Japanese Americans In The Crucible

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Americans were fearful of further Japanese attacks on the West Coast and also of Japanese Americans. In response to this fear, President Roosevelt passed an executive order relocating all people of Japanese descent from the West Coast inland. Similar to the fear of the American people, the witch hunts in the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller led people to believe that girls in the town were being bewitched. Mass hysteria caused multiple arrests for accusations and even death for the so called “witches”. The theme of fear in both the Crucible and the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII caused people to be easily persuaded with the use of pathos and logos.

In January 1953, the American playwright Arthur Miller debuted his new play “The Crucible” on Broadway in New York City. It tells the story of the speculative, baseless hysteria and witch trials that took place during the seventeenth century in the village of Salem, Massachusetts and the horrific calamity that ensued. It examines the haunting reality of a society based on rigid, religious customs, superstitious norms and how these can be used as a weapon and prey on people’s irrational fears.

The Crucible and the Japanese internment camps also have something in common, they both were caused by hysteria and greed. In both of these incidents, the people that were being accused were average citizens. The witches that were being accused were normal people whose only fault was not being liked by a fellow citizen. The accused Japanese were average American citizens like you and me; their only fault was

On the date of Feb 19, 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order. This executive order forced all Japanese American citizens, regardless of their loyalty to the country. It forced them to evacuate their homes and not just the Japanese Americans in a particular part of the country all Japanese Americans would be put into internment camps. At one point in time all of the camps combined held 120,000 Japanese Americans. This was all cause due to the fact that the Japanese Military at the time bombed Pearl Harbor an American Naval base in Hawaii.

The Japanese Americans were treated unfairly during their captivation in the internment camps. The attack on Pearl Harbor brought the US into the second World War making the Japanese people an easy target for hate and suspicion. The American government forced all Japanese Americans into internment camps that were extremely cramped and unsanitary. The anti-Japanese propaganda influenced by the raging war just outside America, fueled Americans with hatred and distrust towards these immigrants which in turn made the engagement of the Japanese people, as well as culture such an easy feat. The United States was launched into WWII on December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

Published in 1952, during a period of cold war tensions, which culminated in the ideological witch trials of the mcarthy era in America; The crucible by Arthure miller is set in 1692 during the witch trials in salem massachusetts. The author has used allegory to position the reader to draw parrelels betweeen the to time periods and critisize the persecution that occured in both eras. One of the main themes that Miller has used to portray this viewpoint is the representation of personal integrity. Integrity is the quality of having strong moral pronciples.This is acheived through strongly contrasted characterisation of characters such as Abigail williams and and Rebecca Nurse, aswell as the inclusion of textual features such as irony, symbolism

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald tells her tale of what life was like for her family when they were sent to internment camps in her memoir “Looking like the Enemy.” The book starts when Gruenewald is sixteen years old and her family just got news that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japan. After the bombing Gruenewald and her family life changed, they were forced to leave their home and go to internment camps meant for Japanese Americans. During the time Gruenewald was in imprisonment she dealt with the struggle for survival both physical and mental. This affected Gruenewald great that she would say to herself “Am I Japanese?

Furthermore, the United States should do more to compensate the families of those impacted by internment because the recompense provided initially was minimal and should be considered an affront to the memory of the victims. Prior to World War II, the 127,000 Japanese-Americans along America’s west coast (Japanese American Relocation and Internment Camps) were considered just another immigrant group coming to America searching for a better life. However, with the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, this perception soon saw a drastic change. The attack on the US Naval base on December 7th, 1941 left many casualties in its wake.

The military feared invasion, and to prepare the internment was a big step to the military’s demands. “The security of the Pacific Coast continues to require the exclusion of Japanese from the area now prohibited to them and will so continue as long as that military necessity exists”(DeWitt 1). As long as the military needs the exclusion of the Japanese, it will continue to happen. The military’s necessity is a very big priority.

Abstract Imagine not being able to walk outside at night or having to sell your possessions and abandon your home to spend years behind barbed wire—even though you’d done nothing wrong. For Japanese Americans during World War II, this scenario was reality. The freedom they once had is now gone, as they are put into concentration camps no longer in their home. Now having to line up for meals and to do laundry, thing you did before on a normal basis, while being hovered over. The internment of Japanese Americans in the U.S. was the act of forcing those of Japanese decent to relocation and incarcerating them during World War II.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a decision that would change the lives of Japanese-Americans on February 19, 1942, two months following the Japanese bombings on Pearl Harbor. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the internment of over 110,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry and resident immigrants from Japan1. Meaning that Japanese-Americans, regardless of their U.S. citizenship, were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses and then proceed to move to remote war relocation and internment camps run by the U.S. Government. The attack on Pearl Harbor had, unfortunately, released a wave of negativity, aggression and blatant racism that some of the Non-Japanese American citizens had been holding in up until the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

December 7th, 1941, the Japanese bombed the American naval base, Pearl Harbor. The occurrence of Pearl Harbor had depleted all trust between the two races. America’s response, conducted by President Theodore Roosevelt, lead to the interment of all Japanese-Americans. The first hand account Farewell to Manzanar written by Jeanne Wakatsuki, created a vivid illustration of what life was like being a young interned Japanese-American. In more detail, the struggles they were faced with after Manzanar were far greater ultimatums her and her family begrudgingly had to overcome.

It ties into explore by the government making the decision of signing Executive Order 9066. The government explored new ways of keeping any Japanese spies contained in internment campss. After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese experienced racism and exclusion of other people. Signs were put on stores and neighborhoods saying, “No Japs!” Also, military was encountered on a daily basis for the Japanese while in internment camp.

As opposed to righteous view that America was safeguarding its position in the war, the Japanese American internments were created out of resentment and racial prejudice fostered by other Americans. As the article “Personal Justice Denied” stated, the internments were led by “widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan” (Doc E, 1983). It may seem like a precautionary cause to make internments but there aren’t any other extreme measures for other fronts. Caused by a hatred stirred by media and society’s view, many people disdain the Japanese.

The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.