The present essay, studying the historical, social, political, and military factors, traces the development of ideas culminating in the detention. Considering the affair in this manner should more clearly explain the "why" of Japanese removal. Particularly, the concept of "military necessity," the Army's major reason for evacuation, is considered with emphasis on factors which contributed to the development of this position. The role of Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, the primary advocate of removal based on necessity, is explored.

My dissertation "'Bitter Sweet Home': Celebration of Biculturalism in Japanese Language Japanese American Literature, 1936-1952" explores Japanese-language Japanese American literature as a discourse of identity politics among Japanese Americans between 1936 and 1952. Shukaku, the first Japanese American translocal and multi-genre literary journal, published its inaugural issue in November of 1936, and 1952 marked the publication of Ibara aru shiramichi (Thorny path) by Asako Yamamoto, which was one of the earliest sustained literary accounts either in English or Japanese of the wartime experiences of Japanese Americans. One of the major goals of this dissertation is to uncover the muffled voices of Japanese Americans whose primary language was Japanese. I further scrutinize the ways in which Japanese Americans valued the tradition of English-Japanese bilingualism, and how bilingualism played a central role in the formation of Japanese American identity. From the 1930s through the Pacific War when the relationship of Japan and the US was the most hostile, and even after the war when Japan-US relations changed dramatically, Japanese Americans felt acute pressures to suppress Japanese language and culture which had become associated with political sympathizer with Japan, the enemy, and therefore disloyalty to the US. Even under such intense pressure, however, bilingualism remained a critical tool for Japanese Americans to maintain and reconfigure their identity. They carefully guarded the tradition of biculturalism grounded in bilingualism to preserve a distinct identity against the intensified pressures of Americanization with the emphasis on English-only monolingualism. The wartime political environment imposed a racially polarized discourse of American identity that singled out Japanese Americans as disloyal group and gave new impetus to Americanization programs. I argue that Japanese language literature provided writers protected space within which they engaged politically charged discussions on such topics as racialized and gendered politics of loyalty and retaining biculturalism under the increasing pressure of Americanization. After the war, as the issue of disloyalty receded, Japanese language literature acquired a new role as a critical resource for Japanese Americans to commemorate wartime experiences, and to rebuild cultural and psychological ties with Japan and Japanese culture.

This thesis examines the linkages between the verbal response to social stress, the ostracism of individuals from a social group, and the subsequent increased cohesion of the remaining members. To write the thesis, I utilized these printed references in the forms of scholarly research, journals, diaries, and interviews primarily from the Texas A&M Sterling Evans Library and the online journal resource JSTOR as well as a video documentary. Previous research into the genres of rumor, identity, and scapegoat accusations are explicated. Then, these approaches are applied to the rumors told by the Japanese-Americans who were removed from their homes and sent to internment camps in the United States during World War II. The internment camps were rife with scapegoat accusations between the internees whose once unified culture group was fissured along lines of loyalty to the United States or to Japan. These scapegoat accusations against fellow internees were an outlet for the stress exerted upon them by the American government that was not directly combatable. Even processes as complicated as changing social dynamics can be observed through the mechanisms of rumors and scapegoat accusations.

No description available.

Analyzing how nationalism influenced Japanese-American internment.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1975. / Typescript.

While considerable literature on wartime Japanese American internment exists, the vast majority of studies focus on the West Coast experience. With a high volume of literature devoted to this region, lesser known camps in Arkansas, like Rohwer (Desha County) and Jerome (Chicot and Drew County) have been largely overlooked. This study uses a cultural history approach to elucidate the Arkansas internment experience by way of local and camp press coverage. As one of the most segregated and impoverished states during the 1940s, Arkansas’ two camps were distinctly different from the nine other internment camps used for relocation. Through analysis of local newspapers, Japanese American authored camp newspapers,documentaries, personal accounts and books, this study seeks to expose the seemingly forgotten story of internment in the South. The findings expose a level of freedom within the internment camps, as well local reaction in the context of Arkansas’s economic, social and political climate.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1975. / Typescript.

This study aims to examine critiques of social injustices expressed through the medium of literature by Native peoples of Canada and Japanese Canadians. My objectives are to explore literary representations of their struggles and examine how these representations and the struggles intersect. My study uses the following: “Coyote and the Enemy Aliens” by Thomas King, My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling, Obasan by Joy Kogawa, The Kappa Child by Hiromi Goto, Burning Vision by Marie Clements, and “The Uranium Leaking from Port Radium and Rayrock Mines is Killing Us” by Richard Van Camp. The findings reveal Canada’s nation state still rooted in a White settler constructed society, and a legacy of imperialism in the form of globalization that destroys Native peoples’ lands. My thesis concludes with the im/possibilities of reconciliation, also considering my own role as a person of colour, a temporary settler from Japan.

The Internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War was a blatant act of racial-based injustice in Canadian history. In this study, the term "Internment" encompasses all the events that resulted from the abrogation of Japanese Canadian rights of citizenship--mass uprooting from their homes and communities in British Columbia (BC), dispossession, forced relocation to internment camps in interior BC, road camps, and sugar beet farms, followed by forced exile from BC to Japan, or forced migration and assimilation across Canada. The twelve participants in this study are Canadians of Japanese heritage who were born after the Internment and whose parent(s) or grandparent(s) experienced a form of Internment. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we explored intergenerational communication of the Internment experience and the lived experience of growing up in the aftermath of the Internment. The findings revealed alternative responses and outcomes to historical trauma theory. Threaded throughout these stories and responses were prevailing themes reflecting values of gaman and enryo, in addition to resilience and empowerment.