Japanese-American Culture

1107 Words5 Pages
Imagine this: you are at home one day with your family, listening to records and enjoying the presence of one another when all of a sudden you are notified that within 48 hours you must evacuate your home. You are being forced to leave literally everything you know, packing only the minimal essentials into a suitcase and traveling directly to the train station. The tracks are chaotic and packed with thousands of people in the same situation, all having a united look of fear in their eyes. The windows in the train are dark and covered to hide your final destination. Finally you, your family, and every single other Japanese-American family arrives at an internment camp. You know you will probably be detained here for the duration of war. This…show more content…
Tsukamoto so vividly described, we see the struggles within the camp start to affect the Kawamura family; specifically this is shown through the decisions of the two older brothers. One of the brothers chose to join the U.S. Army. He felt very strongly and aggressively towards everything that had just transpired. He was an American citizen, despite his external appearance, and being brought and forced into this camp gave him a rush of patriotism and a controlling urge to show his family and the Americans that he was willing to fight. This brother was very affected by the camp and his mind reached a new level. He would not be able to go back home, if they ever got out, and live life as he had before. He needed to get away from the civility of things and join men who felt the same way he did. He chose to leave his family to fight for America in the army, and forsake the life he had previously known. As a Japanese American he was always being discriminated, and denied privileges that Americans got. He took the hard route and wanted to prove that he was a true American citizen. He was willing to give up so much for America, knowing the message he would be portraying while being in the army. He is respected for standing up for his country and putting his life on the line to show his true
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