Involvement of Press, Documentary, and Propaganda in the Japanese American. Internment during World War II

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1 Wong 1 Kerri Wong Mrs. Benton Honors World Literature 1A 05 November 2013 Involvement of Press, Documentary, and Propaganda in the Japanese American Internment during World War II The interment of the Japanese Americans during World War II illustrates the significant influence of the press in the engineering of the internment camps. Although the racist hate of the Japanese population began far before the start of World War II, the number of those who did not trust in the Japanese citizens skyrocketed because most Americans supported the Allied Powers and not the Axis Powers, though the United States remained neutral and isolated for the first part of the war. However, this distrust and spite for the Japanese did not appear in the media often; instead, the press largely stayed largely optimistic of its citizens loyalties to the United States. Though the press had an initial bright approach, the articles that newspapers printed out changed significantly as a blanket of panic spread over the United States. The changes in the attitude of the American press before the war significantly affected the internment of Japanese Americans, as well as the propaganda spread and the documentations of the internment camps during the war. The Japanese flooded into America California, namely during the turn of the century for job opportunities, where Japanese population stayed at about 72,000 people. This inpour created many arduous acts that significantly made it harder for the Japanese to flourish and migrate to America (Bearden 330). The hate for the Japanese grew during World War II, when the American public began to doubt the loyalty of the Japanese population. Columns like Hearst s and the ones published in the Los

2 Wong 2 Angeles Times, which fabricated tales like the yellow peril made the hatred grow. The yellow peril tales, which originated in the late 19 th century, re-emerged after World War II started, detailing stories about Japan taking over China and invading the west coast of America with a million and some men (Okihiro and Sly 66). Not surprisingly, these articles about the Japanese did not improve their standing. On December 7 th, 1941, America was thrown into a chaos of confusion. The attack on Pearl Harbor had any stripped false sense of security from them, and panic spread quickly across the nation. In the first four weeks after the attack, most newspapers refrained from spouting any hate, instead continuing to look overwhelmingly encouragingly in favor of the Nisei and Sansei, the Japanese citizens born in America and the children of the Nisei (Bearden 331). However, this outlook took an abrupt turnaround about six weeks after the attack, with a noticeable shift [in behavior] in nearly every paper (Okihiro, and Sly 69). The Los Angeles Times has the clearest show of this shift in sentiment. On January 3, 1942, they published that America s Japanese are fully loyal and deserve sympathy rather than suspicion (Okihiro and Sly 69); five days later, editorials urged for their immediate removal from the most acute danger spots (Okihiro and Sly 70). This evacuation was actually a forced migration, caused from the panic of the Pearl Harbor attack. Okihiro and Sly also explore the change in sentiment with the San Francisco Chronicle, which had been arguing for the Japanese Americans rights up until February 9 th, before changing their stance merely two days after the Executive Order 9006 issued on February 19, 1942 (69). The EO 9006, issued by President Frank Roosevelt, called for the evacuation of the all Japanese Issei, Nisei, Kibei, and Sansei off the west coast. This law resulted in the forced removal of some 110,000 people of Japanese descent, of which

3 Wong 3 three-quarters were American citizens, out of states including California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington (Smith 71). This order was justified by the military as a precaution, giving the army authority to establish zones from which citizens and aliens alike might be removed by military command (Starn 700). This mandate was largely directed at Japanese Americans, though it could actually been applied to anyone (Olowu and Oluwu 190). The EO 9006 was triggered indirectly from the sudden racial animosity from the press towards the Japanese Americans, with most of the hate coming mainly from the west coast. Japanese were given 48 hours to evacuate their homes and to go on the train, which took them to an internment camp somewhere desolate and cut off. The press almost glorified these camps, noting their excellent conditions, their healthy hygiene, and great schooling (Starn 700). National Japanese American Citizens League Power of Words Committee states that euphemisms were often used for the benefit of the public: internment instead of incarceration, evacuation instead of forced removal, civilian exclusion centers instead of detention centers, etc. (12). Camps were seen as where the loyal Japanese needed to go to prove their loyalty while also seen as where the disloyal should go to keep the general population from harm, making it impossible to escape internment. This propaganda helped raise even more support for the internment camps. Additionally, the portrayal of the Japanese Americans in the camps emitted a bright and cheery outlook; the internees nearly always were illustrated as happy in their surroundings. In fact, two photographers (Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange) hired to document the process were given specific instructions to show no images of barbed wire, no visible fences or guard towers, and no photographs of resistance (Smith 71). Such censorship is often associated with discrimination; censorships of all kinds were displayed throughout the wartime. However, the two photographers were

4 Wong 4 resistant to the internment overall (Starn 700), though Lange showed her resistance much more than Adams, as shown by the amount of subtle distress in all her photographs, differing from the optimistic outlook on Adams pictures (Smith 72-73). In the 760 photographs that Lange took, very few actually made it out to the American public because they captured the bewilderment and grief of the internees, showing the immense but undetected censorship of the government. The restriction of certain parts the documentaries and the euphemisms in the media during the war affected their lives tremendously after the war; the press also contributed a delicate but large influence in the internment of the people of Japanese descent, as shown by the pacification of the public during internment, the racial hate that started internment, and the portrayal of events that led up to internment. Throughout the entire war, the Japanese American s rights were being ignored, evident through the relocation and internment. Their responsibilities to their communities were also lost through the war, due to the public s and government s paranoia.

5 Wong 5 Works Cited Bearden, Russell. The False Rumor of Tuesday: Arkansas s Internment of Japanese- Americans The Arkansas Quarterly, 41.4 (1982): Print. < National JACL Power of Words II Committee. A Guide to Language about Japanese Americans in World War II: Understanding Euphemisms and Preferred Terminology. Power of Words. (2012): Print. < Okihiro, Gary, and Julie Sly. "The Press, Japanese Americans, and the Concentration Camps." Phylon (1983): Print. < >. Olowu, Dejo, and Oluwu, D. "Civil Liberties versus military necessity: Lessons from the jurisprudence emanating from the classification and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II." Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa (2010): Print. < Smith, Christina. "Theorizing Circulation in Visual Rhetoric Through Dorothea Lange." Journal of Visual Literacy (Fall 2012): Print. < Starn, Orin. "Engineering Internment: Anthropologists and the War Relocation Authority." American Anthropological Association, Wiley (Nov., 1986): Print. <

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