DENSHO PAGE

Densho Project is a project that is dedicated mainly to the history and the heritage of the Japanese internment camp. It tells us the history of the camp, the different points of views from different Japanese Americans who did or did not take part in the camp, and how the Japanese Americans are trying to get the US government to compensate them for the arduous time they were in the internment camp. Of course, there are others too, but the main ones are the ones that I mentioned above.

For my project in Language Arts class, I was to do extensive research on this Densho Project and pick out one of the main themes in this project. I also have to somehow make connections of what I learned from this project to what I read in No-No Boy and other excerpts. This page that I have created will be a concise analytical essay on the theme of 'choice of action' and how it affects the individuals.

After two days of conducting extensive research on the Densho Project in class along with the unoccupied time that I had outside of class which I used to find more information about the Japanese internment camp, I finally have come to know a great deal more about the event. Of the many topics that I found in the web site, I chose 'choice of action' for my topic since it is relevant to Ichiro's conflict in No-No Boy by Okada. With the time permitted, I was able to listen to different thoughts of different Japanese Americans regarding to the Japanese American internment camp.

I first listened to an old Japanese man whose name I for got who was in the US army in WWII. From what I could get out of the research, I understand that he volunteered to join the war before the draft was issued. He said that he wanted to show the United States government that he is not a traitor, and that he always loved USA and always will. By joining the war, this man hoped to convince the US government to think about the irony of putting his parents and others to the internment camp. His parents understood their son's feeling and did not show any anger towards their son's decision to join the war even though their hearts must be tearing up inside to see their native country being destroyed by the United States of America, the very place where they inhabit as of now. In a way, one could say that this man's situation is very much alike in Kenji's case in No-No Boy where he has to prove his loyalty to the United States government by joining the war.

In addition to the Japanese American above, I also listened to the point of view of another Japanese American whose name I think was Kyushoso. He said in the web page that when he first talked over to his parents about his plan of joining the war, his parents were speechless. They then began to yell at him and tell him to put that idea out of his head because their son is not going anywhere. However, the son was so eager to go that he disobeyed his parents' wish and one day took off for the army, leaving his parents crying after him. In order to let his parents know that he is doing all right in the war, he wrote a letter every two weeks to his parents but somehow he never managed to get any response back from his parents. He then understood that his parents no longer cared about his life anymore ever since he stepped out of the door. To them, he was no longer their son because their son would never betray their native country by taking on the side of the United States of America. He was sad but hoped to redeem himself to his parents once the war is over. That is what he did. He went back home, saw his parents' quote cold feeling towards him, and managed to soften their hatred after months of trying. Again the situation that this man is in is much better than Ichiro's. At least in the end, he has the forgiveness of his parents. In Ichiro's case, however, his 'choice of action' of staying out of the war gives him the motivation to hate and resent against his parents. This makes me wonder if things would have been better for Ichiro if he could work the problem out with his parents especially his mother if she wasn't dead.

Besides the two individuals that I listened above, I also listened to the others' opinions. However, the others' quote opinions are almost the same as these two. So there is no point for me to tell the story over and over again. Therefore, I will end my densho page here.