No-No Boy Theme
No-No Boy is a novel published by Japanese American writer John Okada. It tells the story of Ichiro, a Japanese American male who returns to Seattle after serving two years in prison for refusing to fight for the United States in World War II. Ichiro is identified as a no-no boy, a male who answered “no” to questions 27 and 28 on a loyalty questionnaire, which asked if the respondent was willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States and if they pledged allegiance to the United States of America. In response to this, Ichiro opts out of joining the war and is sent to two years in prison for the decision that he makes. Once Ichiro is released, he is left wondering if he had truly made the right decision at all. Ichiro carries with …show more content…
The theme of freedom is presented as a paradox, allowing Ichiro to roam free after serving his two years in prison, yet having him carry the weight of his decision and being ostracized from his own community for being a no-no boy. A quote that l felt really exemplified this, was when Ichiro stated, “Why is it that, in my freedom, l feel more imprisoned in the wrongness of myself and the thing l did than when l was in prison? Am I really never to know again what it is to be American?” Despite the physicality of being free, Ichiro struggles to live with the punishment of being trapped between two nations. This ironic freedom can also be related back to the court case of Korematsu v. United States (1944). In this case, the petitioner, an American citizen of Japanese descent, is convicted in a federal district court for violating two conflicting orders, Presidential Executive Order 90066 and Order No. 34. According to Korematsu v. United States (1944) “The two conflicting orders, one which commanded him to stay and the other which commanded him to go, were nothing but a cleverly devised trap to accomplish the real purpose of the military authority, which was to lock him up in a concentration camp.” Therefore, the petitioner is trapped into not being able to do anything, and by choosing to do nothing, he is punished for it. In a similar manner, Ichiro is trapped in his own freedom, not knowing how to act now that he is a free man (physically) but is still seen as an enemy of the country no matter where he goes. Ichiro’s freedom is disturbed by the ideologies of his mother, who believes that Japan won the war and has this Sojourner mentality that the Japanese ships will come back for them and that they will return back to their
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574 Words | 3 Pages“If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don't be afraid to speak up ”(Fred Korematsu). In 1941 The Pearl Harbor was bombed, America was in fear. A year later, February 19, 1942 President Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 which brought out the internment camps for Japanese Americans. In 1944, Korematsu spoke up for his rights as a Japanese- American citizen and he fought against the government. Fred Korematsu took a stand against the United States government for his rights by resisting arrest and placement into internment camps, and these actions resulted in a huge court case where he was accused guilty, though Korematsu lost, he should have been justified to evade the executive order.
Farewell To Manzanar And Unbroken
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Literary Analysis: Exploring American Identity
906 Words | 4 PagesThe young girl is prevented from entering the church where her grandmother has prayers. As a person from the old world, the young girl is not allowed to play with boys from the new world. On the other hand, “in response to executive order” by Dwight Okita is about Americans of Japanese origins that were supposed to report to relocation
Franklin D Roosevelt Japanese Internment Camp
566 Words | 3 PagesOrder No. 9066, 7 C.F.R. 1407 (1942). Retrieved from http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/fdrrelocation1942.html Shaffer, R. (1999). Opposition to internment: Defending Japanese American rights during World War II. The Historian, 61(3), 597–619. Trowbridge, D. J. (2016).
Summary Of Mary Matsuda Gruenewald's Looking Like The Enemy
1284 Words | 6 PagesMary 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?
Essay On Japanese-American Internment
747 Words | 3 PagesThis was brought up in 1944 by the Korematsu v. United States case. This was a case between the United States Supreme Court and Fred Korematsu. Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was an American civil rights activist who objected to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. This case was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. They found Korematsu guilty of the fact that he was giving President Roosevelt inaccurate information about the Japanese-American citizens.
Looking Like The Enemy Analysis
1010 Words | 5 PagesFamily #19788 The memoir Looking like the Enemy, was written by Mary Matsuda Gruenewald. Set during World War II after the attack upon Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Americans living in Western part of America had a since of betrayal and fear having to evacuate their homes and enter into internment camps.
Japanese Internment Camps In America Essay
818 Words | 4 PagesIn the Anonymous Letter to Attorney General Biddle, the person brings up specific reasons how the violation of rights occurred. “In the case of the Nisei it is a complete abrogation of American citizen’s rights… As for the Issei—by what right do we discriminate against them as aliens when we won’t allow them to become citizens?” (Anonymous, March 16, 1942). This quote questions the justification the U.S. government used to lock up the Japanese Americans.
The Color White In When The Emperor Was Divine
916 Words | 4 PagesEvery day people risk their lives immigrating to America in pursuit of opportunity, equality, and prosperity. Yet this “American Dream” remains but a dream for many. Non-white immigrants in America are discriminated against, ignored, and often not considered a “true” American. These racial injustices took root long ago, yet are very much alive today. Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor Was Divine*, depicts the harsh reality of Executive Order 9066 (1942) on the interned Japanese Americans during World War II by focusing specifically on one family.
Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter Sweet Character Analysis
743 Words | 3 PagesInstead of basing it around a Japanese internee, the author chooses Henry as the main character to give a different viewpoint than that of the Japanese victims. By using Henry’s perspective, the author skillfully depicts
The Pros And Cons Of Japanese Internment
1699 Words | 7 PagesHow would you feel if one day you were told to leave your whole life behind to live in captivity just because people halfway across the world did something wrong? This horror story was all too true for the thousands of Japanese Americans alive during World War II. Almost overnight, thousands of proud Japanese Americans living on the west coast were forced to leave their homes and give up the life they knew. The United States government was not justified in the creation of Japanese internment camps because it stripped law-abiding American citizens of their rights out of unjustified fear.
Japanese Relocation Dbq
1045 Words | 5 PagesJapanese Relocation The relocation and internment of the Japanese in America is often seen as one of our nation's greatest mistakes. For many, the quest is to now understand why we committed such an atrocious act. The most common explanations include racist attitudes, military ‘necessity’, and economic reasons. Japanese relocation was a disgracefully racist act that the Government of the U.S committed, an act that was virtually unnecessary and unjustified.
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257 Words | 2 PagesOne reason why the U.S government’s decision was not justifiable is because many of the Japanese-Americans were innocent people who legally received their American citizenship. For example, in Monica Sone’s “Camp Harmony”,
Racism In Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine
536 Words | 3 PagesThe boy’s description of the Japanese prisoners shows that he’s assimilated the prevalent racist beliefs about Japanese people. Using racially insensitive language, the boy expresses the stereotype that “all Asian people look alike.” Additionally, their perceived “inscrutability” was the exact reason why the U.S. government locked up innocent Japanese Americans citizens in the first place. According to Otsuka (2003), "On the first day of the camp, the mother tells him to never touch the fences and to never to say the Emperor’s name aloud".
Then Came The War By Clark Kochiyama Analysis
338 Words | 2 PagesYuri Kochiyama is a Japanese-American civil rights activist, and author of “Then Came the War” in which she describes her experience in the detention camps while the war goes on. December 7th, is when Kochiyama life began to change from having the bombing in Pearl Harbor to having her father taken away by the FBI. All fishing men who were close to the coast were arrested and sent into detention camps that were located in Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota. Kochiyama’s father had just gotten out of surgery before he was arrested and from all the movement he’d been doing, he begun to get sick. Close to seeing death actually, until the authorities finally let him be hospitalized.
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