Desire’e Saxton
Professor Dickerson
History 135
5/2/2013

Uchida’s life will depict just how irrational the cost of American identity, and loyalty was during World War II. Through her existence we will see the conflicts of being a Japanese-American in US society, take a look into what it means to be an American when your ethnicity sets you apart. Yoshiko Uchida’s, Desert Exile will expand upon the following areas: Life before the war, Americas irrational fears, and the treatment during the war.

Being Japanese-American was never easy, even in life before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the start of WWII; an anti-Asian sentiment had taken form. Yoshiko Uchida recounts the tale of how her father was able to establish a home for he and his wife, in a time when there was an invisible line drawn to inhibit Japanese-Americans from renting. One day there was a knock at the door and two men from the Santa Fe Improvement Association called upon my father; there purpose was in forcing my parents to move. “Can you tell me who complained about us? I’d like to meet the members of your association, if they bring proof we will leave immediately,” said Dwight Takashi Uchida.” The men ran off and never returned granting my father the privilege of wining his right to live there (Yoshiko Uchida, Desert Exile, 4). The 1930’s were a particular struggle for many Japanese-Americans; it was a dark, desperate time of survival in a land where you were neither a citizen nor the owner of your own land. Life was filled with poverty despite the hard grueling labor of conducting shoe repairs, hot steamy laundries, and trying to keep open the small business you operated, there was never enough money (Uchida, 10). It was truly a time where you learned to lean on your family and your neighbors. There was a strong sense of family, “Yoshiko talks about having large family gathering where three generations were brought together, to commemorate they took family portraits “(19). Even amongst the hardships Yoshiko thought that they were devoted Americans, they were taught loyalty and devotion to their country, they cherished the Declaration of Independence, Bill of rights, the Constitution and the American Flag (36). We were also infused with Japanese customs, traditions and values, my parents never became naturalized citizens fearing they would lose sight of their culture and it was with this dual relationship that our identities were in crisis (36). We the children considered ourselves to be American even when they considered us aliens ineligible for citizenship. (36, 40) We wanted to be accepted as Americans, we knew that integration into society would be the only way to overcome rejection. (40) Instead our society made us feel ashamed of something we should have felt proud of. (41)

The irrational fear that the Japanese-Americans were the enemy, caused American government to legalize their removal from California (52). Soon hatred, fear, manipulation and suspicion became characteristic of public opinion of the time (54). President Franklin D Roosevelt believed that the “Japs” were disloyal. “No way to determine loyalty when dealing with people of Japanese ancestry he said.”(54) It made no difference what-so-ever that there were no facts to support their argument and that they were choosing to ignore the 14th and 15th Amendment. “Makes no difference if the Japanese are citizens—they are still Japanese.” (56). Thus the government made the decision that it was better from them to send the Japanese-Americans off to concentration camps. So the Japanese believed that in cooperating with the government that they could help their country (57). Given a three-day deadline, people frantically, sold their houses, business and property, succumbing to financial distress (57). On April 21, Uchida’s family watched in horror as Berkeley was told to evacuate (58) they were then boarded on to buses that would take them to Tanforan, where armed guards would watch there every move (66-67).
Hundreds of Japanese families were already stationed in the concentration camps when Uchida’s family arrived. We were assigned to barrack 16, stable number 40; we would be living in a horses’ stall. Nothing was ready for us in the camp, not even proper facilities for showers or essentials for domestic living (70). First on the menu was to make our new home acceptable for human inhabitants. We made benches and a table, we purchased fabric to make curtains and it started to feel more like home. We then stated the task of making a self-government within this barb-wired camp. We had meetings held to talk about our constitutional rights. We established a school, post office, hospital and library (88). With our physical needs being meet, we were now starting to feel secure in our temporary homes. Then the rumors started, on Sept 15 we would be evacuated from our stable home (92, 99).
Camp Topaz, was in the desert, the dust storms were frequent and almost unbearable, especially on those who were elderly. We had no sooner got off the trains, than were immediately instructed on the etiquette’s of the camp (101). Here we were to discover just how segregated we really are. While we lived in barracks that allowed the harshness of the desert to interfere with our daily lives; special barracks resembling homes were set up for white Americans. I missed my home back in California, where we had had furniture and a kitchen to cook our meals (117) Camp life was to be filled with turmoil especially the days when army recruits came in to take our men away. They said that, “we could prove our loyalty, but we would be a segregated unit. The very people that had rejected us we now asking our men to show their loyalty, stating that this would affect how the Americans would view them in the future (136). Soon attacks and shootings in the camps were taking place, this made us furious and scared of the world around us (140) My parents wanting to keep us safe asked us to start on the paper work that might give us permission to leave, my sister and I were granted permission! Leaving our desert exile was a bitter sweet moment, we were on our way back into the world but we were leaving our family behind (144).