The Japanese Americans

The Japanese Americans

            The reading A Color Blind patriot in Prewar America illustrates the lives of the Japanese Americans who were living in the United States before the Second World War. The article primarily focused on Yuri family showing how they were living amidst racial as well as ethnic segregation community. As the piece opens up, “The FBI intrusion into Yuri’s Family did not end with Mr Nakhara death”. This shows how most Japanese American were exploited. Most of them were considered as suspects and selling intelligence to American enemies. Wartime hysteria and racism were taking toll before the world war. Most Japanese Americans were subjected to emotional as well as physical harassment coming from the United States federal government. Discrimination in the army here the Japanese Americans were not allowed in the army camp was rampant. All these happenings became widespread during the bombing of the Pearl Harbor.

Yuri turned out to be an activist who demanded truth and justice from the American government. Regarding this, the article clearly illustrated Yuri’s upbringing, which eventually turned her into becoming a humanitarian. From her childhood, Yuri was always selfless. Mary had narrated how Yuri would donate some of the goodies to the poor during Easter. She always ready to show compassion. Yuri was dedicated to promoting humanity that she eventually enrolled to Women’s Ambulance and Defense Corps of America which was later renamed Women Auxiliary Corps. Either, due to her Japanese background, they were always considered suspects, she as a result resigned from the WADC. Poignantly, the whole article illustrates how Japanese Americans were considered to be a threat to National Security during the Second World War.

The article Helping Japan, Helping Ourselves The Meaning of Issei Patriotism illustrates the meaning of Japanese immigrant nationalism. As the piece opens up, the growth of nationalism among the Japanese immigrants was intense during the periods of the pacific war.  As stated, “U.S government decided that the Japanese were a security risk and placed them in segregated camps”. The United States Federal government believed that those Japanese present in the country would be selling security intelligence to their Japanese counterparts. As the article further states, the modern Issei nationalism can be traced to the period of the rise of Japanese Militarism in Manchuria primarily in the period of 1930s. The surge of immigrants escalated forming the basis of the current estranged relationship that exists between the empire and the immigrant community, which was after 1924. Japanese scholars had depicted that the Japanese residents in the United States became significantly relevant during this time. The primary cause for this was the ballooning tension among the Anglo-American powers.

However, just as the article further reinstates, the increased dominance of the Japanese immigrant patriotism as well the Japan’s attempted move to exploit the immigrants for geopolitical purposes did not lead to the transformation of the Issei into a product of ultranationalist extremists or Japanese Militarists. Either, most of the anti-Japanese agitators believed that most of the Japanese immigrants formed part of the ultranationalist group. This argument had faced critics with some claiming that the Issei Patriotism enhanced a crucial phase that exhibited an immigrant-state partnership. From this partnership, it resulted in a complex convergence of Japan’s state mandate and that of the immigrants’ dreams. Either, some of the Issei immigrants belief was that loyalty to American states would eventually lead to societal acceptance.