Freedom in a Cage

"A day which will live in infamy"

-President Franklin D. Roosevelt

            

            I'm sure that we have all heard those words at some point or another in our lives. They of course refer to the 7th of December, 1941; the day on which the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the Pearl Harbour Naval base, ending American isolationism from conflicts abroad, and ultimately pitting us in a bloody 4 year war against the Axis powers of Europe, Italy and Japan. The world indeed changed in that span of time, affecting people's lives both home and abroad. However, for some of those at home, the effects were felt a bit more strongly than others.

             In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbour, President Roosevelt signed into action an order unthinkable by today's standards: Executive Order 9066. Signed in early 1942, the overall purpose of the act was to take all persons of Japanese descent in America and place them in internment camps for the duration of the war; an incredibly unjust act, but one in which Japanese Americans were without choice to follow. Forced from their established homes and livelihoods, they soon found themselves transported to various wired off compounds across the nation, made to live in 20'x25' so-called 'apartments' where both space and privacy were all but non-existent. What followed as a result of these new living arrangements were strained family lives where traditional practices and customs slowly disappeared, bringing a sort of freedom to some, and a loss of control to others.

             Those who gained freedoms in the camp were the women and children, with those who found themselves losing power to be the camp men. For Issei women, traditional family structure meant staying inside the house and tending to family needs such as cooking and cleaning. Camp life, however, meant a bit of an escape from those duties. With communal meals and barracks without running water or kitchen spaces, Issei women found themselves able to step outside the realm of home maker, and engage in a social life amongst other women. Additionally, Issei women could find work in the camp work corps or take day classes -activities and pursuits 'unavailable' to them back before the war. For Nisei children, freedoms manifested themselves in detachment from parents. Where tradition was such that families would share a meal together, in many instances Nisei children would eat with friends instead. Furthermore, being with friends and socialising more often entailed that Nisei women were free to find love with whomever they wished –a departure from traditional arranged marriages.  But while women and children found themselves freer to do things, this meant a loss of control for Issei men. Effectively stripped of their titles as the family breadwinner, feelings of uselessness and despair took over for many men as they struggled to cope with their family’s loss of dependency.

             It should be noted that none of the above is intended to justify the actions of the US government. Rather, it is to inform of changes that occurred in the dynamics of many Japanese families as a result of internment camps. Indeed, despite certain improvements –or shall we simply say ‘changes’- to family structure, the years of internment took their toll on the worse as they also did the better. For Issei women, independence came at the cost of their positions as ‘household queens’, for which many missed being, and struggled to regain postwar. Issei men sometimes turned violent and abusive after the war in trying to reestablish their own roles as household kings. Lastly, with Nisei sons and daughters being able to vote due to their citizenship and US education, parental authority saw erosion stemming from children being able to earn more than their folks; the higher incomes creating views of inferiority placed upon Issei men and women.

Overall, internment camps saw a change in the structure of Japanese families. It is debatable whether or not such changes were all positive –some certainly weren’t- but nevertheless such changes occurred as a result of World War Two homeland internment, and are truly worth noting in our understanding of Asian American history.