This story is told through the eyes of nine year old Laura Iwasaki who is going to visit her grandfather's barren grave one last time before the family moves out of the area. This grave is located in the abandoned Manzanar Relocation Camp, one of ten relocation camps scattered across the West Coast to confine (or intern) Japanese Americans during WWII. Here, the children's grandfather, a devoted tuna fisherman, was robbed of his boat, home and dignity, and sent to a land "so far from the sea." There he died, burial marked only by a small ring of stones. The family leaves silk flowers. Laura leaves a poignantly tragic memorial, the neckerchief from her father's Cub Scout uniform, an article which the grandfather insisted his son wear if the soldiers were to come to their house, "that way they will know that you are a true American and they will not take you." This neckerchief, a sign of the grandfather's sense of American patriotism that was ignored through misguided fear, symbolizes the general patriotism that filled the Japanese American community in the 1940's.
Before I continue, I acknowledge that this - like many of Buntings' stories - was a difficult story, touching on raw nerves in our country's long and murky blurring between justified "security" response and outright victimizing. However, I firmly believe that preparation for voting citizenry comes through exposure to debates and opposing sides of an issue, looking at history in all its murkiness and, sometimes ugliness. Bunting helps us to do just this.
To help put this weighing of the issue into action, students explored both sides - the official stance adopted by the U.S. government following Japan’s unprovoked bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Japanese American perspective and pain felt by many innocent civilian confined to interment camps. We explored reasons why the Japanese might have been resented. Granted, Pearl Harbor lay on the immediate backdrop and many feared that those of Japanese ancestry, second or third generation immigrants, might be traitorous. Interestingly, these same fears were not in place for those of German or Italian ancestry. Consider, too, the following quote:
- "Most of the 110,000 persons removed for reasons of 'national security' were school-age children, infants and young adults not yet of voting age."
- "Years of Infamy", Michi Weglyn
Internment was popular among many white farmers who resented the Japanese American farmers and saw imprisonment as a convenient way of getting rid of unwanted competition.
Austin E. Anson, managing secretary of the Salinas Vegetable Grower-Shipper Association, told the Saturday Evening Post in 1942:
- "We're charged with wanting to get rid of the Japs for selfish reasons. We do. It's a question of whether the white man lives on the Pacific Coast or the brown men. They came into this valley to work, and they stayed to take over... If all the Japs were removed tomorrow, we'd never miss them in two weeks, because the white farmers can take over and produce everything the Jap grows. And we do not want them back when the war ends, either."
| Name | State | Opened | Max. Pop'n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manzanar | California | March 1942 | 10,046 |
| Tule Lake | California | May 1942 | 18,789 |
| Poston | Arizona | May 1942 | 17,814 |
| Gila River | Arizona | July 1942 | 13,348 |
| Granada | Colorado | August 1942 | 7,318 |
| Heart Mountain | Wyoming | August 1942 | 10,767 |
| Minidoka | Idaho | August 1942 | 9,397 |
| Topaz | Utah | September 1942 | 8,130 |
| Rohwer | Arkansas | September 1942 | 8,475 |
| Jerome | Arkansas | October 1942 | 8,497 |
To heighten students' historical empathy I asked them to imagine that they were all Japanese-Americans and that they have found out they are going to be relocated. The government is going to house everyone, but they cannot leave their possessions; they must sell or rent everything they have. Only a few clothes and precious things can be kept. What would you take?
Links:
https://www.teachervision.com/tv/printables/beyondblame21_27.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/evac16.html
http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/timeline.html
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