Think of the Children

In a Letter from Obasan to Nesan, Obasan is telling her about the harsh experiences and treatments of the Japanese in Canada as they are being relocated into Japanese internment camps. One of the most devastating points in the letters is about the kids not understanding what is going and the health problems facing the children. “She (Nomi) doesn’t understand what is going on at all. Stephen does, of course.” (Kogawa, 96).  The quote is an example of how the children are left oblivious to the situation because they are too little to understand and it can be frightening to them. It is extremely cruel for people to make a little, Innocent, child go through the same discrimination as the adults. In an instance at school, another student tells the older brother Stephen that the japs are bad and that they will be sent away. (Kogawa, 83-84). the though for a child’s family being sent away and not knowing why must have been frightening. The parents are trying everything they can to protect them from that hate and fear because parents are supposed to relax and protect their children but it can be hard to do when the children face the hatred at school by other kids. They must confront it on a daily basis. Stephen being the older child has a better idea of what is happening because he is older and can understand it better. Because he knows why his family is being sent away might frighten him more creating self hatred and hatred towards others where as Nomi is younger and more innocent, she may not understand the full impact or extent of the issue. However, the moving to a strange place, harsh environments, and people shunning the family may trigger curiosities. The parents are trying to protect the child from going through those emotional struggles. Once the children do get to the internment camp, they must battle health risks because of the poor nourishment. Babies could not be properly fed because the mother was not. In an instance when people found maggots and manure under the floorboards in a stall creating unhealthy conditions for the fragile young kids. Well at least they cleaned the place however, the smell was still noticeable even though they washed the place with lime chloride probably strong chemicals to be living around on a daily basis. The parents were concerned about the health of their children “Supper was two slices of Bologna, bread and tea. Nothing for babies.” (Kogawa, 114). Without proper nourishment of the parents, the babies couldn’t survive and children of all ages need healthy food as well. How can people allow such unacceptable behavior to happen on soil that was supposed to be free treating their citizens with care? How come no parents who know the struggles of raising a child feel no guilt about what they were doing? Fear caused people to loose empathy for others and not to question their actions. To pose these health threats on innocent children is savage. The power of fear is earth shattering now we look back and thing “what a terrible thing we did” why didn’t we look at it while it was happening and think “ why are we doing this?” Imagine the lives and suffering that could have been spared but America has a dark history hidden behind its glory.  

Hidden Truth

The government deceives the public by publishing joyful commercials falsely educating the public on Japanese internment camps. Rabbit in the Moon sheds light on the realities of the Japanese internment camps that the commercials, press, and mass media tried to sugar coat. For example, in a commercial it said “the comforts of home” but in reality, the camps were far from it having to live on army style bedding filled with straw in a dusty environment that was either too cold or too hot. The commercial had Japanese people smiling as they let on the train saying that the Japanese were evacuees who had many opportunities. But in reality, they were forced to do hard labor for little pay, suffered emotional and physical stress. The press warped the reality by saying that when the Japanese rioted and revolted when a man reported not getting enough sugar and investigation the missing rations leading to the higher ups, the white men in charge of the camps, he got thrown in jail. People rioted for him to be let out causing trouble. Coincidentally, the riot happened around first anniversary of Pearl Harbor. The press said that they were celebrating the incident rather then standing up for a person who was doing the right thing. The press manipulated the situation to seem like the Japanese were guilty.  If all of America hated the Japanese, then why did the press go though such effort to make the public think that the Japanese were bad? Did the government want to pit the public against the Japanese because they knew that there are some righteous people who know that the seizing of all Japanese was wrong so they hid behind false lies to validate it? Or did they hide these lies so other countries would not fight against us because we were doing the same thing as the Nazis loosing our honor as well?  The joyful commercials, were they more for the public to be at ease for the Japanese people giving the message “ even though we are relocating them, don’t worry they are being nicely taken care of as refugees.” Or were the commercials meant to put the Japanese at ease to help them think that the government really cared? How could America let this happen and how come the higher-ups felt no shame or guilt? If everyone had known the truth, would there have been protests, riots, and a fight for the fellow American’s freedom, or a movement of peace? Perhaps this was just a reason a good reason to be openly prejudice and racist against Japanese Americans. 

Hypocrites in North America

I was unsettled that America and Canada had Internment camps because it is hypocritical to our principals. We were trying to stop the genocide of the Jews in the concentration camps yet we are using the same methods they Nazis did. “Racism” “she answered herself. The Nazis are everywhere,” Shows that the Asian Canadians are seeing the treatment of them and how closely it mirrored that of the Jews. (Kogawa, 45). I believe that if we are going to war to stop a man who is doing evil things to a select group of people, then we shouldn’t be doing the same thing to a different group of people. It is hypocritical no racism is should be tolerated no matter the cost. We were taking everything they have from them and persecuting them for being Asian American. Yes it is true that fear makes people do crazy things and increases paranoia but does that give us the right to persecute innocent people. I knew that the United States had internment camps but I cannot believe that Asian Americans were treated worse in Canada. I knew that America had racist problems and was not surprised however, I did not know that Canada did as well I have heard that it was a friendly place. Maybe the United States pressured the Canadians to also feed this fear of the Asian American and Canadians. I believe that the reason people were so open to let things like this happen is because of war. They used war as an excuse to treat a group of people badly and not get caught with being inhumane because now they can say that “we are protecting our country” when in reality we were just being paranoid and prejudice to a group of people. Another way to justify it is that the internment camps were not killing off people they were only “housing them” but the persecution still had its emotional scars. “… They took away our land, the stores, the businesses, the boats, the houses, -everything. Broke up our families, told us who we could see, where we could live, what we could do, what time we could leave our houses, censored our letters, exiled us for no crime, they took our lively hood…” this quote shows the pain they went through and how much it was like a dictatorship. America was supposed to be the land of the free and then we turn around and pull this just because we did not try to kill off the race does not make it even better then what the Nazis tried to do. I am happy that the United States tried to reimburse the pain they had caused on the Asian Americans but how much can money buy? How will money erase the pain and suffering, the alienation, American born citizens had to go through. Money and land cannot take away those dark stories and memories nor can it change time. Money can only fix so much pain. 

Twists and Turns

M. Butterfly is full of plot twits that rearrange and redefines what it means to be feminine east and masculine west.  The ending with the white male commiting suicide over a love that was never real puts him in the place of a Japanese woman who commits suicide over the loss of her westurn man. Butterfly’s acting as a female Japanese singer in opera and plays blinded Rene. The quote “ Only a man knows how a woman should act,” spoken by Butterfly foreshadows to the truth about Butterfly. Butterfly was able to trick Rene because he knows what a man wants and how to please a man. Butterfly also uses stereotypes and the myths of Chinese and Japanese cultures to trick Rene. Butterfly also knew that René was ignorant in the ways of the Chinese and Japanese using it to his advantage to deceive him with the passive Asian woman who will submit to the wild, rough, exotic western man. He also uses the card that all Asians are traditional and will not show their body unless married. Because Butterfly was able to hide his body under all of the cloths that Asian woman wore, and the “pure Asian modesty” Butterfly was able to hide his true body and keep his cloths on and not reveal himself. Because René is so uneducated on Chinese and Japanese customs, he fell for it when butterfly said that she had to go back to her village to give birth.  But I do not understand how he fell for the “I am pregnant” trick if they never really had traditional sex. That is a ruse that people still use today. In the beginning, Butterfly warns him and lectures Rene about the ways of the orient and how arrogant the west is. Butterfly tries to educate René but he does not listen. I feel that it is Karma because René had this extremely racist arrogant attitude after Butterfly pretends to love him. If he had listened to Butterfly in the beginning would he have fallen for this trick? Butterfly tries to educate him on customs and beliefs yet his words are lost. In the end when Rene commits suicide, putting him in place of a grief stricken women who commits suicide is the role that suits him. He looked like a fool in court when Butterfly told him that he was a man the jury looked at him like he was crazy. He submitted to Butterfly’s trick enough that he was sad when he found out that perfect woman when it was false. He was in love then had his heart ripped out. So what else was he to do feeling so upset? Rene is a submissive feminine Asian woman in the tragic opera plays of the sorrow stricken women who committing suicide.

Cultural Gap

Throughout the chapter At the Western Palace, the narrator often hints that she does not consider her children to be Chinese or to even understand their heritage when the narrator is Chinese herself.  She says, “ Her American children had no fallings or memory,” and  “What do you know about Chinese business?” (Kingston, 134,175)  the pervious quotes demonstrate cultural gap between Chinese immigrants and American born Chinese.  I believe the mother who has had a hard life living in china who immigrated to America making her life easy for the children while the children do not understand their heritage and the mother who does not understand American society may cause the gaps. The mother’s struggles are hard in comparison to the easy life of the American born Chinese. The mother constantly talks about how lazy, and ungrateful her children are. Compared to the life Brave Orchid had to live growing up in her village the children seem lazy because their lives are easier making the mother constantly remind them to not take their lifestyle for granted. Another reason for the cultural gap is the way the mother and the children were raised in different countries. For example the mother notes that it was impolite to play with toys or gifts in front of the giver, but, in American culture, it is common for the receiver to open the gift in front of the giver to show their gratitude to the giver and for the giver to see the joyous emotion of the receiver. She also calls her children vein when they aunt complimented how beautiful or smart they were but did not deny it instead saying thank you. In our society, the simple thank you is enough to show modesty and gratitude to a compliment. To deny it is like insulting oneself. The cultural gap is shown when the children look into the Chinese aunt’s eye and it scared her. It seems that in Chinese culture it is a sign of respect to lower your gaze however, in American society to look into a person’s eyes is to show respect and that you are listening. The stereotype of how Asians hound their children to being the best and constantly criticizing where shown in this chapter when the mother talks about how her children are nothing special and lazy. Does she say these things because her sister complimented her and as in Chinese culture, you are supposed to refute that compliment to seem modest or does she simply believe that her children are capable of more than what they think they can do and she wants the best for them that she pushes them? Because the aunt was not used to this, she was frightened. The children have been influenced by American teachings through their friends, teachers, and media giving them a different culture from their mom who knows that they were not raised in the Chinese culture. At times the mother seems to get frustrated because her children do not understand the Chinese ways creating a misunderstanding between children and mother. It is most interesting that these differences are clearly outlined that Asian Americans act differently then the Asians from Asia that people in society do not realize how Americanized the Asian Americans are.