“That night, as I tumbled into bed, I kept thinking how we could ever survive in such a place and how dusty soil could be made into fertile fields” (Chiyoko Morita). People like Chiyoko Morita were taken from their homeland and placed in relocation centers and internment camps by the American government during World War II. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, several people began to believe Japanese people living in the U.S. aided Japan in attacking the naval base. To prevent possible espionage on American shores, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that placed Japanese people living in the U.S. into relocation centers and internment camps. In several of these centers, Japanese people suffered from deplorable treatment, food shortages, substandard sanitation, and violence.
Farewell to Manzanar, a historical nonfiction book written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, describes the hardships Houston experienced before, during, and after the isolated Japanese internment camps in California. In addition, Marielle Tsukamoto, a Japanese American who was placed in internment camps in California at a young age, was interviewed by Tellingstories.org about how her life was impacted by Pearl Harbor and the camps. Joanne Oppenheim’s historical nonfiction book, Dear Miss Breed, is filled with true stories of Japanese incarceration and includes letters that children wrote to a librarian, Miss Breed. The best reaction from people experiencing chaotic events, such as life within relocation centers and internment camps, best reacted to their situation by promoting optimism and helping each other endure hardships. During the time they spent in the internment camps, the Japanese Americans pushed through their struggles by remaining optimistic, which influenced others to adopt this positive attitude.
Even several years after the day she left her home in Florin, California with her family, Marielle Tsukamoto remembers watching her grandmother cry because she believed their family would not come back to their cherished home; Tsukamoto went up to her grandmother and reassured her that they “… would come back, that she would see her roses again. And everything would be okay” (Tellingstories.org). Although no one knew what would happen next and she feared what her family’s future held, Marielle Tsukamoto maintained her optimistic thoughts to help lift her family’s spirits. Tsukamoto also tried convincing her family that everything would end decently after their time in the camps was over because she did not want her family to worry more than they already did. While traveling to another internment camp, Louise Ogawa, another Japanese American relocated by the U.S. government after Pearl Harbor, focused on “…the wonderful work of nature. Her delicate work in shaping the stone mountains, the beautiful coloring of the surroundings- it seemed as if [she] was looking at the picture or a painting of a genius” (Oppenheim 21).
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As she explained in her letter, Ogawa admired nature’s divine creation of the Arizona landscape from behind the windows of a train as she was heading to the isolated camp far from civilization. Ogawa focused on experiencing new events that she might have never experienced if she had not been relocated; this helped her to find motivation to survive and thrive in the new center. Even after the several hours spent in the scorching Arizona sun, Louise Ogawa’s optimism shone through the negative aspects of her trip to the new relocation center. Another way people reacted positively to their situation was by helping others in need within their relocation center or internment camp. When Jeanne Wakatsuki and her mother approached an old woman and “…the vacant bowl, she and the old woman bowed to each other from the waist.
Mama then moved to help her with the carton, and the woman said very graciously, in Japanese, ‘Would you like to use it?’ Happily, gratefully, Mama bowed again and said, ‘Arigato’ (Thank you). ‘Arigato gozaimas’ (Thank you very much)” (Houston 32). Since the internment camps had been built in such haste, the latrines within the lavatories had been built so close together that people did not receive any privacy; as a result, several people began to use cardboard to give themselves some seclusion. The old woman lending the nervous mother and daughter her cardboard to use as a partition benefited the Japanese community within the internment camps by creating connections. This act of kindness influenced others within the camp to look after and aide one another in uncomfortable situations later on. In several other camps, like Marielle Tsukamoto’s, the government could not “…afford to feed [them] anymore.
So, people like [her] father said, ‘We’re farmers, give us some land!’ So, they started cultivating the land around the area, and raising chickens and hogs” (Tellingstories.org). Instead of rioting against the government for being unable to provide them the basic necessities to live, people in the internment camps chose to solve the problem on their own. Although they were frustrated, they could have also felt joy because they were doing something that they did before their property was taken from them, bringing back old memories. Not only did they provide for themselves, they provided for the community, making stronger connections with the camps and centers. Throughout their time of incarceration, Japanese Americans relied on their optimism and assistance from others to propel their motivation to live.
People like Louise Ogawa were ecstatic about minor events within the centers because of the way they chose to interpret it; they eliminated their desperation by focusing on the positive outcomes from the internment camps. People in camps like Marielle Tsukamoto’s and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s brought communities closer by providing things that the government could not supply for them; this built trust and revealed their care for people in similar situations as them. Although some did not return to the comfort of their home, the Japanese Americans moved forward with beneficial skills developed during their captivity, and proved that fertile fields could be created from dusty soil.
