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Why Were Japanese Americans Imprisoned During World War II?

2/26/2020

Andrea Warren
Giving Voice to Children in History

          After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the lives of Japanese Americans instantly changed.
          As the US declared war on Japan, public scrutiny focused on the 120,000 Japanese Americans living along the Pacific Ocean. Would they help Japan if it attempted an invasion of the coast? A hateful, racist anti-Japanese American campaign swept the nation, and the government decided that for “public safety” Japanese Americans must be isolated in “internment” camps.
          With little warning, the roundups began. They were forced to sell their homes and possessions for whatever they could get and to give away their pets. They were allowed just two suitcases each as they boarded trains and buses to over-crowded assembly centers, where they waited for months in primitive conditions until the ten permanent camps were ready.
          Those camps were in isolated, inhospitable locations where the internees lived behind barbed wire, guarded by armed soldiers. Each family was assigned one room in a flimsy wooden barrack furnished only with iron cots. Everyone waited in long lines to use the restrooms and to eat. The children attended schools that were started in the camps. But jobs were scarce and adults had little to do.
          While they could have sunk into despair, nearly all Japanese Americans wanted America to win the war, and if their confinement helped the war effort, they decided to cooperate and make the best of it. To stay busy they organized scout troops and baseball teams. They hosted talent contests, movie nights, dances, festivals, and celebrations. They started newspapers, libraries, poetry clubs, choirs, bands and orchestras. They took up woodworking and sewing and planted Victory Gardens. In some camps internees were allowed to grow crops to supplement their government surplus food.
          Each morning they saluted the flag and said the Pledge of Allegiance. Many participated in Red Cross blood drives and knitted socks and scarves to send to soldiers. The young men from the camps who served in the war distinguished themselves with their bravery and helped ensure an Allied victory.
          After the war, Japanese Americans began the difficult task of rebuilding their lives. Many had lost all their belongings and could not find jobs. Worst of all was the shame they felt over their country’s distrust of them. But they had proved their loyalty. And in spite of this terrible injustice, they raised their children to be good Americans.

Andrea Warren is the author of nine books of nonfiction for young readers and young adult readers. Each centers on young people who have faced grave challenges in difficult periods of history. Her latest, Enemy Child: The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II, published by Holiday House, received starred reviews in School Library Journal and The Horn Book. It was selected as a 2019 Best Book by School Library Journal and is the recipient of the Bank Street College best nonfiction award. It has also has been honored by the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Warren is a previous winner of the Horn Book Award and the Sibert Honor Award. You can read Vicki Cobb's review here.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

2/14/2020

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Nancy Castaldo
Science Sleuth

The holiday we celebrate is named after a Christian martyr who was killed in the fifth century. Valentinus was a priest who secretly performed marriages for Roman soldiers who were forbidden to marry by Emperor Claudius. He was caught, tortured and killed for disobeying the emperor’s edict. Legend says that while he was awaiting his execution in jail he restored the sight of the jailer’s blind daughter. There is also a legend that the last words he wrote were in a note to the jailer’s daughter that he signed, “from your Valentine.”

Valentine and his saint’s day became synonymous with love. Although valentine greetings have been popular since the Middle Ages they weren't widely distributed in the United States until Esther Howland made her mark on the card industry. Esther, a student at Mt. Holyoke College, received a Valentine’s Day card created by an English company. Her father was a stationer and Esther got the idea to make her own cards and sell them in his store in Springfield, Massachusetts. She began to publish and sell valentines in 1850. The cards caught on.

Soon she was hiring her friends to help her keep up with the business. Even though the practice of sending pre-printed cards was mocked in a New York Times editorial in 1856, the business actually grew. In 1866 New Yorkers mailed more than 86,000 cards. And although most were priced low enough for anyone to send, they were also becoming more elaborate. Some were reported to sell for $500 each.

Today valentines are no less popular. More than 150 million cards are exchanged each year on February 14th. Some of those are still handmade, but the majority of them, 145 million in 2013, are purchased.

And there are still some very expensive cards created for those willing to spend the big bucks on their valentine. One of the most expensive cards you can buy is custom made by Gilded Age Greetings. For a price of $3,500 they will create a card that comes complete with 23-karat gold and precious stones. Their most expensive card comes at a whopping $5,000. Most will argue that it is the sentiment that counts the most when sending a Valentine greeting. Homemade cards with a lovely wish are most often the most memorable.

Esther Howland employed friends and developed a thriving business in Worcester, Massachusetts using an assembly line. She named her business the "New England Valentine Company". Her valentines became renowned throughout the United States. This is one of her creations.

Esther Howland

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages. The oldest Valentine in existence was made in the 1400's and is in the British Museum. This is a scan of a valentine dated 1909. Wikimedia Commons

Saint Valentine receives a rosary from the Virgin Mary, painting by Flemish painter David Teniers III (1638-1685)

Here's a story of some animals you can love. How could capturing the last wild California condors help save them? Why are some states planning to cull populations of the gray wolf, despite this species only recently making it off the endangered list? How did a decision made during the Civil War to use alligator skin for cheap boots nearly drive the animal to extinction?

Nancy Castaldo's Back from the Brink answers these questions and more as it delves into the threats to seven species, and the scientific and political efforts to coax them back from the brink of extinction. This rich, informational look at the problem of extinction has a hopeful tone: all of these animals’ numbers are now on the rise.

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Why Were Japanese Americans Imprisoned During World War II?

Happy Valentine's Day!

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