Letters

In the letters Martha wrote to Violet Sell, she is optimistic, something that seemed uncharacteristic of someone who is living in the worst conditions possible. However, Martha, in her letters, criticizes the "disorganized staff" in the internment camps, and also the unruly youth. She believes that the camp needs more "Christian believers." Perhaps one of the most interesting details found in her letters was her strong desire to become a nurse's aid. Martha even goes to call her dream "selfish." Even though many of the nurse's aids were placed in the tuberculosis ward, which was often dangerous, Martha, unlike the other nurses-in-training, did not quit and continued to pursue her career. This fear of tuberculosis can be seen also in the film Picture Bride. When Riyo's parents died from tuberculosis, Riyo was seen as a disgrace in the Japanese society. Similarly, once the Japanese American nurses realizes that they will be assigned to the tuberculosis ward, they almost immediately quit. 

Another subject Martha brings up is the drafting of the Nisei boys. Although the government claimed this was on a "volunteer" basis, the Nisei boys really had no choice once they answered "yes" to the two questions on the drafting questionnaire. Martha mentions that they Nisei boys asks many different questions about why they have to become soldiers. After all, why should they serve a country that chose to put them in internment camps? Why do they have to fight in the war just to prove their loyalty? These questions were also illustrated in the short story "No-No Boy" by John Okada. Ishiro recalls the many Nisei boys that had to face the draft. Several of them were like the boys mentioned in Martha's letter, refusing to fight for America because the Americans were the ones that took away their homes "and cars and beer and...[thrown] them in a camp" (Okada 167). Takaki also mentions how the Nisei "protested the violation of their Constitutional rights" by resisting the draft (Takaki 398). Even from Martha's letters, it can be seen how unfairly the Japanese Americans were treated. After they had been stripped of their whole lives, they were now asked to serve the government that had taken away everything: their freedom and rights.