Pachee Vang
ANTH 3800
Exam 1 Essay
Bravo for the Marshallese The Marshall Islands has always been that of a peaceful paradise for the Marshallese; that is to say before it was irradiated by nuclear bomb testing by its very own trust partners the United States. The Marshallese thought that giving up their island would help bring peace to the world and since most of the population was converted into Christianity, they were led to believe that they were doing a favor as “Judas’s children”. What they didn’t know was that for the next 12 years, their precious islands were to become the test site of hazardous atomic bomb testing that would change their life and history forever. What was first contentment turned into concealed resentment towards their only source of support. The population that was most affected by the radiation was perhaps the Rongelapese of the Rongelap Atoll. In the perspective of the Marshallese, land is not just something where you inhabit, it is the “essence of life” (Barker, 61). The Marshallese people’s culture and existence come from their land. Without the land, they could not carry on their traditional roles. The Marshall Islands is primarily matrilineal meaning that women own land and pass it on to their next generation. The land is where daughters learn from their mothers how to weave and create crafts while sons learn how to fish and navigate from their fathers. But with the evacuation from their homeland, parents could not pass on their knowledge
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the internment of Japanese Americans on the West coast of the United States. On going tension between the United States and Japan rose in the 1930’s due to Japan’s increasing power and because of this tension the bombing at Pearl Harbor occurred. This event then led the United States to join World War II. However it was the Executive Order of 9066 that officially led to the internment of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans, some legal and illegal residents, were moved into internment camps between 1942-1946. The internment of Japanese Americans affected not only these citizens but the
Many people know what it feels like for one action or event to change the whole course of a day, a year, or maybe your whole life. The book The Bomb, by Theodore Taylor, is set on a Pacific Island called Bikini Atoll. During World War II, the Americans took over the atoll from the Japanese, who were in control at the time. The main character, Sorry Rinamu, is grateful for being freed by the Americans. However, after the war, the Americans wanted to test another Atomic Bomb, and they chose to test it for research at Bikini Atoll. The conflict that drives the plot is that Sorry tries to stop the Americans from testing the bomb on his home (person vs society). The two primary ways it generates the plot are when most islanders agree to have their atoll taken away by the Americans and when Sorry gets the radical idea to stop the test from happening from his uncle, Abram Rinamu.
Roger Daniels’ book Prisoners without Trial is another book that describes the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. This piece discusses about the background that led up to the internment, the internment itself, and what happened afterwards. The internment and relocation of Japanese-Americans during World War II was an injustice prompted by political and racial motivations. The author’s purpose of this volume is to discuss the story in light of the redress and reparation legislation enacted in 1988. Even though Daniels gives first hand accounts of the internment of Japanese Americans in his book, the author is lacking adequate citations and provocative quotations. It’s
The non-fiction book Hiroshima by John Hersey is an engaging text with a powerful message in it. The book is a biographical text about lives of six people Miss Sasaki, Dr. Fujii, Mrs. Nakamura, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki and Rev. Tanimoto in Hiroshima, Japan and how their lives completely changed at 8:15 on the 6th of August 1945 by the dropping of the first atomic bomb. The author, John Hersey, through his use of descriptive language the in book Hiroshima exposes the many horrors of a nuclear attack.
“Farewell to Manzanar” After the disastrous event of Pearl Harbor, many Japanese families were suspected of contributing to the bombing and betraying the United States. In the book, “Farewell to Manzanar”, the authors, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James Houston, portray damaging influences of WWII and its consequences by discussing Jeanne's life before and after the internment camps. As the internment camps concluded, some rights of the Japanese residents were cut which impacted their lives drastically. When Jeanne revisits Manzanar with her family, she explains how her Papa’s life had ended there, although he lived a few years after coming out of camp.
About an hour-and-a-half later a gritty, snow-like substance began raining down on a Japanese fishing vessel called the Lucky Dragon that was about 80 miles east of Bikini. When the 23 fishermen returned to port two weeks later they were all suffering severe radiation sickness and their radio operator later died. In 1955, the United States paid two million dollars as restitution for damage to the Lucky Dragon, its 23 members and its cargo after negotiations with Japanese officials. Marshall Islanders were also exposed to the fallout considering that a few hours after the explosion, radioactive fallout began to drop on the people, into the drinking water, on the food, and into the hands of children who were playing with it.(10) As of December 31, 1997, $63,127,000 has been awarded to or on behalf of 1,549 people of the Marshall Islands, with personal injury claims and several class action suits pending.(11)
Mr. Tanimoto consciously repeated to himself “‘These are human beings’”(Hersey 1946), as he attempted to save paralyzed, dying men and women, in the book “Hiroshima” by John Hersey. This nonfiction book was published on August 31 1946, a year after the atomic bombing fell on Hiroshima, Japan. This publication was raw, uncensored, and truthful. John Hersey unapologetically revealed the gruesome damages done by the bombing, while also silencing those who believed that the atomic bomb was a justified attack. Hersey’s brilliant journalism and ability to write this story without bias, is why this book was selected. The author did not want those who died to be remembered as casualties, but as mothers, fathers and children. Hersey wrote this book about the the physical, and psychological impact this bomb had on both survivors and victims of the atomic bomb. There were many historical events that contributed to the cause and effect of the atomic attack; historical events such as industrialization, the trench wars, and militarism. This was not just a simple bomb, but a complex attack on humanity.
World War II was the deadliest worldwide conflict in history. It was estimated to cause over 70 million fatalities.(NEED SOURCE) What many people may not consider though, is how World War II affected people's inner self, not just casualties. In Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini suffered imprisonment, beatings and is neglected essential/basic human rights. Like so many other American prisoners of war (POWs), Zamperini is dehumanized and his dignity is taken away. Japanese-Americans were also treated equally horribly during World War II. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps throughout the United States. Miné Okubo was among these citizens who were unjustly accused/judged and mistreated. Zamperini and Okubo alike resisted the attempts in World War II camps to make them feel dehumanized and isolated.
Among this group of “Nisei” was the Uchida family from Berkeley, California. Yoshiko Uchida, the youngest daughter in the Uchida family was a senior at the University of California at Berkeley at the time of the attacks. Years later, Yoshiko became a prolific writer of children’s books (Sato 66). In her book, “Desert Exile”, published in 1982, Uchida gave a personal account of the evacuation and incarceration of her family during World War II (Sato 66). Uchida’s book raises awareness to the specter of racial prejudice and the hope that no other group of Americans would have to endure this type of injustice and violation of their human rights (Sato 66).
Before John Hersey’s novel, Hiroshima, Americans viewed Japanese as cruel and heartless people. This warped perspective caused the majority of American citizens to feel complacent about the use of the atomic bomb against civilians. Americans, in many ways, were blinded by their own ignorance to notice the severity of the destruction suffered by not only the city of Hiroshima but, more importantly, the people who lived there. The six testimonies in Hiroshima illustrate the strength and optimistic attitude of the Japanese people. In this essay, I will discuss the feelings towards the ethics surrounding the use of the atomic bomb, next I will look at two testimonies and how their lives
While World War II had been ongoing since 1939, Japan had been fighting for the Axis powers, against the United States. In 1941, when Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States government had assumed the viewpoint that the Japanese were not to be trusted, and that the Japanese-American citizens of the United States were much the same. As such, they had resorted to establishing internment camps, or preventive labor prisons, so as to keep them in check and ostensibly to prevent further Japanese sabotage. However, the government’s actions were not fully justified, as several factors had interplayed into the circumstances that directly contradicted the intentions and visible results of the internment of the Japanese-Americans, in the social, political, economical, and cultural aspects. On the whole, the internment camps served as drastic measures which were not wholly without reasoning; contrarily, those factors in support of the internment camps did not override those which had gone against it, since the United States’ own legislation, in the form of the Constitution and other laws, had explicitly prevented the depriving of human rights, privileges, and pursuits, which had doubtless applied in light of the Japanese-Americans’ universal citizenship along the Pacific Coast in the early 1940s. As such, while the internment camps were not completely unjustified and without purpose from the viewpoint of the government, they did not align with standards of law and
On December 7,1941 Japan raided the airbases across the islands of Pearl Harbour. The “sneak attack” targeted the United States Navy. It left 2400 army personnel dead and over a thousand Americans wounded. U.S. Navy termed it as “one of the great defining moments in history”1 President Roosevelt called it as “A Day of Infamy”. 2 As this attack shook the nation and the Japanese Americans became the immediate ‘focal point’. At that moment approximately 112,000 Persons of Japanese descent resided in coastal areas of Oregon, Washington and also in California and Arizona.3
The Japanese-American author, Julie Otsuka, wrote the book When the Emperor was Divine. She shares her relative and all Japanese Americans life story while suffering during World War II, in internment camps. She shares with us how her family lived before, during, and after the war. She also shares how the government took away six years of Japanese-American lives, falsely accusing them of helping the enemy. She explains in great detail their lives during the internment camp, the barbed wired fences, the armed guards, and the harsh temperatures. When they returned home from the war they did not know what to believe anymore. Either the Americans, which imprisoned them falsely, or the emperor who they have been told constantly not to believe, for the past six years imprisoned. Japanese-Americans endured a great setback, because of what they experienced being locked away by their own government.
The people of Hawaii and other Pacific Island Nation groups have experienced great injustice from their colonial powers and the acts of imperialism. Lands were seized, cultural practices banned, language lost, and people were even forced to move away from their homes for the purpose of bomb testing. The United States and other countries abroad sent out representatives to do their work for them; in return their future actions would be justified in describing the Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as savages that need to have wider powers enforced upon them; thus resulting in a tangled web of political mythologies.
Some regard the atomic bomb as “the thank God for the atom bomb”. This places God on the U.S. side and regards the bombs as our saving grace. This bomb forced the Japanese to surrender which in turn proved the U.S. to be the heroes who saved the American’s lives.1 The Americans intended on ending the war but did not expect to end it with such a large number of casualties. The results of the atomic bomb and how it effected the Japanese people both emotionally and physically will be addressed. “The bombs marked both an end and a beginning—the end of an appalling global conflagration in which more than 50 million people were killed and the beginning of the nuclear arms race and a new world in which