John Abiko
Japanese American
Responses to Fate Cards
Fate 1
February 19, 1942
President Roosevelt issues executive order 9066 interning all persons of Japanese ancestry
in various relocation camps along the western seaboard and other states in the West.You
see a posting indicating the time and date you must register to be relocated and your
entrance into work is barred by armed national guardsmen.You return home. Describe the
conversation with your family that ensues. What do you take with you? Why?
Response
When I returned home the conversation with my wife was confusing and at the same time
scary. I told her that we had 72 hours to gather our belongings and stand on the side of a
public road to be taken to the camp. We didn't know what we did to deserve this, and
believe that we have been just as loyal to our country as any other US citizen. To make
complications worse, my wife Allison is 5 months pregnant. It would be awful for our child
to be born in an internment camp. This made us both fearful. Because we had no time to
spare, we immediately packed our belongings. The order to put us in camps restricted what
we could bring. We were only able to bring the necessities. The first thing we wanted to
bring was our Jewelry because we knew it was not safe in our house. The next thing was 2
of each garment, two shirts, two pants, and two sets of socks and underwear. We brought
only one pair of shoes each. Since the rules were that we could only bring one bag each;
we put our clothes in and then stuffed them with blankets and photos holding sentimental
value. These were the only possessions other than jewelry we brought with us that held any
value. The two of us both tried to call our parents, but no one picked up the phone. This
gave us a sense of insecurity and made us even more worried. We were no longer only
worried for ourselves, but now for our parents. We wondered where they went and if they
were OK.
Fate 2
As an Issei, your father's business and political involvement in the community has come
under great scrutiny and his loyalty to the United States is being questioned. Due to
increasing suspicion of yellow peril, your father has been imprisoned while the rest of
your family has been evacuated to Manzanar Detention Center. What is your life like now?
Reflect on democracy as it is being carried out by the U.S. government.
Response
Our lives have turned for the worse. Every day we worry about my father and his safety and
health, we also worry about our own lives and if we can get through this horrible
experience in the Manzanar Detention Center. We live in fear of death. I can’t
believe that my good father could have been put in jail. I cannot believe the events that
have happened recently. Our living conditions in this detention center are poor. Our
family including my brother’s family of four are in a room that should sleep one or
at most two. There is one bath for about 250 people. The food is poor and not filling, so
we go to bed hungry every night. Although much is bad at these detention centers the
medical care is good and provided for all basic sicknesses at the camp. We get paid well
at the camps just as well as at home. Most people are able to get a job; I work as
schoolteacher here as well. There are schools at these detention centers that I teach at
and I feel are actually decent. Although life is decent we still are in despair because of
the fact that we were sent away by our own government. My father has been sent to prison.
I don’t understand this at all. I feel that my father was very loyal to this country
and was providing services for this country through his work. My father is the general
manager in the factory he works at. He loves his life in the US and I have never heard him
say that he doesn’t like the US. All I hear from him about the US government is that
he supports it and its actions, and believes that it will make the right decision on how
to act in the war. He has been thrown in jail and I don’t know what is happening to
him and what the conditions in the jail are like; I suspect they are very bad. I worry
about him every day. I am disappointed in the United States. My parents moved here to live
a free life and now it is not fulfilling their expectations. The US democracy is set on
natural rights, which everyone has, but now the government is taking those rights away
from the Japanese Americans. I fell that I am just as loyal to this country as any other
American born person is and that my background should not affect the way I am treated.
These detention centers are a complete mistake by the US government. I feel that the US
government is completely turning against their own morals by sending away the Japanese
Americans to internment camps and jails. These actions are a disgrace to the United
States.
Fate 3
Your sister will be leaving the camp to attend college, an opportunity your family would
never have offered her except as a way to escape internment. You, also, have been offered
a way out, although it may be less desirable. The U.S. government is asking you to step up
and do your patriotic duty. Enlist and serve your country. Of course no one told you when
you joined that you were being sent to Burma to fight the Japanese. How do you respond to
your government? What does your family say and how do you answer them? Are you regretting
your decision? Explain.
Response
When I enlisted in the army I was doing it just as a way to get away from the
detention center. When I was in the detention center I was disgusted by my surroundings. I
kept thinking how poorly my country has been treating other Japanese Americans like me.
Because of these conditions I was willing to go fight in the war and feel just like other
full blood Americans. When I left I hoped that I would not have to fight the Japanese.
When I arrived ready to fight I wasn’t told where I was being sent. I was just
shipped off with many other young Americans of different backgrounds, about 20 Japanese
Americans. Just like me the other Japanese Americans are disgusted by the way that the US
is treating us. When we arrived at our area of fighting we were told that we would be
fighting Japanese. When I heard the words “Japanese” my heart dropped. My first
instinct was that I couldn’t fight against my heritage. I felt that the government
was extremely unfair. The other Japanese feel the same way; they feel betrayed by how the
US has sent them to internment camps and then to fight the Japanese people of their own
heritage. I would think that they would have some compassion and not send me to kill
people that are of the same descent as I am. I am a full blood Japanese that is living in
America. Even though I’ve never lived in Japan I still feel like a piece of me is
located there. I feel my government has betrayed me and I am really hurt. I was able to
contact my family in a letter. I wrote saying what has happened and how I was distraught
over the events that have happened. They wrote back with a letter that defines the word
furious. They didn’t understand how the government could do such a thing. They should
know that Japanese Americans would never want to fight Japanese because it is killing
their former brothers. My parents wanted me to immediately drop out of the army and go
back to the detention center. I knew at that point that it was too late to go back and
that I would have to stay and fight for the country that I presently live in. I saw a It
took me a while to process in my mind, but I realized that if I don’t fight there is
a chance of me getting killed by my own country. I didn’t want my newly born child to
live without her birth father (I found out it was a girl in my letter). I knew it was
wrong for the US to have Japanese Americans fight against our descents, but since
we’re considered Americans in our country we were needed to fight against the country
that bombed us. I am putting my life in danger just so that I can get away from the
detention center, but if it’s to help my country stop the war and get on with my life
then I’ll help. In my heart I know there is no reason for me to risk my life for a
country that doesn’t believe that I am loyal to it, but on the outside I’m a
fighter in a war and it’s my duty to win for our country. I feel that this war will
have serious repercussions for me in the future. I will feel like I am not going to be a
good American and I also won’t be loyal to my parents homeland. I will feel ripped
between two places and groups of people. I think that when I come back from the war I will
only be able to relate to the Japanese Americans because I will feel unwanted by the full
blooded Americans.
Fate 4
The Holocaust was a horror beyond compare. Although the degradation you experienced as a
result of internment was not as profound as the persecution of the Jews, you were,
nonetheless, severely victimized. Despite the humiliation of internment, you rose to every
occasion when your nation called you to duty even fighting in the Pacific against the
Japanese. This week, little clear warning, the United States dropped two atomic bombs: one
on Hiroshima and the other on Nagasaki, Japan. The extent of the suffering and devastation
caused by this attack is just being learned yet the disregard for Japanese life is
apparent. What went through your mind as a Nissei, when you heard of the bombing? How did
you Issei parents react? What is our opinion of democracy and America, now?
Response
When I heard of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki I was offended. I couldn’t
understand why the United States needed to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. I was still in
the army when I heard about that. I am thankful somewhat of the government for doing the
bombing because if they didn’t I might have died, and the bombing forced the Japanese
to surrender. I feel that my country has turned its back on me along with all other
Japanese Americans. I understand that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and I am mad at
them for that, so the US should have retaliated in a similar way. The Japanese should
never have bombed Pearl Harbor because that basically sealed there own fate, the US
wasn’t even in the war and the Japanese brought the US into the war. Instead of
bombing innocent cities the US should have bombed some military bases where the war
equipment was being held. That way the amount of fighting the Japanese could do would be
greatly crippled and therefore they would need to surrender. I do how ever respect the
US’s choice to bomb these cities rather than Tokyo because if they bombed Tokyo
because that would have caused damage beyond comprehension. But by bombing these two
cities with the strongest bombs known to man the US as made it so I will never be able to
go to Japan knowing that I am free from harmful radiation. Life will not be able to
flourish in those two cities for another half-century. When I spoke to my parents of this
tragedy they were even more offended than I was and understandably so. My parents have
lived near Hiroshima and are afraid that some of their previous friends may have gotten
hurt. My parents have sometimes spoken of returning to their homeland for a quick visit
one last time but this will make it so they won’t. They worry that they will never be
able to return to there old home and they also worry that these bombs have ruined
everything that was beautiful about their homeland. They don’t just feel for
themselves but they feel for the thousands of Japanese people that died and those
people’s families. They don’t understand the need for the dropping of these
atomic bombs and they think similarly to me that bombing the military bases would have
been a better alternative. The US government has already betrayed us Japanese Americans by
sending us to the internment camps. My parents really doubt now if the United States is
the best place for us to live. I now more than ever am displeased with the US government.
After they sent us to detention centers and now have bombed my parents’ homeland, I
have many doubts. I wonder if we should stay in the US now that we are obviously not
wanted. I feel that the democracy that the US government is running is failing. After
sending innocent citizens of their own country into internment camps they are being quite
hypocritical. In the constitution it says that every citizen has the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but now they have taken those rights away from us.
The US should also never bomb innocent civilians that have nothing to do with WWII. If the
US was to bomb any place they should bomb the military bases for the Japanese. That would
be similar to that of Pearl Harbor and that would greatly cripple them in fighting the war
and force them to surrender, and so hundreds of thousand of innocent people would not die.
Return to Fate Cards
Return to 40s Home Page
Return to Collab Main Page