Letters (Group 4)

In the letters by Amy Morooka, my group read about numerous events. We read about Martha's graduation, Amy meeting and becoming engaged to Tomio, and Amy's brother John and his not so perfect marriage. Amy described in one letter that John was recruited by the army, but had to go through a physical first to make sure he was healthy enough to join (he wasn't able to join according to Doug). As explained by Ronald Takaki in his story "Strangers from a Different Shore", many young Japanese men that were in internment camps were asked to join the United States army.  "The government required all internees to answer loyalty questionnaires" which had two purposes: "(1) to enable camp authorities to process individual internees for work furloughs as well as for resettlement outside of the restricted zones, and (2) to register Nisei for the draft" (Takaki 397). John was one of thousands of Nisei that had to fill out the questionnaire, and, considering he was asked to have a physical, most likely said yes to questions 27 and 28, which stated, "(27) are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered? (28) Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power or organization?" (Takaki 397). These questions proved the loyalty of the Japanese to either the United States or to Japan; some answered no to both, not because they were loyal to Japan, but because they felt their rights were violated and felt they should not be required to fight if they did not have their rights.

"No-No Boy" by John Okada (Bold Words 164) was another piece of Japanese-American literature relating to the questionnaires the internees had to fill out and the unfair treatment of the Japanese. The term "no-no boy" comes from the Japanese internees that answered "no" for question 27 and 28; the two questions asked if the internee would be willing to fight in the United States army and if the internee would pledge allegiance to the U.S. Many Nisei answered no, no and argued with judges, asking, "was it a just thing to ruin a hundred thousand lives and homes and farms and businesses and dreams and hopes because the hundred thousand were a hundred thousand Japanese and you couldn't have loyal Japanese when Japan is the country you're fighting and, if so, how about the Germans and Italians that must be just as questionable as the Japanese or we wouldn't be fighting Germany and Italy?" (Bold Words 167). The fact of the matter is that the United States would not place Germans or Italians in internment camps due to the fact that they were white, and the government was racist towards groups that did not look the same as them (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.). The Japanese felt it was unfair to be asked to join the army to fight for a country that was not allowing them to have freedom or basic necessities.