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Japanese Internment camps

Manuel A. Santillan

The University of Texas at El Paso

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Japanese internment camps

Life sometimes might be unfair, specially for those who dont deserve it. A clear example

for this expression is what happened to the Japanese community during the World War II. It was

an injustice that took place because of the insecurity Americans felt towards the Japanese armed

forces attack on Pearl Harbor. It all started on December 7, 1941, when hundreds of Japanese

planes attacked the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. It was a

devastating attack that destroyed nearly 20 American Naval vessels, including 8 enormous

battleships and more than 300 airplanes. Also, more than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors

died in the attack and another 1,000 were wounded. It all lead to an immediate response from the

American government that was being lead by Franklin D. Roosevelt who declared war on Japan,

a declaration that the congress approved letting America Join the World War II.

During the war over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned in concentration

camps located in the United States because of their Japanese ancestry by order of the President

Roosevelt. Despite the fact of lack of evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining

loyal to their ancestral land. Americans feared that the Japanese community in America would

participate in actions as espionage causing problems in Americas participation in World War II.

The first material I presented is a political cartoon, which is a type o iconography genre.

It is titled, Internment of Japanese Americans. Created by Tom Carlisle it is a political cartoon

that represent how Japanese community felt when they were relocated in the internment camps.

The second Genre type I chose is a poem which represents a type of typography genre. It is

titled, That damned fence. Its author remains as anonymous; this poem represents a clear

writing of
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how Japanese felt desperate after they were imprisoned for no reason at all during the World

War II.

Structure and delivery

The Internment of Japanese Americans political cartoon illustrates a Japanese group of

people trapped inside a cage surrounded by dangerous wires. The group of of Japanese in the

back of the image seem to have an angry reaction towards the situation they were in. Away from

them but also inside the cage there is an old man arguing that he was an innocent Japanese

American that had nothing to do with the attacks to what an American soldier outside the cage

responded with a shut up. Meaning that American officials didnt care about the Japanese

community opinion of what was going on. For the typography genre I chose That damned

fence, the author writes in first person as if he were living the event in person. He tries in every

paragraph to describe the feeling Japanese had towards the internment camps. He mentions that

they felt like rats in a wired cage; he also mentions that the cage drove them crazy and made

them feel lazy, and that it was a injustice from the American government to have them locked

down for no reason. He expresses that no crime was committed to be trapped inside the cages

they were in.

Both Genres convey their message by making the audience see and read what the

internment camps represented. Both of them entirely describe with simple images and words

what Japanese Americans went through. Internment camps changed their lives completely, the

political cartoon shows frightened humans suffering from something they didnt deserved and

they were going through just because of their Japanese ancestry. In the other hand, the poem

gives detail of the chaos the Japanese community was living inside the internment camps and
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how desperate they felt inside a place they were not used to and living a life the way they

were not meant to live it.

Audience and purpose

The audience that these two genres tried to reach are all of those human rights defenders

and also those who always try to do things the right way, with justice and morality. Because of

the way the information in the genres is presented trying to affect emotionally those who

appreciate them. It is clear that these two types of genre try to affect the viewers by the fact that

they represent emotions and feelings of the people involved in that tragedy. Both genres try to

encourage general awareness of the situation the Japanese lived at that time when it al seemed to

be bad for them when their rights as Americans were violated because of their ancestry. Some of

the similarities that both genres have is that both of them represent the Japanese Americans as

innocent people that suffered injustice regulations from their governors, both genres try to make

the viewers understand the gravity of the situation when Japanese were relocated by no reason.

Also, both of the genres show the madness and disagreement they reflected towards the

treatment they were receiving, they felt the the treason their government gave them.

Rhetorical issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos

Each genre establishes their credibility by the fact that they represent things just like they

happened. They represent the injustice Americans had towards the innocent Japanese who lived a

normal life until the war begun. Also, both genres main purpose is to affect emotionally those

who view them, this is because the imagine as well as the poem represent sadness and a

meaningful life Japanese Americans were living. It also represents the injustice that Americans

recurred to in order to be safe for war; the thing is that Americans forgot that those Japanese

who were trapped were also Americans.

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Both genres seem to be represented from a Japanese American point of view, because

they show sadness and injustice that happened at that time with no reason.

Conclusion/Synthesis

Both of the genres I presented achieved their purpose because of the fact that both of

them represent things the way they happened, and also represent Japanese Americans as victims

of a right violation o liberty as Americans which is also true. In other words, all of the

information the genres illustrated helped the audience understand what Americans did wrong at

that time.

In my opinion, the genre that better conveyed its message was the poem because of the

fact that the author wrote it in first person, making it easier for the audience to understand and

sense how life was inside the internment camps. Each word presented in the poem showed

sadness and desperation and thats what gave the poem more credibility and emotion effect.
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References

Japanese-Internment Poetry | Japanese-American Internment Memories. (n.d.).

Retrieved February 22, 2017, from
https://japaneseinternmentmemories.wordpress.com/category/japanese-internement-
poetry/

Nov., 1942 - Internment of Japanese Americans. (2012, June 26). Retrieved

February 22, 2017, from http://ww2cartoons.org/nov-1942-internment-of-japanese-
americans/