My English Final

[Nocat]

Ignore this if you like. Anyone see any gramtical mistakes.

                          Internment: The Example of What a Nation Should Never Do
           
              In 1942, during WWII, Japanese Americans were forcibly rounded up and placed in internment camps. They were only given 48 hours to pack up what they could in a suitcase or two trash bags. These camps were gated communities designed to keep all in and let no one out. The main reasoning behind why this action was done was to prevent any Japanese to be spying on the US for Japan. Stories of what happened to families, how they were treated, and how they lived were created about this dark time in very recent American History. According to Pratt, a contact zone is a place where two cultures clash or grapple with each other. One culture usually has more power than the other one. This rounding up of the Japanese is very much a contact zone. The works that come out of a contact zone are labeled "arts of the contact zone" (Pratt). One of the reasons for us, as a people, is to learn and know history so we will not be doomed to repeat it. This is one event that as a country we do not want to repeat. The arts from this contact zone can help us understand how bad of an experience this was for the ones inside the camp. The bigger issue out of the internment is war. World War II caused a lot of pain to a lot of people all over the world. Perhaps by looking at the Japanese Internment we can see some consequences of it.

         Mary Louise Pratt's definition of a contact zone is "a meeting place between two peoples or two cultures; it is the social arena in which different cultures meet, clash and attempt interact with one another." (Pratt 182). We were in a state of war and because of that it is understandable to have some rash or harsh decisions as a nation. While we were in a state of war, which is a contact zone itself, we created a smaller contact zone within our own boarders when we gathered up the Japanese for camps. We created this contact zone between America itself and its own Japanese American citizens. Something that is almost never discussed in history books, which just want to point out the facts, is that most of these Japanese Americans who were rounded up had almost no idea why they were being picked up. They were Americans, loyal to America, not Japan. We as a nation must have believed that the Japanese Americans were spying on us and relaying that information back to Japan. Pratt also uses the term imagined community. An imagined community as described by Pratt is "communities in which all members speak, think, and act alike" (Pratt 189). We created the contact zone because of something we thought. Thus, we put them in an imagined community. In this particular contact zone, America is the one with more power. That Japanese were not allowed out until the camp was declared closed and they were free to go. There was no choice in the matter, if one was as much as 1/16th Japanese; they were taken into the camp. In all of the investigations to anti-espionage from WWII, only seven people were found to be spying on America. None of them was Japanese. If one should learn from this event in history, it should be that one person or nation should not make such a rash decision without cause and facts. America had its interests to protect itself and its entire people. The Japanese Americans just wanted to live their lives. Arguably, the worst thing about this action was that the Japanese Americans wanted to live the American dream. They wanted to be seen as Americans. This struggle is widely viewed as a horrible action. The Japanese Americans were not treated well. Many were killed in the camps; many more were killed just for being part Japanese. These horrible deeds are told through what arts people have made about this event. These are called arts of the contact zone.
             
           The arts of this contact zone vary widely. Some of the arts are even what Pratt describes as an autoethnographic text. An autoethnographic text is "the way a less powerful culture describes themselves to a dominant culture" (Pratt 183). Perhaps the most seen art of this contact zone is text, such as Farewell to Manzanar. Farewell to Manzanar is a 1973 memoir written by Jeanne Wakasuki Houston, who was imprisoned at Manzanar, and her husband, James D. Houston. In March 1976, a made-for-television movie was aired, entitled Farewell to Manzanar.  While neither of these are considered by the author as autoethnographic texts, because they were Americans in their minds. The book and movie tell the story of the Wakasuki family and their experiences behind the barbed wire through Jeanne's eyes (Houston). The less powerful culture, Japanese Americans, describe itself as just people trying to live. Viewing themselves as Americans, the Japanese Americans just wanted to be left alone. The Japanese Americans want everyone to understand what a horrible experience this was for everyone involved. To attempt to stop history from repeating itself, they have shown their arts off. They use the images of the normal American life to describe themselves as being the same as everyone else. Waking up and having bacon and eggs with the wife and kids as an example. This whole idea of being Americans is what they believe. Rather than using something like transculturation, which is the process a group uses to determine what elements of another culture they will adopt, the Japanese Americans know they are already Americans and they have no need to adopt anything of another culture because they are already our culture. In one contemporary rap song, the artist Mike Shinoda, sings about his family's experience, "These people have trashed every room, smashed in the windows, and bashed in the doors, written on the walls and the floors, 'Japs not welcome anymore'" (Fort Minor). This song tells the story of how his grandfather moved from Japan to Los Angeles when he was 16. The work also tells how his grandfather worked in a factory until he was able to buy a store. This work shows that something of this magnitude can have a profound effect on people who were not even directly involved. Fort Minor singing about the Japanese Internment two generations and 67 years later shows that it can also be a timeless event. Along with these Japanese Immigrants, numerous other countries immigrate by a large number to the United States to live. We can use the example of the Internment Camps and the view of the Japanese immigrants to show that people, who honestly want to be a great part of our nation, view themselves as part of it. One can see that the Japanese in this contact zone use many different styles of art to get their message across.
               
           In the Fort Minor song, one line reads, "he'd say he was called 'e-say', which meant first generation in the United States" (Fort Minor). This shows that not only the stereotypes of the United States wrong about the Japanese Immigrants, but the Japanese themselves had stereotypes of the immigrants as well. By reading these arts and works of the contact zone one can be put in a place of knowing what it was like for these people. And by people being taught how they lived during this time the Japanese-Americans gained some power and the people who did not know of this now know. If we were still interning these people today after these works have been published or released it would cause an outcry. It would cause a backlash so hard that our government would probably not be the same afterwards. By listening to the song "Kenji," one can hear the passion that is in the rappers voice. The struggles that still go on today can be given inspiration from this song. Hearing the problems he had not only with the government, but with the people that just knew he was Japanese. The hate that was given to his whole family shows how badly he was treated. But, he was able to get through it all. His store was wrecked and yet his family still survived. He was imprisoned and still he survived. All of this can be inspiration to freedom rights movement. By reading the memoirs of Houston you can get the feeling of being there. One can understand what it is to feel hate. If someone can have so much wrong done to them and still make it out alive and well then there is hope for us all. By giving an example of one who never gives up the story is very motivating.
         
            The idea that people who want to live her have to use transculturation to become part of the United States is a tough one. We have many small cultures that make up the whole idea of an American culture. The American culture is by nature a mix of hundreds if not more smaller cultures. That makes one wonder if by coming to America, do you even need to use transculturation to become an American, or does America already represent everyone? Many people wondered why this was happening. One man, Masami Honda, talks about his experiences: "Pearl Harbor was stunning. We had no inkling. Nor did we suspect that coming was the arrest and internment of American citizens of Japanese extraction. First to go was father. How can anyone doubt my patriotism? I've always only bought Fords. I've not even bought one Honda" (Growald). While being only one person expressing his views, he says in his own words that he considered himself an American. Using our own justice system, a man has fought back and let our government know that what we did was wrong, if they did not know that already. This man was Toyosaburo Korematsu. The case was entitled Korematsu v. United States. "Korematsu is the only case in Supreme Court history in which the Court, using a strict test for possible racial discrimination, upheld a restriction on civil liberties. The case has since been severely criticized for sanctioning racism" (Korematsu). Even though this man did not win his case he still brought attention to his cause. It is unfortunate that we did not support this case enough to make sure that he won it. We might have seen a difference in today's racial arguments and future cases if he had won his case. Another man talks of how he was made to answer questions about whether or not his loyalty was with America or Japan: "Nozaki, who has researched the internment issue, said all internees over 17 years of age were required by the U.S. government to answer a list of questions gauging their loyalty" (Hongo).
   
            In December of 2009, Norman Mineata wrote about the Japanese Internment in USA Today. He writes, "[The Constitution] is a license to pursue a 'more perfect union' among us. It is a document that is only as expert in protection us as we are demined to protect it. Every Feb. 19, Japanese Americans remember not only a day when that expertise was lacking, but also the day decades later when the American oath affirming personal justice finally prevailed." The American oath he writes of is the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
           
          We can see from all of these examples that not just Japanese immigrants, but all immigrants who want to make a life and raise a family in our country consider themselves Americans. Among the most controversial issues in today's world is entering the United States illegally. By looking at this issue we can see that people will fight hand and foot to get into our great country. Most of the immigration from Japan during the 30's and 40's was legal. However, how is one supposed to feel after earning the rights to enter and live in a country, they decided that your heritage was just not good enough anymore? Japanese immigrants do not view themselves as immigrants anymore; they are Americans, citizens of this country. Today I do not think we as a people would stand for something as drastic as internment camps anymore. Nor do I think that our country would do something as rash anymore, yet we still have wars. In addition, wars are debatably the worst thing in our lives. People fighting other people just because we want what they have or we do not like each other. War, broken down to its lowest levels, is just an elementary school playground squabble. Bringing something like that to the greatest stage, war on a world scale is something that we as Humanity should fight with everything we can to prevent.
                                           

                                     Works Cited
Growald, R.H. "'World Turned Over' on That Day in 1944." The San Diego Union December 7, 1983: A-1. NewsBank. Web. 8 December 2009.
Minor, Fort. "Kenji." The Rising Tide. Warner Bros. Records. 2005.
Pratt, Mary L. "Arts of the Contact Zone." Reading the Lives of Others: A Sequence for Writers. Ed. Elizabeth Schaaf. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1995. 180-194. Print.
Houston, James, and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. The Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment. San Francisco: Houghton Mifflin, 1972. Print.
"Korematsu v. United States." Gredat American Court Cases. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999: Opposing Viewpoints. Web. 8 December 2009.
Mineta, Norman Y. "A Test American Failed; WWII Internment Provide Eternal Losses." USA Today February 19 2009: 10A. LexisNexis. Web. 9 December 2009.
Hongo, Jun. "A Convience in Peace Becomes Matter of Conflict in War." The Japan Times 5 January, 2009: n.p. LexisNexis. Web. 9 December 2009.

[philsov]

1) It's usually better to label something as a contant zone and then define what it is.

So...  

According to Pratt, a contact zone is a place where two cultures clash or grapple with each other. One culture usually has more power than the other one. This rounding up of the Japanese is very much a contact zone. The works that come out of a contact zone are labeled "arts of the contact zone" (Pratt).  

Should become:

This rounding up of the Japanese is very much a contact zone.   According to Pratt, a contact zone is a place where two cultures clash or grapple with each other.  

2) "One culture usually has more power than the other one."  is that part of the definition of a contact zone, or just some general statement you tacked on?  If it's part of the definition, combine them into one sentence "With each other, where one culture usually blahblahblah."  If it's a general statement you tacked on, it's superfluous.  Either clarify the point to something like "In this contact zone, the American culture had power over the Japanese immigrant culture" or just get rid of it.

3) "The works that come out of a contact zone are labeled "arts of the contact zone" (Pratt). " is kind of... out of place.  Suggest placing it a bit lower, coupled with the "The arts from this contact zone can help us understand how bad of an experience this was for the ones inside the camp." line.

4) "The bigger issue out of the internment is war. World War II caused a lot of pain to a lot of people all over the world. "  while normally I'd suggest you expand on that statement (maybe throw in a few specifics about the total number of casualities and the like), you (thankfully) don't spend a paragraph talking about WWII outside of the camps again.  Those final lines in the introduction paint an outline for the rest of the paper, and thus those two sentences can be erased.  You're talking about the internment camps, not WWII.

5) "Something that is almost never discussed in history books, which just want to point out the facts, is that most of these Japanese Americans who were rounded up had almost no idea why they were being picked up."  Um, what?  Suggesting a citation from an interview or something where a japanese lady says "and we had no idea why we were being picked up".  Also, that italizied part?  Has no relevance.  Delete!

6) "Many were killed in the camps; many more were killed just for being part Japanese. "  Do you have any idea how much a many is?  Exact numbers aren't needed, but something like "At least 10000 people died or were killed during the internment period" is soooo much better.

7) Arts paragraph is pretty good.  Include a picture if you can from the period.

The paragraph starting out with the fort minor song really feels like a continuation of the previous paragraph until the 3rd or so line.  Start it off with something to "hang the hat" on, like "Even within the camps the Japanese had their own stereotypes" and then you can throw in the fort minor stuff and give another example or two of the inner-racism that occurred, or simply tack it onto the Arts paragraph.

9) Also, The idea that people who want to live here have to use transculturation to become part of the United States is a tough one.

10) The "paragraph" about Norman Mineata really needs to tacked on to the previous paragraph.  

11) "War, broken down to its lowest levels, is just an elementary school playground squabble."  Again, it's brought up in the intro, and the conclusion, but nowhere in the actual body.  Just nix it.

[SilvasRuin]

Anyone see any gramtical mistakes.

That should be spelled "grammatical."








Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.  Phil seems to have you covered anyways.

[philsov]

really I just did flow and structure.  Actual grammar makes me cry >_>.

[Archael]

please divide this into paragraphs...

[Samuraiblackbelt]

it's divided into paragraphs, just no indentation

[Archael]

please add indentation to those paragraphs...

[Nocat]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Sorry about the indentation...

[Samuraiblackbelt]

you're sorry yet there's no indentation yet? there is an "edit" button

[philsov]

TAB DOESN'T COPY PASTE.

*head explodes*

[Nocat]

Im not too sure how to make it indent on the forum....

[Archael]

Im not too sure how to make it indent on the forum....

holy fuck dude

just space the paragraphs

hit ENTER in between them

forget the indentation, space them out

currently unreadable

[Samuraiblackbelt]

*DELETED*

I don't know why Zodiac took out the delete button, and when did this get moved to spam?

[Dome]

lol

[Nocat]

Well I did already space them out... unless you are asking for more spaces.... and I did try and indent them with spaces as well as the tab key, which doesnt seem to work very well...