Yoshiko Uchida Análisis

The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family

Part of the discrimination anecdotes that Japanese-Americans experienced during World War II are revealed in the narrative of the life of Yoshiko Uchida. For instances, the life of all Japanese-Americans living in the United States was quite normal in quotes. The way how things were back in the day for other races different from whites were certainlydifficult. When I said that lives for Japanese-Americans was normal I mean that on her everyday life they were discriminated as well as other different races. Even though they were a peaceful race with the only willing of working inside of the United States they had to deal with all kinds of discrimination. It is important to note that most Japanese-Americans were citizens of the United States.This means that they had the same rights that all american citizens have. In fact they deal with the normal levels of racism and discrimination but only before the Japanese empire's attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack, by the Japanese forces, changed everything not only on the perception that people had about Japanese-Americans but now they were considered “dangerous enemy aliens” (p. 79). Beforethis event had happened Japanese-Americans had adapted to all circumstances they had in front. Uchida's family, was a privilege family in contrast with the majority of Japanese families living in the west coast at that time because Dwight Takashi Uchida father of Yoshiko worked for the San Francisco branch of Mitsui and Company which was one of the major import-export firms. They did not suffererthe same way as other japanese did but at the moment Pearl Harbor was attacked they were all treated the same. Every Japanese-American regardless that a large proportion of them were citizens of the United States lost their rights as human beings and also their constitutional rights. Now that we know this, I would like to emphasize more deeply on the following four aspects described in thenarrative of the life of Yoshiko Uchida which are discrimination, patriotism, family and violence
Discrimination has always been a major concern in the history of the United States as it happened on an unfairly way for all Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. The majority of the Japanese-Americans that live in the country before the war broke out belonged to the second generation of Japanesecalled Nisei that means that they were borne in the United States. This fact didn't prevent them to be discriminated by people from their same country before the war and also by the government during the war. An example that I would like to cite about of discrimination before the war started is when Yoshiko's parents rented a house in Oakland. Three men who represent “The Saint Fe ImprovementAssociation” (p. 4) tried to kick the family out from the neighborhood without a justifiable reason. They only argued that they represent other members of the association. We have to use few common sense to realize why these men wanted the family to move back from the neighborhood. Yoshiko even said that '”The realtors of the area had drawn an invisible line through the city and agreed among themselvesnot to rent or sell homes above that line to Asians” (p. 3-4). I would like to mention that Japanese-Americans were also discriminated by their social status. When the war started some men were pulled away from their homes instantly and sent to concentration camps different from the ones where the majority of Japanese were sent later on. The father of Yoshiko was sent to one of these camps inMontana. He was one of the few people released early from the camp and sent to the “Assembly Centers” how the United States government called them in order to met his family (p. 52). He was early released probably and even Yoshiko said it too because “his father was a retired men from Mitsui, his good record of public and community service, and more important the affidavits from his friends” (p....