Camps and Experiences

• Temporary Detention Centers -
  1. Were Japanese Americans given adequate care and accommodations as they were rounded up? Were they given assurances and clear information on what the future held for them?
  During their stay at the internment camps Japaneses Americans stayed in unsanitary areas like horse stalls near open sewers. While others stayed in barracks. Bathrooms had no privacy and communal. Meals were not adequate by no means as it regards nutrition, and medical care was minimal. As for the internees that didn't follow instructions armed guards awaited them.

• Permanent WRA Camps -
  2. Discuss the claim by the U.S. Government that the camps were for the protection of Japanese Americans. Were the barbed wire fences and guard towers meant to keep vigilantes out or Japanese American inmates in?
  When Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps, the American government tried to stress that it was for their (the “Japs”) protection. That it was best for the internees, but it was to keep Japanese spies in America from contacting their associates over seas. Seen the government couldn't pin point every spy, all the Japanese Americans had to suffer. To make sure there was absolutely no contact to the outside world commutation wasn't optional and the camps were surrounded with barbed wire fences, armed guards and guard towers.

• Camp Life -
  3. Were the camps “resettlement communities,” or prisons? What’s the difference between the two?
  From the appearance the camps were prisons not “resettlement communities”. A “resettlement community” would be like a second home an open place, the only difference between a “resettlement community” and the original community would be the absence of the other people in your given community. A prison however is a place bounded, un-optional as to whether you want to stay there or not. In a prison your happiness, heath and feeling doesn't matter to the people running the facility, unlike in a “resettlement community” where they actually have an affect.

4. Did the War Relocation Authority take measures to protect family life and privacy?
   WRA did attempt to provide recreational activities, to keep the violence levels down. As for privacy WRA “kept all the secrets” and the internees could have no secrets.

• Questions of Loyalty -
  5. How did Japanese Americans respond after being incarcerated without due process of law, to questions asking them whether or not they were unquestioningly loyal to this country?
  The first generation of Japanese immigrants were not conceivable. However the second generation became outraged that someone would even think to question their loyalty. They felt it was just as much their country as American born, if they were being questioned on loyalty then so should their fellow Americans.

• Tule Lake Segregation -
  6. Were those who answered “no” to the loyalty questions clearly “disloyal” or were they voicing discontent with their treatment?
  After the question, whom ever answered “no” about loyalty were deemed disloyal and sent to another camp that further separated them from their families. Most used the questionnaire as a way to voice their angry as it regards to their treatment while in the internment camps.

• Draft Resisters -
  7. Why did these young men resist being drafted into the military? Write or improvise a conversation between two brothers in an internment camp who make two different opposing decisions on the draft: one enlists, the other resists. What are their points of agreement, if any? How do they differ? Is one brother more patriotic than the other ?
  Some young men didn't want to be drafted into the military because of the irony in the situation. For a country to question someones loyally then ask that same person to fight for the same country that questioned them. So many Japanese men refused until their constitutional rights were restored.
  Resister: Where are you going?
  Enlistee: To the main office to enlist in the military.
  Resister: What would make you want to do something as stupid as that?
  Enlistee: This is my country, and it's not stupid
  Resister: Yeah you may be right about that but, this is also the same country that has imprisoned you for how long?
  Enlistee: Have you forgotten that we have a much better life now because of this country, all of the freedoms we have the type of life we have now.
  Resister: You do realize those freedoms mean nothing inside this barbed wire cage. For you to enlist in that three ring circus is a contradiction to yourself.
  Enlistee: Your the contradiction just two years ago you were fighting for this country the same as I. Now after a few months here you want to turn your back on a country you once worshiped.

Between the two brothers both really wanted to convenience the other of their loyalty by directly or indirectly focusing on how poorly or greatly the U.S has treated them. The brother that wants to enlist into the army is far more patriotic than the other because he's willing to over look all that bad and still fight.

• Military Service -
  8. What did it take to fight for a country that kept your family interned behind barbed wire?
  For the Japanese men that didn't refuse to sever in the army, it took their pride, loyalty and strength because it was an emotional time. Especially after they'd been in internment camps for the same country the were asked to fight for on numerous occasions. the turn in events was pure irony.