Questions about Japanese American incarceration and Show Me the Way to Go Home
People seemed to be moving into the camp and away from the camp all the time. Why is that?
During the Japanese American incarceration in WWII, people were moved around from one site to another rather routinely. Some families went to multiple camps. At Tule Lake, after the infamous questionnaire, those considered “loyal” to the U.S. were moved to other camps. Those deemed “disloyal” or “troublemakers” based on their answers were moved to Tule Lake. It was the camp chosen to house what the government considered the problem population.
Why would Shoichi have been to Japan if he was born in America?
Japanese American families in the U.S. sometimes sent their children to Japan for school in their early years for many reasons. Some still had family ties and connections. Some wanted their children to learn about their ancestry and culture. Some children went to Japan because their families in the U.S. became ill, died, or were separated. In Shoichi’s case, it was because Father wanted his oldest son to be schooled in his ancestry and culture.
Those U.S. citizens who were schooled in Japan were referred to as Kibei. Because of Shoichi’s close ties to Japan, he was perhaps more sympathetic toward Japan or had split allegiances during the war.
What do the terms Nisei, Issei, and Nikkei mean?
These terms refer to different generations of Japanese Americans. Issei means the first generation of immigrants from Japan to other countries. In the U.S., racist laws meant they could not become U.S. citizens or own property in their own name.
- Grandfather is Issei.
- Nisei is the generation born to those immigrants. Father and Mother are Nisei.
- Suki and her generation are known as Sansei.
- Nikkei is an inclusive term meaning all Japanese immigrants across generations.
I don’t use these terms in the book because I don’t think most people think of themselves in these terms. It’s a label put on them after the fact.
What happened to people after the war was over and the camps closed?
Some Japanese Americans returned to where they had lived prior to the war, with varying levels of success. Some had kind neighbors who kept their homes/businesses maintained for them to return to. Others faced intensified racism and had a hard time returning to the life they had known before the war. Some went east to start over. Many families of the men who went to the DOJ camps went to be with them so their families could be together. And some, like Suki’s family, went to Japan. Some of those who renounced their U.S. citizenship wanted to change their minds, and it was a long process to regain citizenship.Many of the people who had been in the camps didn’t want to talk about their traumatic experience and did not share their stories with their children or grandchildren, so it was not uncommon for descendants to know nothing about the camps.
Wasn’t the camp essentially a prison? So why did they build another prison inside the prison?
I’m not sure I can answer this accurately. It is a confusing situation, for sure. I think the best answer is fear and possibly some level of incompetence. Others may have different points of view. I believe that the government gravely mishandled the entire situation from the moment Pearl Harbor was attacked. All the sources I have read indicate that very few Japanese Americans were a threat of any kind, but some in the government convinced President Roosevelt to sign Executive Order 9066. Once people were in the camps (after spending months in horse stalls at race tracks), authorities were afraid of the people who resisted what was being done to them. They saw the resistance as a threat, and they decided to manage it by further restricting people in the “stockade” within the camp.
