Dale Parsons

Americanization
Throughout American history immigration has always been an ongoing
event. It started in the beginning of the country with our forefather and
continues even to this very day. While every group that has immigrated to
the United States has experienced challenges and difficulties none faced
more challenges than the Japanese immigrant that immigrated before World
War II and lived in the United States during that tumultuous time. Unlike
other immigrants the Japanese experienced irrational marginalization by
being thrown into internment camps. Along with being sent to internment
camps they were stripped of their possessions, pride, and personal rights
mainly due to the public fear towards Japanese immigrants. This alone was
more difficult and an harsher marginalization than any other group that
immigrated to the United States received.
The Japanese are a culturally rich people that come from a country that
is the size of California. An important part of their identity is their food which
consists of white rice and soy products. The main religion of the Japanese is
Buddhism and this showed to be true upon the immigration to the United
States. The reason for the sudden influx of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii
and the United States was the Change that Japan underwent by becoming a
modern power. Part of this change included the taxing on land value, which
caused the loss of land by hundreds of thousands of Japanese Farmers.

(Americanization169) This was the key factor for the sudden imburst of
Japanese immigrants who saw job opportunity on the plantations of Hawaii
during the mid to late 1800s with the departure of many Chinese
immigrants.
With the sudden flux of immigration of Japanese citizens to United
States territories (mainly Hawaii and the West Coast) many Americans were
hesitant to accept the incoming group, because of recent experiences they
had had with prior Asian migration groups such as the Chinese. A great
example of this uneasy feeling towards Asian immigrants was the banning of
Chinese immigrants in 1882.(Everyculture.com/Efforts to ban Japanese
immigrants) The beginning of this marginalization unfortunately continued
when the Japanese migrated over to the United States and unfortunately
only worsened. The climax of Japanese marginalization happened after the
bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan. Because of fear for national security the
United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed executive order 9066
which involved the Japanese relocation to internment camps during the War.
(Everyculture.com/WARTIME INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS) Upon
being relocated Japanese American citizens only had 1 week to pack goods
and necessities. This not only violated their personal rights as citizens
(especially their personal right to the 4th amendment), but it also showed the
fear the American public had for Japanese Americans. The majority of them
were not given a court of trial or even the chance to appeal their relocation.

This goes to show that the relocation act was done in an unconstitutional
way and was due to American fear.
This fear had not been seen with any other group in the United States
that migrated here. For example the Irish faced discrimination and negative
connotation as did the Japanese immigrants, but the key difference was they
blended better in with the power structure. This was easily scene in their
skin tone (the fact they looked like the power structure themselves) and also
because they had a better hold of the language and worried less about their
accent. Even groups that didnt share English as a native language found
less resistance from the American power structure than the Japanese. This
includes Germans, French Cajuns, and even the Chinese. While the Chinese
immigrants experienced much of the same Asian resentment that Japanese
immigrants experienced. They were never taken from their homes and
forced to live in a desolate area while losing personal possessions,
businesses, property, etc. The unfortunate truth is that Japanese Americans
faced an extremely unfair challenge in being taken to internment camps that
later impacted greatly their assimilation into the country. While many
culturally integrated the best they could while still retaining cultural
traditions such as holidays like Japanese New Years. Many felt and some still
feel towards the United States a feeling of resentment for being betrayed by
the country that many consider themselves a part of.

American history is full of millions of stories of immigrants from all

around the world including from Europe to Asia, Latin America, and the
pacific Islands. Each group of immigrants possess their own story including
the unfair treatment that they received during the time of trying to culturally
integrate with the power structure, but none received greater resistance than
Japanese immigrants. Fortunately Japanese immigrants have been able to
make leap and strides in integrating here into the United States. While there
are cultural obstacles that they may never be able to fully overcome they do
not need to worry about again receiving the harsh treatment that they once
faced during the heightening of World War II.

My eportfolio linkhttp://slcceportfoliodp.weebly.com/generaleducation.html
Work Cited
1. "Countries and Their Cultures." Countries and Their Cultures.
N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.
2. Olson, James S., and Heather Olson. Beal. The Ethnic Dimension
in American History. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Print