Japanese Americans During the World War II and Events that Led to their Forced Evacuation

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There have never been many moments that have threatened to tear the world apart such as the events that unfolded during the Second World War. The decision by Japan to strike Pearl Harbor led to events that impacted several lives and left many people with lasting wounds. The U.S leadership took some drastic measures with the goal of defending the country against the aggression from Japan. One of the ill-fated decisions was the forcible evacuation and detainment of the American citizens of Japanese descent. In this paper, I will look at Mine Okubo’s use of text in “Citizen 13660” to provide a counter-narrative to the popular discourse(s) surrounding Japanese-Americans during and post WWII.
Pearl Harbor was the largest naval base for the U.S when Japan attacked it in December 1941. Japan did not want a war with the U.S; they only wanted to cripple the U.S so that they would not be able to respond and stop Japan from achieving her pursuit of military conquest. What would follow later is the Executive Order 9066 issued in February 1942 by the then U.S president Franklin D. Roosevelt. The executive order gave powers to the U.S “secretary of war and his commanders” to “prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded” (McCormick 268). The order was applied to the whole Japanese American population that was living in the West Coast. After Pearl Harbor, there was a lot of suspicion on them. Using the order, they were forced to leave their homes, carrying with them all they could. More evacuations would follow in Oregon, California, Southern Arizona, and Washington. The evacuees were incarcerated in “tar-paper barracks” in the deserts of California where some of them ended up spending more than three years.
During the Second World War, a number of visual representations were used to cast the Japanese as the enemy and by extension, the Japanese Americans. One of the most notable visual representations was a poster that was titled “This is the Enemy.” This poster went around the U.S following Pearl Harbor attack. The goal of the poster was to portray the Japanese people as ruthless aggressors that needed to be destroyed and defeated by all means (Roxworthy n.p). This led to the development of biased perceptions, dehumanizing the Japanese and leading to a country-wide fear about them. The propaganda was meant to have psychological influences on people and change their perceptions about the Japanese. In this regard, the government would be able to justify the actions taken to subvert the supposed threat they posed. There were also publications in leading magazines that were used to further portray the Japanese as evil people that needed to be dealt with accordingly. One notable publication was by Life Magazine that was titled “How to tell Friendly Chinese from Enemy Alien Japs”. Using pictures and wordings, the Japanese are portrayed as the enemy while the Chinese are portrayed as the kind people (Roxworthy n.p). The Japanese are shown as people that are always angry and only care about war whereas th...