Freedom, Responsibility, Justice

As a command of the executive Order No. 9066

I am being forced to put a halt on my life and move
away to a designated location until the war with
Japan is over. I am only allowed to bring the
essentials and will probably never come back to
live in the house I grew up in again. I will no longer
be able to go to school and finish my studies to
become a nurse. I will no longer be able to go for
walks with my dog Rue. I will no longer get to see
my friends in my neighborhood and talk about the
good times we have had together. As a 23-year-old
American with Japanese decent I am still trying to
grasp and understand how being forced to live in
internment camps is supposed to be a step forward
to creating peace. I feel angry, hopeless, and
isolated. We as Japanese Americans have traded
our freedom and lives to live in a deserted dry land
in the middle of nowhere behind a tall fence. Not a
single sight of green exists and the shacks we live
in are poorly made and dirty. I ask how will this
bring peace and justice? I am blessed though, that
my family was able to come to the same location;
my 2 siblings, parents, and grandfather. The things
I look forward to now are Sundays for church
meetings, stories from grandpa, and when it rains.
Freedom to me relates to feeling safe in my
surroundings. I feel safe in the city and

neighborhood I live in and I dont have to look

behind my shoulder when it is dark at night. The
idea of being privileged in that sense relates to my
ideas of freedom because I know that other
neighborhoods, cities, and even countries dont
have the privilege of a safe community or
environmental conditions. The definition of
freedom itself (pg. 122) in the text is extremely
ambiguous and will have different meanings to
different people but if we relate freedom to a sense
of feeling safe and looking out for the safety of
others we can regulate that idea better. If we can
justify someone who is inflicting intention harm on
the well-being of others, then they should pay the
consequences for that. In the case of the bombing
of pearl harbor and the executive order towards
Japanese Americans, it was hard to distinguish who
the real terrorists were at that time and President
Roosevelt decided to take extreme measures by
punishing all Japanese Americans and taking away
their freedom for the freedom of others. I think that
that regulation might have had good intentions but
ultimately 62% of Americans lost their personal
freedoms because of it (pg. 124).
I think that some freedom restrictions are
obvious when it comes to the freedom of speech in
particular, noting that we have the right to our own
thoughts and opinions but according to social

norms in society, we should have restrictions on

intentionally demeaning other races, cultures, etc.
Mindfulness should be taken into account for
freedom of speech. I think individuals should have
the responsibility to stand up for their personal
ideas of freedom on order to have access to it.
Getting involved and encouraging the safety and
well-being of others is also a key aspect to help
everyone feel free.