusion of ‘all persons of
Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien,’ (non-citizen and citizen) from the
Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity in the absence of martial law ought
not to be approved. Such exclusion goes over ‘the very brink of constitutional
power’ and falls into the ugly abyss of racism.” (~Justice Murphy) Justice Jackson
brought up a valid argument in this trial as well. “Korematsu was born on our soil, of
parents born in Japan. The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by
nativity and a citizen of California by residence. No claim is made that he is not loyal
to this country. There is no suggestion that apart from the matter involved here he is
not law-abiding and well disposed. Korematsu, however, has been convicted of an
act not commonly a crime. It consists merely of being present in the state whereof
he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived.”
(~Justice Jackson)
9
Justice Black, the man who delivered the opinion of the court, voiced that, “It
should be noted, to begin with, that all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights
of a single racial group are immediately suspect. That is not to say that all such
restrictions are unconstitutional. It is to say that courts must subject them to the
most rigid scrutiny. Pressing public necessity may sometimes justify the existence of
such restrictions; racial antagonism never can.”
Racism led to our internment and the required questionnaire. How dare they.
I didn’t know the Japanese language. I didn’t know any of my homeland relatives. I
had no links that tied me to Japan, so why did they blame me?
Following the questionnaire, the government separated the “loyal” from the
“disloyal” and placed all of the people that were “disloyal” in Tule Lake. Those
labeled “loyal” were placed in one of the other nine camps. However, many people
considered “loyal” decided to stay at Tule Lake. (Tule Lake Segregation Center) My
family was one of those families. This place had become home because our parents
made it that as well as a community for us to grow up in.
****
Slowly, months passed. In 1945 my family was released and relocated to a
new home; a small cottage in Wisconsin. At first, the government did nothing. No
justice was brought to us. It wasn’t until I had grown up, gotten a job, and settled
down that the government told people the internment camps were caused by “racial
prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”
As an apology, the government gave us each $20,000. This seemed like a lot,
but if one adds up the amount of money we lost due to not working and the cost of
10
everything we lost, $20,000 was a poor apology. The American Government finally
took some responsibility for failing to protect us and for taking our rights away, but
not much.
In my point of view, I don’t think they did enough. I want them to live
through what we had to; to see what they made thousands of innocent people go
through. Then they could understand why my feelings toward them are so negative.
Is it wrong of me to want them to suffer because of what they did to my family and
me? Is it wrong of me to want society to feel the pain we felt as Japanese Americans,
ashamed of who we are? This is an emotional debt America will never be able to
repay.
My sadness runs deep and it’ll always be a part of my life. I can’t forget that
kind of pain. I was only ten, but it overshadowed my life. I should have been allowed
to be a child, yet I experienced more than some adults. I might look like the Japanese
enemy who once unexpectedly dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor. That, however,
does not mean I should be treated like an enemy. I am now 55, I’m proud of who I
am.
11
Primary Sources
Burgan, Michael. The Japanese American Internment; Civil Liberties Denied.
Minneapolis: White-Thomas, 2007. Print.
This was the first book, and primary resource, I used for my project. It talked about all
aspects of my project, from life before the internment camps to how everyone
recovered afterwards. This source helped me to get a better understanding of what
I was going to learn as I progressed with my research for my topic.
Exploring Constitutional Law. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.
This source contains many quotes from the Supreme Court of the United States trial
between Korematsu and the United States. I used this source to gather quotes for
my paper. This decision that was made in court was very important because it was
the reason people were given the two question questionnaire that decided if they
were "loyal" or "disloyal." I find it very fascinating to look at people's thoughts on
the case and how it influenced the outcome.
Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda. Looking like the Enemy; My Story of Imprisonment in
Japanese-American Internment Campt. Troutdale: New Sage Press, n.d. Print.
12
This book had some great details about what happened before and during a girl's
experience in the Internment Camps. It contained great information on Tule Lake
as well what people often did to pass he time. One fact I found interesting was
that the people collected sea shells every morning since the beauty reminded them
of hope and survival. I also learned that inside the Tule Lake internment camp,
they had a newspaper called the Tulean Dispatch. It was written and produced by
the internees. The paper was something stable in their life. I used this information
to develop some ideas for my internment portion of my paper.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. N.p.: Lib. of
Cong., n.d. Print.
Farewell to Manzanar is a book that reads like a diary (the format). This is the story of a
Japanese girl whose life was turned upside down by the internment camps. Many
people recommended this read for it's touching (true) story of a JapaneseAmerican family's strive to survive the detention camps and a young girl who is
forced to grow up behind a fence in the United States. I used this book as one of
my primary resources in my bibliography as well as to get an idea for how I want
to format my own paper.
"Jap Camp Staff Held at Mercy of Mob, He Says." Chicago Daily Tribune [Chicago] 24
Nov. 1943: 13. Print.
13
This newspaper article is about a Mob that broke out at Tule Lake, November 23rd. This
mob, consisting of thousands of Japanese americans, made it that US army troops
had to control the camp from then on. This primary resource helped me
understand more of what happened within the camps and the disputes, riots, and
gangs that there were.
Lange, Dorothea, illus. Impounded. Ed. Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro. N.p.: Lib. of
Cong., n.d. Print.
This is a book of pictures taken within the internment camps. This was a wonderful book
for me since its hard to visualize what these people went through. When I look at
pictures, it's a new depth of understanding. I can see what these people had to go
through and I can start to imagine the pain and tragedy these people experienced.
Stanley, Jerry. I Am an American; A True Story of Japanese Internment. N.p.: Lib. of
Cong, n.d. Print.
This book has some great information on what happened before the Internment Camps World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor. There are many stories about
different families who went through the camps and their experiences. A child,
Shiro, and his parent, Hachizo and Tsuru Nomura tell parts of their experience in
the camps and all of the difficulties they had to face.The book goes into detail on
what happened before, during, and after the Japanese Internment Camps. I used
14
this book for context since it is an easy read and there are many details. I could
easily pick out key terms.
Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile; The Upcoming of a Japanese-American Family. N.p.:
Lib. of Cong., n.d. Print.
This book was the story of a Japanese-American family and their life story. They talked
about how they got to America, the struggles they faced, and how they delt with
it. I was very surprised to learn that there had always been a lot of racial
judgement towards the Japanese Americans. For most of them, they would ask
questions stating if they could do this because they were Japanese or if it would
bother people. They did this to save themselves the embarrassment of people
talking behind their back. That fact struck me as heart breaking. I used this book
to look for specific details on their experience in the internment camps
Secondary Sources
Camp Layout. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
I used this pamphlet/brochure to help me better understand what living conditions were
like for the Japanese Americans in the Internment Camps. From here, I could
picture what each person had to live in while being contained. Written by people
who were in the internment camps, this primary resource was very useful in
writing my paper.
15
Fremon, David K. Japanese-American Internment in American History. N.p.: Lib. of
Cong., 1996. Print.
I used this resource to understand the problems and controversy that surrounded the
decision concerning the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War
II. It also described, in wonderful imagery, the details of what happened for
people while in the camps. I used this to get some context for my project.
Glossary. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
As I was reading books and websites, I found that some of the terms they used were
unclear to me. This is where this secondary resource helped me. This brochure
was a glossary that defined many of the common words that were used in the time
and how they sometimes affected the people. They talked about different topics
from the names people called the Japanese Americans to the places they went to
Orders and Laws.
Kent, Deborah. The Tragic History of the Japanese-American Internment Camps. N.p.:
Lib. of Cong, 2008. Print.
This book is about the catastrophic history of what the Japanese-Americans went through
in the internment camps. Deborah Kent does an amazing job at capturing all of
16
the details of what happened in the camps. I used this to help me develop my
character for my paper and to understand what most people went through at the
time.
Sandler, Martin W. Imprisoned. N.p.: Bloomsburry, 2013. Print.
I mainly used this book to get quotes for my paper. Even though this book was written by
someone not in the internment camps, Sandler captures the true essence of what
happened within the centers. There are many quotes by Japanese Americans who
were in the camps and I mainly used those for my paper, since they don't count in
my word count, to get across multiple perspectives and more details to make my
creative writing piece as interesting as possible.
Sharpiro, William E. Turning Points of World War II - Pearl Harbor. N.p.: Lib. of Cong.,
n.d. Print.
Turning Points of World War II. This book didn't deal much with the internment camps
but I used this to get some information on why the internments happened, what
caused them. This book "talked" about why the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.
This deals with the Japanese Internment camps because if the attack on Pearl
Harbor had never happened, the Japanese Americans would never have been put
in relocation and internment camps.
17
The Supreme Court. Toni Konkoly, Dec. 2006. Web. 22 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_korematsu.html>.
I used this website to learn more about the Korematsu vs. United States Supreme Court
trial of 1944. Fred Korematsu (Japanese) refused to leave his house and was
convicted. He appealed and in 1944 his case reached the supreme court. There it
was determined that "the nations security concerns outweighed the Constitution's
promise of equal rights." I used this resource to understand why the government
made Japanese Americans who were over 18 years of age, take a two question to
determine if they were "loyal" or "disloyal."
Timeline: Japanese Americans during World War II. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Looking back at all my notes, all of the events and dates tended to get confusing on
which happened first. I found a timeline that started in the October of 1940, where
it talks about the US Nationality Act, and ended in the July of 1946, where it talks
about the 100th Battalion. This secondary resource helped me organize all of my
research I had gathered so I could write my paper easily.
Tule Lake Segregation Center. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
This primary resource talked about about many aspects of live the Japanese Americans
went through including War and Injustice, Executive Order 9066, Ten War
18
Relocation Centers, Loyalty and Segregation, and many others. I used this
resource to understand life inside the camps from the perspectives of some of the
people. This helped me understand some of the many challenges these people had
to go through in an already stressful time.
War Relocation Centers. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
This was a brief overview of all ten of the internment camps. This primary resource had
the location, environmental conditions, its opening and closing dates, and it's
maximum population. I focused on Tule Lake, since that is the setting where my
paper takes place in. This helped me get an idea of what the camps were like.
19