Japanese Relocation 1942

                                  

 

 

 

Arley Paguay 

Mrs. Wilson Clasby

English 207

16 February 2020

 

On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces were the reason behind a devastating attack that killed more than 2,400 Americans. The attack was on Pearl Harbor which is a U.S naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii held many American vessels, battleships and airplanes many which were destroyed during the attack. The attack on Pearl Harbor  came to no surprise afterwards considering the tension and want for war between the United States and Japan for decades. Unfortunately, nobody foretold the deadly attack especially because of the distance between the U.S naval base and Japan. Due to the tragedy, American officials felt it was necessary to take action in order to prevent another attack on the American people. They took action at home first gathering every Japanese/ Japanese Americans and relocating them from the west coast to an isolated pioneer land in the desert to create their own civilization.  When the United States Army and War Relocation Authority began their relocation of Japanese and Japanese Americans they filmed the entire process to later release the film in cinemas and schools all around the world to give insight to the American public and the world. The Japanese Relocation OWI film (1942) showed why, when and how the relocation happened and strongly reassured the public that these relocations weren’t concentration camps nor were the Japanese community forced to leave their homes. Everything was portrayed as strictly optional and the filmmakers made it seem like all Japanese people chose to go. That’s the story, but when looking at the film from 2:47- 4:40 we see otherwise. During this clip, the filmmakers show how the United States army figures out what they should do about the enemies that could be lurking within communities and how Californians could retaliate against the entire Japanese community due to fear. The filmmakers show the best way to prevent that fear was to remove the Japanese people from the West coast to federally owned land in the interior. After this justification, the filmmakers explain how the Government handled all the assets belonging to the Japanese before they were to be relocated. The purpose of this clip was to reassure the American public that this was a necessary measure in regards to national security. To convey this message the filmmakers used the propaganda techniques of asserting a relationship between the narrator and audience, appealing to ethos. The narrator, Milton S. Eisenhower, also known as the Director of the WRA has a position of authority privileging him with the respect of the American public and therefore, crediting him. During the selected clip,2:47- 3:08, Mr. Eisenhower spoke on the relocation process which included the message of the temporary voluntary relocation and justified the change from voluntary to mandatory came from the danger the voluntary evacuees faced in their new location, so a new plan was quickly designed and in accommodation to Japanese and Japanese Americans all were in agreement to move. Mr. Eisenhower’s tone of voice and word choices allowed for this sugarcoated message to be entrusted by the American public and made clear of the importance of the film. The narrator, Eisenhower, never mentions the word force or anything similar in connection to the relocation to prevent any assumption from being made, word choice was crucial to prevent any message from being scrutinized. Mr. Eisenhower’s calm and assertive tone not only strengthened the trust between the audience and him but appealed to pathos in a time of chaos and uncertainty which provided the public comfort. Comfort in knowing the US government is taking control in the best way possible for both sides. The United States gained an image of heroes by creating a tight persona of American values and that branded message of values allowed for the Film to carry out with high hopes in the public’s eye and strengthened the people’s belief that their country was, in fact, the best, appealing to pathos. The filmmakers deliberately chose both sad and upbeat musical accompaniments in this clip, 3:49 to 4:20, to show the Japanese and Japanese Americans getting ready to leave behind their community. The filmmakers chose marching and upbeat music to show that this isn’t something to be sad about because the Japanese people were leaving for better opportunities and we should be overjoyed for them. The United States created this film so that the American public and world could see that everything was figured out and despite there being a war. The United States said it was the Japanese’s sacrifice for the better of both sides, but how can that possibly be the case? The filmmakers knew it and by suggesting that the relocation wasn’t entirely voluntary allowed for connections to be made that maybe it wasn’t voluntary.  In the beginning, we are given reason to believe the U.S army civilly relocated the Japanese community and treated the Japanese American as they would any American citizen, but looking into the film and hearing the narrator suggest it wasn’t voluntary shows these people were forced to leave their homes to go somewhere damaging to their economic wealth, but that’s not apparent during this time because a trust between the audience and the narrator has been created and because Mr. Eisenhower portrayed the government to be human, we are temporarily tricked into believing the narrator when he specifies that the relocation was voluntary and unwanted, but needed.  In the beginning, we are given reason to believe the U.S army relocated the Japanese community in a civil way and treated the Japanese American as they would any American citizen, but looking into the film and hearing the narrator suggest it wasn’t voluntary shows these people were forced to leave their homes to go somewhere damaging to their own economic wealth, but that’s not apparent during this time because a trust between the audience and the narrator has been created and because Mr. Eisenhower portrayed the government to be human, we are temporarily tricked into believing the narrator when he specifies that the relocation was voluntary and unwanted, but needed.

 

Reflection

I enjoyed the process of writing the multimodal analysis because it was spaced out and organized which made it easier to write and revise. The strategies I’ve learned have played a huge role in how I write my final essay because it keeps my paper organized, detailed and, easy to write, and also, helps the paper be easy to write. I am also grateful for the topic given because I knew of the Japanese relocation, but never in-depth. I’ve never seen or heard of the Japanese relocation film and seeing it has shifted perspective, especially in today’s time. We have a lot of propaganda that I think many people seeing and nobody ever takes the time to truly analyze the piece. I am guilt of reading the title and deciding whether I agree or not and that will determine whether I read a piece. The only difficulty I had writing the paper was knowing how to put my feeling into words without expressing my opinions without factual evidence to back it up because I was all about saying “this was dumb” and they were brainwashed etc, but all that is an opinion if I don’t back it up, so understanding that my analysis was only as good as my evidence was a challenge. I enjoyed the research nonetheless because I found fascinating articles about the relocation that I didn’t add to my essay, but I did read them and that helped me understand the articles I did select to add to my essay. With that being said, I am confident in my analysis because I brought up arguments that supported my thesis and were able to further explain in a way that I believe made it easier for the reader to follow along.