The 1940’s represented a time of growth and change in the United States, fueled by World War II. War broke out between countries and trust became an issue in some of those countries. The United States started to look at the Japanese different after Pearl Harbor. Anti-Japanese paranoia increased because of a large Japanese presence on the West Coast. Due to all of this paranoia, the United States created Japanese Internment camps. Japanese Internment camps incarcerated more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans in camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards. These camps now reflect a hard and regretful time in US history. Many books and movies were created about this. One notable book describing how life was being a Japanese-American is The Hotel
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Young and unbiased, Henry soon meets a young Japanese-American girl named Keiko. Keiko considers herself American and cannot even speak Japanese. Both characters begin working together at the elementary school they attend and start to build a friendship. Henry starts to stand up for Keiko against bullies such as Chaz Preston and starts building up feelings for Keiko. However, Keiko is considered Japanese and Henry cannot tell his parents of his friendship. Henry’s parents soon figure out of the relationship due to Henry hiding Keiko’s photos in his house. Henry still hangs out with Keiko and starts to fall in love. Keiko then goes away to a Japanese Internment Camp and Henry ends up losing contact with her due to his dad intervening and stopping the letters Henry writes to Keiko. Throughout the story, Chaz Preston and Henry are enemies. Chaz is an ignorant, racist kid whose actions soon turn criminal. Henry is a kind, nice kid who sees everybody as the same. Because Chaz and Henry are different ethnicities, have different social roles, and come from a different culture their viewpoints of Japanese and Japanese-Americans are …show more content…
The 1940’s in the United States marked a time of paranoia and mistrust with minorities. Pearl Harbor scared the United States and the majority of Americans looked at all of the Japanese population as villains. Chaz represents one of the many paranoid Americans that did not like the Japanese. Chaz’s behavior can be described immature and arrogant, clearly learned from his dad, a real estate developer who swoops in and purchases properties vacated by interned Japanese. Chaz learns racism from his father who claims he does it for his “business” and bullies Keiko and Henry. Later on in the story Chaz gets arrested for vandalizing one of the Japanese internment camps. In the story, it says "While Denny stood on the corner, painting ‘Go Home Japs!’ over American flags posted on store windows. "I told you he was a Jap on the inside!" Henry knew the voice. Turning around, he saw Chaz. Crowbar in one hand, and a wadded-up poster of an American flag in his other. A different kind of flag duty, Henry thought." (Ford 99). Chaz learns his behavior from his low-life, racist dad that does not notice his actions created a racist, vandalizing ignorant kid. Henry’s dad instructs Henry to only speak English in the house and sends him to an all -American school instead of the school that all the of the Japanese-Americans, and Chinese kids attended. That’s where Henry meets Keiko and even Henry's initial attitudes toward Keiko are
Young and unbiased, Henry soon meets a young Japanese-American girl named Keiko. Keiko considers herself American and cannot even speak Japanese. Both characters begin working together at the elementary school they attend and start to build a friendship. Henry starts to stand up for Keiko against bullies such as Chaz Preston and starts building up feelings for Keiko. However, Keiko is considered Japanese and Henry cannot tell his parents of his friendship. Henry’s parents soon figure out of the relationship due to Henry hiding Keiko’s photos in his house. Henry still hangs out with Keiko and starts to fall in love. Keiko then goes away to a Japanese Internment Camp and Henry ends up losing contact with her due to his dad intervening and stopping the letters Henry writes to Keiko. Throughout the story, Chaz Preston and Henry are enemies. Chaz is an ignorant, racist kid whose actions soon turn criminal. Henry is a kind, nice kid who sees everybody as the same. Because Chaz and Henry are different ethnicities, have different social roles, and come from a different culture their viewpoints of Japanese and Japanese-Americans are …show more content…
The 1940’s in the United States marked a time of paranoia and mistrust with minorities. Pearl Harbor scared the United States and the majority of Americans looked at all of the Japanese population as villains. Chaz represents one of the many paranoid Americans that did not like the Japanese. Chaz’s behavior can be described immature and arrogant, clearly learned from his dad, a real estate developer who swoops in and purchases properties vacated by interned Japanese. Chaz learns racism from his father who claims he does it for his “business” and bullies Keiko and Henry. Later on in the story Chaz gets arrested for vandalizing one of the Japanese internment camps. In the story, it says "While Denny stood on the corner, painting ‘Go Home Japs!’ over American flags posted on store windows. "I told you he was a Jap on the inside!" Henry knew the voice. Turning around, he saw Chaz. Crowbar in one hand, and a wadded-up poster of an American flag in his other. A different kind of flag duty, Henry thought." (Ford 99). Chaz learns his behavior from his low-life, racist dad that does not notice his actions created a racist, vandalizing ignorant kid. Henry’s dad instructs Henry to only speak English in the house and sends him to an all -American school instead of the school that all the of the Japanese-Americans, and Chinese kids attended. That’s where Henry meets Keiko and even Henry's initial attitudes toward Keiko are