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The Reason for Internment

In this page, were going to be explaining why the Japanese, both the Isei (JapaneseAmericans) and the Nisei (Japanese Immigrants) were sent to internment camps.
During WWII, Japan was angry because the United States of America had stopped all
the trading embargoes between the U.S. and Japan. This made Japan angry because
they depended on the U.S. to give them supplies for their daily lives, so thats what
started the attack on Pearl Harbor. First of all, an attack on Pearl Harbor was very
unlikely because the distance between Pearl Harbor and Japan is 3,850 miles (6,611
kilometers) and in WWII it was most likely for you to travel by warships. Japan had
another plan; they decided to go by planes, which was faster and not so common
during WWII. Japan dropped bombs on the U.S. warships: USS Arizona, USS
Oklahoma, USS West Virginia, USS California, USS Nevada, USS Tennessee, USS
Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, and USS Utah. There were a total of 1,954 deaths. This
made former president Franklin Delano Roosevelt pass the Executive Order 9066 on
February 19, 1942, which was an executive order that authorizes the Secretary of
War to prescribe certain areas as military zones. These certain areas were mainly
Japanese-American neighborhoods. This was because the U.S. was scared of
Japanese spies sending information to Japan about the United States plans. Over
time, The United States decided to send the Japanese into Internment camps
around the U.S. including camps in: Manzanar, California; Tule Lake, California;
Minidoka, Idaho; Topaz, Utah; Poston, Arizona; Gila River, Arizona; Heart Mountain,
Wyoming; Ronwer, Arkansas; and Jerome, Arkansas.

One Families Story

In this page, we will be interviewing Jeanne Wakatsuki!!! And she will be telling us
about her experience and the experience of her family to be interned in
concentration camps.

Interviewer: Good evening Ms. Wakatsuki, my name is Angel Madriz, your

interviewer, how are you today?
Jeanne: Good evening Angel, Im great, how about you?
Interviewer: Good; Thanks for asking. I will be asking you a series of
questions about your experience and your families experience in Manzanar,
is that okay with you?
Jeanne: Of course
Interviewer: Well, then I will start. Before you went to Manzanar, what did
you do and what did your family do to prepare?
Jeanne: Well, as a little girl, I packed one of my favorite dolls, while my
mother, packed the rest of my stuff, like cloths, one pair of shoes, and a
brush. My family and every family had to pack light because we were
carrying this stuff for miles. Also, before we even went to Manzanar, we
needed to sell all our stuff because even if we didnt, it will probably get
robbed anyway.
Interviewer: Thats pretty unfair. What did you think of the governments
decision of sending all Japanese to internment camps?
Jeanne: At the time, I didnt really care; I thought we were going to some
type of road trip. But right now, I dont blame the government by taking
precautions because I would have done the same. If I thought there was
danger in my country I would have interned the suspicious people.
Interviewer: Well, thats all Ms. Wakatsuki, Thank you for your time. Have a
Nice Day
Jeanne: No, Thank you Angel.

Farewell to Manzanar Book Review

In this page, we got our best book nerds to write a review of the book Farewell to
Manzanar by: Jeanne Wakatsuki.
First off all, before we begin to we just wanted to say that Farewell to Manzanar is as
haunting as Anne Franks The Diary of Anne Frank. The book was written by Jeanne
Wakatsuki, a Nisei (Japanese-American) who, at age 7, was evacuated with her
family to the internment camp at Manzanar, California. This is a non-fiction book,
published in 1973, and has 177 pages. The book is about Jeanne and her familys
experience before, during, and after the evacuation of more than 10,000 Japanese
into internment camps. At the beginning of the book, Jeanne tells a small
background of how they got to the internment camps and how they prepared. Then,
throughout the story, Jeanne briefly explains everyones background depending on
their attitude. For example, she once explained Papas background about his
ancestors and the reason he immigrated to America, when he used a cane he made,
before going to Manzanar, as a Samurai sword. Also, she shares her experiences in
Manzanar like when the women suffered because they couldnt use the restroom
because of exploding toilets, or when she had diarrhea. In all, the Japanese
stationed in the internment camps lived life in poverty until it came to the final year
at the internment camp, when it became a better place, somewhat like a little,
American town. ..it was a totally equipped American small town, complete with
schools, churches, Boy Scouts, beauty parlors, neighborhood gossip, fire and police
departments, glee clubs, softball leagues, Abbott and Costello movies, tennis
courts, and traveling shows as it says in Farewell to Manzanar. After Jeanne and
her family are out of Manzanar, Jeanne says how difficult it was for her to fit in
society because of her Japanese descent. Finally, she also explains how her family
slowly separates because of their different experiences in Manzanar.

A Day in the Life

In this page, we will be explaining how life was inside the internment camps.
In the first couple of months of the camps operation, everyone was filled with
confusion and problems that werent easily removed/solved. For example, some
families were separated from each other, and some that were together, were put in
barracks with families that they werent familiar with. This confusion and problems
came harder on women because some were put with men that werent their
husbands. Also, privacy was something hard to get and toilet paper was not
common. The pressure of fitting more than 10,000 people in one place came to
everyone, even the government itself, who decided to put the Japanese in
internment camps in the first place. The primary work in the internment camps was
industrial. In Manzanar, a garment factory was made with a borrowed sewing
machine, which later converted into 2 factories with 38 industrial machines. There
were also factories like: mattress factories, food units, and camouflage net factories.
There were smaller businesses and workers did their own shoyu and tofu, basically
because the food unit was Caucasian (White) and served food differently than the
Japanese ate it. There were farms and science labs as well; farms were used as
another food source and the science labs conducted experiments to aid in the war
effort. Finally, money was something to worry about too because before they were
evacuated to Manzanar, the Japanese had to sell everything they had, which sucks,
and once they got out, they had to start over again.

NERD HERD MAGAZINE

This weeks topic
is

HISTORY!!!
So In History,
we will be going
back to World
War 2, where, in
the United
States, the
Japanese, both
the Issei
(JapaneseAmericans) and
Nisei (Japanese
Immigrants) were
sent to
internment
camps or
concentration
camps.
Also, we
interviewed
Jeanne
Wakatsuki!!!
Author of the
famous book:
Farewell to
Manzanar. And
she will be telling

TABLE
OF
CONTE
NTS
The Reason for
Internment (Page:
3)
One Families
Story (Page: 4)
A Day in the Life
(Page: 5)
Farewell to
Manzanar Review
(Page: 6)

Next weeks topic

is...

SCIEN
CE!!!