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After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States government imprisoned more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans in remote camps spread across the Western states, far from their homes, for more than three years. They were allowed to bring little with them. Shopkeepers had to shutter their businesses. Farmers either had to sell their land in great haste and at a great loss, or trust neighbors to work their land while they were gone; many returned to find their farms stolen. In the years since Japanese interment, it has been lamented by pundits and presidents as a “national mistake” (Gerald Ford), “unjust and motivated by racism” (a bipartisan congressional committee in 1980) and worthy of a formal apology from Bush I, who distributed reparations of more than $20,000 to each surviving detainee.
While many of the former prisoners live on, there is little left of the camps. One exception is Manzanar, in the arid Owens Valley 200 miles north of Los Angeles, where some 11,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned between 1942 and 1945. Efforts to protect it have resulted in it being declared a national historic site, and what remains there is maintained by the National Park Service. I’d heard about Manzanar for years but had never seen it; on a recent drive through remote parts of eastern California, I decided to stop and have a look for myself.
Pictured above: an historic vista of Manzanar during a dust storm, taken by legendary photographer Dorothea Lange. Dust was such a problem that prisoners often woke after a night’s sleep covered head-to-toe in it; knotholes in the floors of their hastily-constructed pine barracks let in the dust, the cold, and all manner of rodents.
Manzanar today is mostly foundations, but just wandering among them, you get the sense of just how massive a place it was — more than a mile square. These front steps once led into staff houses.
This looks like it was a raised garden of some sort. There were gardens throughout Manzanar, many built by prisoners with expertise in such things and copious time on their hands.
An old well:
Manzanar was set up much like a prototypical American town, albeit one surrounded by barbed wire and gun-wielding soldiers — it had a school, an auditorium, a Catholic church as well as a Buddhist temple, a newspaper, a baseball field, an orphanage, chicken and hog farms to supplement prisoners’ diets with meat, and other amenities. Ansel Adams visited the camp, and took this wonderful photo of schoolgirls doing calisthenics:
But life in the camp was far from normal. Taken from the homes they had known, prisoners lived in three dozen 20-by-100-foot tarpaper barracks, in tiny rooms separated by little more than curtains. Latrines were communal; there was no privacy. Depression and hopelessness quickly took hold amongst the prisoners.
The barracks were torn down soon after the camp was ordered closed in 1945, but the parks service recently rebuilt one of them. It looks unfinished, but it’s not — that’s how they were built.
The mighty Sierras, as reflected in the barracks’ windows.
After her imprisonment there, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston wrote:
You could face away from the barracks, look past a tiny rapids toward the darkening mountains, and for a while not be a prisoner at all. You could hang suspended in some odd, almost-lovely land you could not escape from yet almost didn’t want to leave.
Despite the mountains, reminders of their prisoner-hood were everywhere. Eight watchtowers equipped with searchlights and machine guns surrounded the camp. There were incidents — at other camps — of prisoners making a run for it and being gunned down at the barbed wire fences. This watchtower was rebuilt in 2005:
Though much of the camp has been reduced to its foundations, one remnant you still find everywhere, tangled in bushes and weeds, is barbed wire; as if there had been so much of it, taking it all away after the camp closed had been too overwhelming a task.
There was no starker reminder of what the prisoners went through, however, than the cemetery at Manzanar.
It is festooned with paper cranes, pennies, trinkets and notes from visitors. Some offerings, however, seemed less appropriate than others.
The grave of baby Jerry Nogata. Visitors make a habit of leaving toys for baby Jerry.
This stone is marked only in Japanese.
For more, check out the National Parks Service website on Manzanar.
For more photo essays, check out my website.
Comments (43)
Comment
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Whoa, whoa, whoa. While the acts of the U.S. government in this case are indeed cruel, Manzanar should be very warily called a concentration camp. ‘Concentration Camp’ conjures up images of human ovens and gas chambers, and Manzanar had no such things. Manzanar was no picnic, but I think I would rather choose it, an internment camp, over a Concentration camp any day.
posted by Brian on 9-28-2009 at 7:13 am
Brian, even though ‘concentration camp’ has negative connotations associated with the Nazi extermination of Jews, it means the confinement of a people under harsh conditions. I think it is very appropriate to call this a concentration camp, not just for the literal meaning, but because the terminology is highly critical and draws attention to past mistakes.
posted by Melissa on 9-28-2009 at 8:31 am
Actually what you are talking about is a Death Camp. Concentration camps are when you take a particular population and “concentrate” them into one area under harsh conditions. By this traditionally accepted definition, Manzanar was definitely a concentration camp. It clearly was not a death camp, reeducation camp, or a work camp and for that we should be grateful, but we should be ashamed that we had a concentration camp in our country.
posted by Clay on 9-28-2009 at 8:39 am
I don’t normally quibble over word choices, and though I read this site every day, I rarely comment. However, I have to agree with Brian. The usage of the term “concentration camp” in describing internment camps like Manzanar is rather inaccurate. I’m not claiming that places like Manzanar were justified, nor am I minimizing the cruel treatment of Japanese Americans, but they don’t even come close to comparing with an Auschwitz or Dachau. Let’s not cheapen the term “concentration camp” by applying it to just any prison we don’t like.
posted by MN on 9-28-2009 at 8:44 am
one other thing that i think is a same about this, is that most people didn’t know about it….I didn’t learn about it in History class while i was in school. I remember hearing about the concentration camps in Germany and that is all. I learned about these camps many years later.
posted by cindy on 9-28-2009 at 8:58 am
Concentration camp is not a term that applies only to Germany during the Holocaust. It is a camp to hold prisoners of war, enemy aliens and even civilians during war time.
Although we don’t want to think about concentration camps in the US, by definition the term does apply here.
posted by Kate on 9-28-2009 at 9:12 am
Like others before me have said, this is, traditionally, a concentration camp. Concentration camps are not simply a Nazi Germany phenomenon and existed long before Hitler came to power.
posted by Liz on 9-28-2009 at 9:21 am
It’s only because the Nazi camps are so well known and talked about that we associate the term “concentration camp” with death camp. Even though the conditions were better at Manzanar and other camps along the west coast, they still fit the definition for a concentration camp. The US even had camps prior to WWII. Back in the 1830s, there were camps holding Native Americans, another part of US History left out of the classroom…
posted by Amanda on 9-28-2009 at 9:24 am
I think historical perspective would require mentioning the Bataan Death March and the Rape of Nanking any time one of these camps is mentioned. I make no defense for Roosevelt’s decision to lock up innocent Americans because of their race, but I’m asking for perspective.
posted by El Zarcho on 9-28-2009 at 10:28 am
I realize that calling them “concentration camps” is controversial, but consider this — that’s what FDR and Eisenhower themselves called them at the time.
A few snippets from wikipedia:
Dr. James Hirabayashi, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, wrote an article in 1994 which he stated that he wonders why euphemistic terms used to describe camps such as Manzanar are still being
“Let us review the main points of the debate. Over 120,000 residents of the U.S.A., two thirds of whom were American citizens, were incarcerated under armed guard. There were no crimes committed, no trials, and no convictions: the Japanese Americans were political prisoners. To detain American citizens in a site under armed guard surely constitutes a “concentration camp.” But what were the terms used by the government officials who were involved in the process and who had to justify these actions? Raymond Okamura provides us with a detailed list of terms. Let’s consider three such euphemisms: “evacuation,” “relocation,” and “non-aliens.” Earthquake and flood victims are evacuated and relocated. The words refer to moving people in order to rescue and protect them from danger.
The official government policy makers consistently used “evacuation” to refer to the forced removal of the Japanese Americans and the sites were called “relocation centers.” These are euphemisms (Webster: “the substitution of an inoffensive term for one considered offensively explicit”) as the terms do not imply forced removal nor incarceration in enclosures patrolled by armed guards. The masking was intentional.”
In 1998, use of the term “concentration camps” gained greater credibility prior to the opening of an exhibit about the American camps at Ellis Island. Initially, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the National Park Service, which manages Ellis Island, objected to the use of the term in the exhibit.[18] However, during a subsequent meeting held at the offices of the AJC in New York City, leaders representing Japanese Americans and Jewish Americans reached an understanding about the use of the term.[19] After the meeting, the Japanese American National Museum and the AJC issued a joint statement (which was included in the exhibit) that read in part:
A concentration camp is a place where people are imprisoned not because of any crimes they have committed, but simply because of who they are. Although many groups have been singled out for such persecution throughout history, the term ‘concentration camp’ was first used at the turn of the century in the Spanish American and Boer Wars. During World War II, America’s concentration camps were clearly distinguishable from Nazi Germany’s. Nazi camps were places of torture, barbarous medical experiments and summary executions; some were extermination centers with gas chambers. Six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Many others, including Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals and political dissidents were also victims of the Nazi concentration camps. In recent years, concentration camps have existed in the former Soviet Union, Cambodia and Bosnia. Despite differences, all had one thing in common: the people in power removed a minority group from the general population and the rest of society let it happen.[20][21]
I would argue that the Nazi’s have cornered the term “death camp,” but concentration camps have existed elsewhere in many other forms, and there really is no other word — internment, relocation, etc — that matches its meaning: the imprisonment of a minority group for political reasons.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 9-28-2009 at 10:55 am
There is an internment camp museum up in Canada, at New Denver, BC, which is well worth the visit. Smaller in scale, but equally haunting.
Right next door to it, another camp where Doukhobour children were taken to live, whose parents refused to allow them to attend public school.
New Denver is one of the most beautiful places in the world, yet it has this regretful history.
posted by Kikadee on 9-28-2009 at 11:28 am
Amazing photographs and thoughts on Manzanar. You’ve done an amazing job at venturing the local landscape of Southern California and reminding us that outside the city limits, there is a world rich of history and places that we can learn from. Nice work!
posted by Chellis on 9-28-2009 at 12:36 pm
I actually first learned about this in high school, but not through a history class. We had to read Farwell to Manzanar by the author you mention in the article. The history classes never touched on this part of US history which is unfortunatesince those who don’t know the past are doomed to repeat it…or at least not learn from it.
posted by jmayhp on 9-28-2009 at 12:40 pm
These camps weren’t just on the west coast. There were two in the swamp regions of Arkansas. In addition to imprisoning our own citizens, the United States took in over 2000 Latin and South Americans and imprisoned them to use as hostage exchange during the war. If you’re not sure whether these can be termed “concentration camps,” read A Fence Away from Freedom: Japanese Americans and World War II by E. Levine. It’s intended for a younger audience, but is based on first hand accounts and powerful no matter what age you are.
Click on my name to see a larger collection of images (most of them by Ansel Adams) from the camps.
Thank you for the post
posted by Hastings on 9-28-2009 at 12:44 pm
Despite his heroic status in American lore, FDR was no hero. This wasn’t an American mistake unless Americans knew about it. It was a Roosevelt mistake. He was Commander in Chief. Blame him.
posted by B-Doc on 9-28-2009 at 12:46 pm
I went to Manzanar several times on class trips- I lived not far from Owens Valley. The last time we were joined by a woman who had taught at the school- she could point out where all the buildings had been. But my fondest memory will be getting our van stuck in a hole and digging it out in 100 degree heat.
posted by Maria on 9-28-2009 at 1:19 pm
What also often gets overlooked is that there WAS a spy operation going on by a small number of Japanese-Americans and it was completely shut down by the internment. Overkill, to be sure, but there was a reason beyond xenophobia.
posted by PartiallyDeflected on 9-28-2009 at 1:42 pm
El Zarcho–many of those sent to internment camps were more American than Japanese–some, like the Nissei (or second generation), were born and raised and spent their entire lives in the U.S. Their sympathies were not with Japan.
One also has to ask why people of German descent weren’t also sent to similar camps if the aim was to isolate and contain potential axis sympathizers.
posted by ck on 9-28-2009 at 1:55 pm
A couple of my professors at UCLA had been interned there. They told us a bit about it from time to time. They did not say that it was terrible, but they did tell us about the effect it had on their parents’ careers.
It shocks me to know that most Americans are not even aware of the fact that we ironically had concentration camps during World War II. These photos are a powerful reminder of a time when we allowed our country to do something we should not have.
Guantanamo represents a similar situation with Muslims these days. I think that is why I was so disturbed not only by its existence, but by the tacit approval of its existence by the American people. The mistakes of the past repeating themselves.
posted by MJ on 9-28-2009 at 2:17 pm
Actually, Germans were sent to internment camps — not all Germans, but recent immigrants, to be sure. Saw a history of Nazis in America on the History Channel that described how these camps threw together pro-Nazi Germans with the apological ones, and solidified the support for Hitler among those there.
As for the term “concentration” vs. “internment” camp: yes, strictly speaking, the term “concentration camp” refers to a site where large numbers or people are interned — for punishment, or in a precautionary sort of way. But following the Nazi concentration camps, it is impossible to use that term without producing the connotation of it being a horrible, wretched place meant to cause human suffering. And since there is the perfectly sensible alternative of “internment camp,” the intentional decision to use “concentration camp” to speak of other sorts of places really has to be taken as either stubbornness, or an intentional comparison of these camps to the Nazi camps. (Take for comparison the Swastika: there are Indians who try to use this symbol by claiming it’s a perfectly harmless symbol from their culture, refusing to accept that the Nazis have in fact taken that away. Or tbe fact that Fuerher in German is simply “leader” — but the Germans have quite reasonably ceased to use this term even in other contexts where, without the past history, it would be appropriate.)
posted by Elizabeth on 9-28-2009 at 2:39 pm
If any of you live in Arizona or plan on visiting there, go to Mt. Lemmon in Tucson because they had a site there too. All they have left is a memorial sign but parts of the foundation are still remaining. It’s pretty creepy there.
posted by LC on 9-28-2009 at 2:42 pm
While the internment of the Japanese was terrible and should be widely taught so that it isn’t forgotten and its mistakes repeated, the comparison with concentration camps is really unfair and distorted.
As some of the people above commented, the internment camps do technically fit the definition of “concentration camp”, but they were far from fitting the connotation now associated with the term. Yes, the people were imprisoned against their will in difficult conditions and suffered hardship they never should have had to. However, they weren’t being exterminated. They weren’t being starved or subjected to physical cruelty. What the Japanese-Americans experienced wasn’t anything near the tragedy of the holocaust.
In addition to the word “concentration camp” being a poor choice, the pics seem to be a bit misleading,too. All the pictures of the graves seem chosen to give it a death camp feel. Whenever you have a bunch of people, especially people of varying ages, living in a place for an extended period of time, some people will pass away and need to be buried. Regardless of the conditions, people die everyday and are buried by their loved ones. The emphasis on graves in the article puts an unfair slant on things. There’s one pic of healthy kids exercising and 4 pics of graves.
The photos in the link Hastings mentioned above show a more unbiased look at things. There’s a bunch of really sad images there, but some of daily life in the camps that show that while it was without dispute terrible, it definitely wasn’t what people think of when you say “concentration camp”. You’d be hard pressed to come up with a photo set that makes anything from a holocaust camp look anything but like hell on earth.
posted by Melissa on 9-28-2009 at 2:55 pm
Google the “Niihau Incident.” Locking up American citizens may have been overkill, but the government had its reasons.
Some words, like “concentration camp,” are loaded, not matter what they mean. I remember a debate I had with a supervisor years ago over the use of the word “slave,” and I was referring to computers.
posted by Jim on 9-28-2009 at 4:00 pm
Well put, Melissa. The connotations of concentration camp ever since the end of WWII are very different than what they were before the war. Most people automatically associate the term concentration camp with Hitler or Stalin’s death camps.
posted by MN on 9-28-2009 at 4:02 pm
Just because the term “concentration camp” makes us uneasy — despite the images it might conjure — doesn’t mean Manzanar wasn’t one. We imprisoned more than a hundred thousand people based on racial prejudice. I think that’s something we should feel very uneasy about, and euphemisms are an easy way to circumvent those feelings.
What we made weren’t Nazi death camps. But they were, according to the definition of a centuries-old term that Manzanar’s creators themselves used to describe it, concentration camps.
Re: the abundance of pictures of graves and guard towers vs. vintage happy campers, it’s not bias so much as the fact that I drove 250 miles to go there with my camera and photograph what’s left of the place — and what’s left is graves and guard towers.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 9-28-2009 at 4:08 pm
Enough…
I’m tired of everyone trying to take away the power of this post by insisting on changing the name or parsing the number of positive photos vs negative ones.
The fact is, these camps are a sad commentary on our values, which we’ve occasionally abandoned when it was expedient, and to sugar-coat it by showing equal numbers of “happy” children vs grave markers is laughable.
No matter how many photos of smiling people you may be able to find from these camps (and my guess is not too many) those smiling people are still surrounded by barbed wire and guardtowers, even if you don’t see it in the photo.
Accept that this happened, and quit trying to gloss over it. This was the whole point of the post, and to try to present a “balanced” view is asinine.
If we are ever going to be country our Declaration of Independence and Constitution aspire to, then we have to accept our faults and continue to avoid the mistakes of the past.
posted by Jonny on 9-28-2009 at 4:12 pm
Ever since I watched “Snow Falling on Cedars” (tried to get through the book, but it was too dry), I’ve had a morbid fascination with Manzanar. Haunting pics, Ransom.
posted by Steve from San Diego on 9-28-2009 at 4:31 pm
Great post. I visited this site last year and was very moved by it. They have done a lot recently to add to the site and recreate some of the original camp buildings, etc (along with a great museum).
My great grandparents and grandparents (along with all the relatives from my mother’s side) were sent to these internment camps. It was horrible thing to hear how they had to give up everything they owned when they were sent there on very short notice. They only took one suitcase each. Everything else they had was looted or bought by unscrupulous buyers for pennies on the dollar. When they were finally released all they got was a bus ticket, a few dollars, and told to leave.
My grandparents were not only American citizens, but second generation Americans and in no way held no allegiance to Japan. Ironically, my grandfather who was sent to a camp later served with the American army at the tail end of the war.
Interestingly enough when I tell people about the Japanese internment most are shocked and didn’t know it existed. We should never forget this happened and strive to learn from events like these. I am glad to see posts like this and the preservation of sites like Manzanar.
posted by Paul on 9-28-2009 at 5:15 pm
What’s that they say about hindsight? America has seen no shortage of atrocious behavior, that’s for sure. However, I defy anyone to name a nation or society that hasn’t commited an offense toward another nation or even itself. When a machine is made up of imperfect components you’ll always see imperfect results.
“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”
– Karl Popper
posted by Rabullione on 9-28-2009 at 5:32 pm
@ Rabullione
No one is denying that America isn’t inherently good, but ignoring the mistakes of the past to avoid hindsight is ignorant, and its how history gets re-written.
I think your quote is misplaced, these people who were interred were not seeking to destroy “the tolerant” and thus, justifying their internment in the misplaced belief that we were protecting ourselves.
posted by Jonny on 9-28-2009 at 6:18 pm
Ransom Riggs-
You’re right about the pictures. I suppose you didn’t have much choice but to photograph what’s still left there to photograph. You took shots of what you had to work with and posted the best most powerful shots you had. I was wrong.
As for the word “concentration camp”, I see you didn’t mean to use it to be sensational or to make light of the suffering to the victims of the holocaust. Before WWII it would have been the absolute best word to describe the internment camps. But after WWII, the word carries an entirely different set of baggage with it, regardless of how it was originally used or what it actually means.
A word that makes us uneasy is great, it’s impactful and powerful. But using a word that powerful in a place where it’s not exactly fitting only cheapens the word. If you use “concentration camp” now for things that aren’t Nazi style death camps, you don’t increase the gravity of the thing you’re describing nearly as much as you diminish the power of the word in the context of Nazi death camps. The holocaust was so horrible that it’s permanently made “concentration camp” a word with such power that we have to ration how we use it to keep it the image it conjures undiluted. The extreme nature of the Nazi death camps makes keeping that word off-limits important.
I don’t see using “internment camp” as being soft on what happened to the Japanese-Americans in those in camps. It’s not using a euphemism to make them sound more pleasant. It’s just using another word that doesn’t portray them inaccurately.
posted by Melissa on 9-28-2009 at 6:47 pm
A comment. A lot of good dialogue here. On the question of Germans and others being interred, they indeed were. Out in the Allegan County Forest, here in southern Michigan, one can still find remnants of a German interment camp from WWII. It is a little known fact, but fact nonetheless.
Interment camp, concentration camp, swastikas, native symbols. People get too caught up on names. During war times war is hell, and governments, and individuals do horrible, unspeakable, unforgivable things. “We”, THE US, just did it again with Gauntanamo Bay. Trying to cleanse things with names is ridiculous. Anybody who thinks there will ever be a nice war anywhere is naive. The only way to prevent unforgivable, unspeakable crimes against humanity is to open up our eyes, stop listening to the politicians, and ban war.
Peace,
David
posted by DM on 9-28-2009 at 7:12 pm
If you watch the documentary “Rabbit in the Moon,” that movie will show you more interment camps through out the US.
But one is still working today. On the big island of Hawaii there is the Kilauea Military Camp (KMC)
During WWII, it was used a camp for POWs and Nisei citizens.
Now it is a lodge for Deparment of Defense vacationers. Really cold when it’s 4000 feet above sea level.
posted by Tony on 9-28-2009 at 7:50 pm
a lot of smart people here, thats why i love reading these…
I have to agree that the impact of this post was deflected by the debate over the choice of words. It is interesting how so many connotations can be carried by a single phrase or simply word. The power of a word is not ‘lessened’ by simply using it correctly. I think too many people are being conditioned to react without thinking. I mean seriously, to simply use the word ’slave’ correctly in a sentence shouldn’t vilify the speaker, and someone’s dislike of a term shouldn’t vilify a word. The original concept that brought about the word will still exist…so what’s the point? Politically correct is as bad as ignorance because politics change.
I think it is a shame that with the power of information and media which exists today, more emphasis is placed on the encouragement of carrying a certain amount ‘outrage’ in the public mind without following up and bridging it with the concepts of why it is outrageous and what to learn from it.
posted by jobu on 9-29-2009 at 12:00 am
What’s in a Name? When Guantanamo becomes Gitmo it remains a smear on american justice.
The ‘concentration’ camp is a simple device, invented by the Brits in SouthAfrica, faced with a hostile spread-out rural population whom they could not subdue by military might, they rounded up the farmers, women and children into camps – concentration of the dilute population. Thereby to control. It took another level of evil to see these camps as a holding point for mechanised death. But who cut his teeth, his appetite for Power in the Boer War? — the same Winston Churchill who rounded up the ‘foreigners’ in Britain in the same state of fear and paranoia as Roosevelt in the US. The true ‘myth’ is told in Edinburgh, that when the namecheck of italians was compiled, the most common reason for absence from the camp roundup was ’serving in the army’. We elect our leaders but must be wary of their appetite for Power and Control.
posted by Reprieved Soul on 9-29-2009 at 12:56 am
Years ago I went to the Japanese Heritage Museum in Los Angeles, and they had an exhibit on the concentration camps, complete with an actual barracks building across the street. It was split in half so that one could see the interior, and when you realized how small the rooms were and how many people were living in those small, tight quarters, it was truly shameful that we did this to people. We then saw the items and artifacts in the museum, complete with all the propaganda literature of the day condemning not only the Japanese, but everyone else along the way. It’s been over a decade since I saw the exhibit, but it’s images will haunt me forever.
posted by shirleyfeeney on 9-29-2009 at 1:24 am
So few in the general public are aware of this sad part of American history and fewer who know about the brave Japanese Americans who comprised the 442nd Infantry Regiment during WWII, (from Wikipedia):
“The 442nd Infantry, formerly the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army, was an Asian American unit composed of mostly Japanese Americans who fought in Europe during the Second World War. The families of many of its soldiers were subject to internment. The 442nd was a self-sufficient fighting force, and fought with uncommon distinction in Italy, southern France, and Germany. The unit became the most highly decorated military unit in the history of the United States Armed Forces, including 21 Medal of Honor recipients, earning the nickname “The Purple Heart Battalion”.”
U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, D-HI, who lost an arm in combat, and who presently serves as the second-most-senior member of the U.S. Senate after fellow democrat Robert Bryd is a recipient of the Medal of Honor during WWII as part of the 442nd.
“The stellar record of the Japanese Americans serving in the 442nd and in the Military Intelligence Service (U.S. Pacific Theater forces in WWII) helped change the minds of anti-Japanese American critics in the U.S. and resulted in easing of restrictions and the eventual release of the 120,000 strong community well before the end of WWII.
“However, the unit’s exemplary service and many decorations did not change the attitudes of the general U.S. population to people of Japanese descent after World War II. Veterans were welcomed home by signs that read “No Japs Allowed” and “No Japs Wanted”, and many veterans were denied service in shops and restaurants, and had their homes and property vandalized.
“One notable national effect of the service of the 442nd was to help convince Congress to end its opposition towards Hawaii’s statehood petition. Twice before 1959, residents of Hawaii asked to be admitted to the U.S. as the 49th state, but each time Congress was fearful of having a co-equal state that had a majority non-white population. The exemplary record of the Japanese Americans serving in the 442nd and the loyalty showed by the rest of Hawaii’s population during World War II overcame those fears and allowed Hawaii to be admitted as the 50th state (Alaska was granted statehood just prior).”
I wish more people knew about the 442nd in conjunction with the camps like the one in Manzanar, because many people still regard Americans of Asian ancestry with suspicion as to their legitimacy and agency as bon-a-fide Americans, which is why there is a stereotype known as the “Perpetual Foreigner,” as it applies to Asian Americans. Basically, that despite their history, immigrant narratives and contributions to society, many people in the U.S. still perceive them as inscrutable.
And if you look to Department of Labor statistics, despite the high levels of academic attainment earned by some Asian Americans, many are still overlooked in the workplace when considerations are made for promotions or positions like upper-management, citing “lack of leadership,” a by-product of the model minority stereotype that purports Asians to be hard-working, but quiet and non-confrontational.
When I look to history and these examples, including the recent one of current U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Gen. Eric K. Shinseki (Japanese-American 4-star General and former Army Chief of Staff), it amazes me that such stereotypes still exist unexamined in U.S. society.
Okay, off of my soapbox now.
posted by James on 9-29-2009 at 1:31 am
From Yoshiko Uchida’s memoir “Desert Exile”…
“Today the “relocation centers” are properly called concentration camps. The term is used not to imply any similarity to the Nazi death camps, but to indicate the true nature of the so-called “relocation center.” Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines “concentration camp” as a place in which “prisoners of war, political prisoners, foreign nationals, refugees, and the like, are confined.” In our case, this definition should include citizens of the incarcerating government as well.”
posted by F on 9-29-2009 at 2:40 pm
Very good work, Ransom.
That some would argue terminology is partially why we can so easily be kept in ignorance and repeat the same horrible treatment of each other.
To futher the point, what does the term/word “RESERVATION” conjur up?
I grew up in a small northeast town and learned it was where southwest Native Americans were ’sent’ to be ‘civilizied’ during the ‘Indian Wars’.
If nothing changes, nothing changes.
Showing the reality of graves so far away being cared for is certainly a step in a positive direction and worth a thousand words.
Call it anything you want. We can learn to treat each other better or imagine what our ‘holding facility’ will be called.
Thanks.
posted by lcl on 9-29-2009 at 5:48 pm
Icl – An interesting point of language is that in Canada they are referred to as Reserves and in the US they are called Reservations.
posted by Anaximander on 9-29-2009 at 7:52 pm
ok, so i get why people are up in arms with the term ‘concentration camp.’ On that note, what will we use for the term ’slaves’ if it doesn’t refer to the American slavery and the civil war?
posted by sa on 10-7-2009 at 4:49 pm
Although the internment of the Japanese was terrible, it was in no way a “concentration” camp type of scenario.
If you want to know about true atrocities, look up how the Japanese army treated Koreans and Chinese people during World War 2 and I promise you, Manzanar will look like girl scout camp.
Stop trying to make Americans feel bad for trying to safeguard their nation.
posted by korean-american on 10-28-2009 at 11:45 pm
……………Does it make you feel better as an American ( yes I am an American) to call it something other then what it was….a concentration camp….Wake up America! or we can just continue to feel better when it is our turn in the camps ( compliments of the same people that sent the American/Japanese away)….
we can call them vacation retreats if that will help?……I think it is so sad to be in such denial peoples.
posted by imshandon on 10-31-2009 at 11:30 am