"They said we could take only what we could carry, so we carried strength, pride, and soul." This is the introduction to the book, Only What We Could Carry, which talks about the lives of Japanese Americans during the turbulent time of World War Two. With only minutes to pick out what they could carry, the Japanese chose what they could carry best.
This book opener reflects on what the Japanese must have felt from day one. Imagine being told to leave everything you had ever known, the homeland you had come to love, and being told that you were going to go to a life that was totally alien to you. Most people would not be motivated to do it. Most people have options. The Japanese Americans had no options. Already, from this quote, we can tell that they were going to have an extremely difficult time.
"Tuesday. I should be working. Tuesday. In my Sunday shoes. Tuesday. They should be in school." This also describes what must have the start of an extremely trying time been for the Japanese Americans in the country of America. A lot of people rely on having a set, solid schedule. They rely on having something concrete to do from day to day. The Japanese had no such choice. They were simply ordered to move and were stripped from their dignity, and perhaps worst of all, their pride. Suddenly, everything that the Japanese relied on was gone. Their family may have been moved hundreds of thousands of miles away from them.
[...] Our baggage was inspected for contraband, a cursory medical check was made, and our living assignments were assigned.”[4] There was no chance to keep any secrets, no chance to hide anything from the eyes of the watchful camp leaders. The paragraph goes on to state, “fortunately, some friends had arrived earlier and helped us locate our quarters.” They weren't even told where to go; they were just ordered to go in that direction, to find the house where they were at. If they couldn't find it, good luck. They had to rely on each other to find out information that they could get. On page 70, it states: “These stables just reeked. There was nothing you could do. [...]
[...] It paints a disturbing reality of what really happened in internment camps around the nation that housed Japanese Americans who had no crime. References Inada, Lawson Fusao. Only what we could carry: the Japanese American internment Experience. Berkeley, Calif.: Heyday Book; 2000. Print. ----------------------- [1] Only What We Could Carry, page xvii [2] Only What We Could Carry, page xix [3] Only What We Could Carry, 67 [4] Only what we could carry, 75 [5] Only what we could carry, page 11 [6] Only what we could carry, page 71 [7] Only What We Could Carry, Page 72. [...]
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