Analyzing The Japanese Americans History as Shown in The Documentary When You Are Smiling

Even though the United States had problems during the Great Depression, the Japanese Americans were having far worse problems. The bombing of Pearl Harbor caused Japanese Americans to enter internment camps. The resettlement Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was especially hard on these Japanese Americans, whom were citizens of the U.S., because they were forced to move from their homes and separate from their families.

During the mass evacuation of the Japanese, freedom and education came with a price. They had loss ties with their families and friends. Many of these Japanese Americans did not make it out alive and were incarcerated. They went through years of discrimination and prejudice. In the years after, it was very hard for Japanese Americans to find jobs and become accepted into society. In the documentary, “When You’re Smiling,” one of the Japanese Americans recalled that most places would not help them, not even the Quakers; the only people that would help them were the African American Baptist church. Some of them left camp and worked odd jobs until the draft caught onto them. Many of them were enlisted to serve for the United States during World War II. Janice D. Tanaka who made this documentary talked about how her parents and grandparents face much racism and hardships. Her dad did not feel like he needed to prove his loyalty to Americans because he was a citizen before the bombing happened. He left the internment camp and worked as an interpreter and trainer for the occupational forces in Hiroshima. After his discharge, her parents married during the war. They were fortunate enough to find decent jobs. Her father was good at woodwork and her mom worked for Bank of America as a clerk. Many of the Japanese Americans were not wanted after they have been released from the camps.

The Japanese Americans who were released and returned to their homes in the Southland met danger. There would be burning of houses, threats of bodily harm, and the abuse from the Ku-Klux-Klan. It was unsafe and they had no protection against threats and mistreatments. The documentary talked about how Maryknoll offered a safe haven for the Japanese Americans after the war. Maryknoll was a Catholic school where they taught the lower class of Japanese Americans. The school was very strict and their goal was to be wonderful benevolent teachers of knowledge but many Asian children were looked down upon. Japanese Americans said that resettlement was harder than interment because everywhere they went they were either kicked out or quickly judged. Outings were very rare for them and they did not really talk about the war. When the war was brought up, there was usually deliberate silence.

Although they were citizens before the incident, they could not change the way they looked because it was quite obvious that they were Japanese. Many of them had a hard time because some would be chased home from school since they stood out as Asians. People would shame them and say hurtful things like Japanese Americans were the reason why the war started, even though some of them lived in the U.S. as citizens before the bombing happened. They lived their life as the low middle class and many of them would say they were depressed. These Japanese Americans felt rejected from where they lived and they were forced to conform just to be like everyone else. If they did not have blonde hair, blue eyes, or were brunettes, they were not counted as Americans. To conform would mean that they could not be Japanese, although they were. They had to learn and act the way Americans were and lived their lives. It was very important to the Japanese that they excelled in school; it was a tremendous pressure on them because the Catholic nuns that taught them expected these low class Japanese to perform well.

They were very isolated through the years because they did not know if they were white or colored during the years of segregation. Many Japanese Americans would go to Black or Hispanic masses. Takana’s father had become Catholic when he attended Maryknoll. Many of these men had to convert to Catholicism because it was demanded that they become 110% Americans. After camp, many families were sent to Catholic school because that was easier in a way since Buddhism was not allowed. If these Japanese believed in Buddhist they would be distressed and condemned because they were not baptized.

Through the hardships and struggles, Tankana’s mom had told her and her sister to smile more in pictures because when people smile, the whole world smiles with them.

This shows that they had to pull through and think positive during the years. Barely more than 20 years after the end of the wartime camps, the minority dealt with more prejudice and criticism. Many of these Japanese families had to struggle through the economic, social, and academic level because they had to try to fit in. Many of these Japanese men did bad things such as drugs, drank alcohol, and joined Asian street gangs to belong and feel apart of the culture. These gangs wanted to show that they were tough and that if people wanted to “mess” with their Asian customs and culture, then they would “mess back.” Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights evolved during that time and this is when segregation became a problem. Many of these Japanese did not know whether or not they were colored or white. One of the Japanese men that talked said that he went into the colored line for lunch and he was kicked out of the line because he was not black. He was neither white nor black, so there was a confliction. These men had to put up with all the derogatory terms that were said to them such as a gook. Another Japanese man said that when he was apart of the Vietnam war he was shot and wounded; while he was on the triage no one treated him because no one noticed him. He asked them if they were going to help him because he was one of the Americans that were enlisted in the war. The people who were treating other wounds said that they did not notice that he was American because they thought he was a gook.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the Japanese had to prove that they were good people. Many of them were so unhappy that they could not fit in so they would harm themselves. Many deaths of Japanese Americans were due to them overdosing so many times. Rejections, failures, and feeling not good enough for their parents, peers, or school, were the main reasons why so many of these Japanese passed away. Takana uncovers the shocking truth under the veils of lies; the courts could rule out that Japanese Americans died because of health issues, but most of them were killed by overdoses and suicides. Japanese were stereotyped and harshly treated during their time in the internment camps.