"Letters to Memory" by Karen Tei Yamashita is a book that expresses one of the horrific historic moments in the lives of Japanese Americans. The book is concentrated on events leading to the incarceration of many Japanese Americans based on being related to Japan. The cruelty faced by the Japanese Americans came a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese authorities. As a result, the Japanese Americans in America had to pay for the sins committed by their native country. At the helm of the presidency was President Franklin Roosevelt, who ensured that he incarcerated a considerable number of Japanese Americans, especially in areas like Hawaii. Yamashita seeks to explore the historical events that took place during World War II, pitting the innocent Japanese Americans and the American authorities. I agree that Yamashita's book is effective in communicating her larger purpose of shedding more light on the internment camps. My agreement is based on her utilization of personal, cultural, and historical information to achieve her objective of exploring the internment camps.
The Use of Personal Information
Yamashita utilizes the story of her extended family to provide evidence on the internment camps' cruelty. While the history of her family helps to get insight into what befell the Japanese American society in the early 1940s, Yamashita effectively utilizes the information to get the reader involved in her piece of information. Yamashita explains how her father and family lost freedom in what they knew as their homeland. The injustices that were orchestrated against the Japanese American society left many of them with no hope as their properties were taken away by the American authorities. “ The letters over many years were the necessary fabric that wove the Yamashita family together. They reveal an intense assumption of blood connection and loyalty but also the necessity of making it in the world independently." Yamashita relishes the connection that existed between her family and was threatened by the barbaric acts of that moment. The internment is described as a prison where an individual did not have any freedom. They were subjected to prison-like treatment as malicious accusations were laid against them.
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Cultural Information
Yamashita does not relent to prove the cruelty of the American authorities at that time against the Japanese Americans. She goes on to employ critical cultural information to expand on how the Japanese Americans faced rejection and humiliation in the hands of the American authorities. "Kiyo stood in the rain for several hours with her baby in front of the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, waiting with the rest of the Yamashita's, and every other Japanese American in Alameda County, to board buses en route to a "relocation center." Her family was religious, as expressed by the culture they adored. Her priestly father was not spared either in the internment process. Yamashita relates the experience that her family and other Japanese American society underwent. In this context, they wait to board a bus that would take them to relocation centers. The relocation centers were established in the interior Arkansas and Utah, where the environment was inhumane. The relocated Japanese Americans had to sleep in filthy places such as in the cowsheds. These conditions prove that indeed, the internment camps were hostile, and the internees went through a hard time.
Historical Information
Yamashita is effective when using historical information to aid a deep understanding of the internment camps that housed the Japanese Americans. “They were housed in a series of empty horse stalls named Barrack 14. This was just the first stop; from Tanforan, they would be transported by train into the Utah desert to live in a concentration camp named Topaz." Yet, this piece of information by Yamashita points out in a historical context what befell her family. The internment camps were surrounded by barbed wire, and no internee was supposed to near the edge of the camps. Their movement was restricted, and any attempt to escape was met by shooting that left many Japanese Americans dead. It is due to the hostility experienced in the internment camps that caused the deaths of thousands of Japanese Americans. This is because the internment camps did not have medical facilities as the internees became vulnerable to diseases like tuberculosis. This further confirms that, indeed, the internment camps were not meant to support healthy lives but to harm the internees.
Conclusion
Conclusively, Yamashita is very effective in the way she puts across the message about what transpired during World War II. This is evident in what she employs to describe the conditions of the internment camps. Yamashita utilizes the aspects of personal, cultural, and historical information to relate to the environment of the internment camps. Thus, she effectively achieves in shedding more light on the internment camps.
Reference
Yamashita, K. T. (2017). Letters to memory . Coffee House Press.
