“And when we went to the internment camp, guard towers, double security fence and all
that, I really wondered what’s going to happen to us. You know, that this is just the beginning and they may very well send us back to Japan. And that, to me, was horrible. I, in my heart, knew my loyalty belongs to America. I went to school, pledged allegiance every morning in grammar school. And for me to think that I may be sent to Japan was horrendous. And so that was sort of a nightmare.” —Susumu Satow |
-Internment changed Japanese-Americans' self-image -Self-image relies on what others think of a person, and Americans saw Japanese people as enemies -Internment made Japanese-Americans feel un-American, even if they had been born and raised in America -The US government justified their banishing of Japanese Americans by saying that they were helping them, because if they were at internment camps, white people could not harm them -This made Japanese Americans feel like they were not OK and the government was right -This is the same psychological response that abused children have when they view their relationship with their abusive parents |
-After being released from internment camps, Japanese-Americans had to reconstruct their lives
-Many Japanese-Americans pushed away memories of the camps so they did not have to deal with the feelings the memories evoked
-Generations to come did not learn about the atrocities that were internment camps
-Many Japanese-Americans pushed away memories of the camps so they did not have to deal with the feelings the memories evoked
-Generations to come did not learn about the atrocities that were internment camps