The early 1940’s presented to be a harsh and terrifying time for any Japanese American living on the Pacific coast. The attack at Pearl Harbor brought forth a future so disheartening for Japanese Americans that many have called a nightmare, even ones who had pledged their loyalty to the United States were not spared. During a time such as this it didn’t matter where a Japanese heart lied, all the Americans looked for was the cold face they displayed to the world. Japanese Americans were treated unfairly by being placed in the internment camps; however, their experience was not always completely treacherous. While the Japanese did retain some freedoms, these troubling times affected many Japanese American generations to come. Although these
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There were watchtowers up everywhere and a large barb wired fence around the entire camp that killed any hope the Japanese once had of freedom. Chosen for their remoteness, the camps were located in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Arkansas, and California. The camps mirrored a military set up since the internees were sleeping in barracks, there was no supply of running water, they ate their meals in mess halls, and they disposed of their waste in public. Fujiko in Snow Falling on Cedars, specifically experienced the haunting discomforts of having to eat the awful food at an internment camp and then rid herself of her wastes. If the idea of using the bathroom in front of a line of waiting people wasn’t horrifying enough then the bathrooms themselves were, where “Inside they found a film of excrement on the floor and damp, stained tissue paper everywhere. All twelve toilets, six back-to-back pairs, were filled up near to overflowing” (Guterson 219). This was not the only unpleasantry of the camp though, many Japanese suffered a fate of death that guards were hardly ever scolded for, even if they killed someone without explainable reason. Although physical treatment of the internees was a rarity, the armed guards and snipers always pointing down at them from the watchtowers reminded them of their new destitute
There were watchtowers up everywhere and a large barb wired fence around the entire camp that killed any hope the Japanese once had of freedom. Chosen for their remoteness, the camps were located in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Arkansas, and California. The camps mirrored a military set up since the internees were sleeping in barracks, there was no supply of running water, they ate their meals in mess halls, and they disposed of their waste in public. Fujiko in Snow Falling on Cedars, specifically experienced the haunting discomforts of having to eat the awful food at an internment camp and then rid herself of her wastes. If the idea of using the bathroom in front of a line of waiting people wasn’t horrifying enough then the bathrooms themselves were, where “Inside they found a film of excrement on the floor and damp, stained tissue paper everywhere. All twelve toilets, six back-to-back pairs, were filled up near to overflowing” (Guterson 219). This was not the only unpleasantry of the camp though, many Japanese suffered a fate of death that guards were hardly ever scolded for, even if they killed someone without explainable reason. Although physical treatment of the internees was a rarity, the armed guards and snipers always pointing down at them from the watchtowers reminded them of their new destitute