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Internment

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Submitted By smoove3000
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Yoshiko Uchida wrote her memoir to explain her being mistreated, held captive, and uncomfortable in the Japanese internment camps during World War II. She conveys this purpose by explaining what she had been through during this time of grief. These experiences include: The women of the family clearing their home without their father’s guidance, deciding which things they needed during encampment and which they had to sell or give away, and herself sitting quietly in her stripped bedroom, sorting through the clippings, letters, and poems she had to throw away. She writes, “My sister and I were angry that our country could deprive us of our civil rights in so cavalier a manner, but we had been raised to respect and to trust those in authority.” This quote proves her struggles by letting us know how cruel her country treated her, but also how well she was raised in it. Yoshiko Uchida also wrote this memoir for young Japanese Americans to know something of their past, but as well for all Americans, with the hope that through the knowledge of their past, they will never allow another group of people in America to be sent into a desert exile ever again. She writes again, “The confluence of all these, coupled with the fear and hysteria exacerbated by severe United States losses in the Pacific war, eventually combined to make the evacuation a tragic reality for us.” This was a horrible event for the Japanese Americans. With all that being said, Yoshiko Uchida wrote her memoir to show young readers her struggles in the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

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