Racial Discrimination Against Nonwhites Essays -

Racial Discrimination Against Nonwhites During the time of War World II, many group of nonwhite race faced unfairness in the United States. Among all the minorities that were being discriminated against, the two most well known races were the African American and the Japanese American. They were treated unfairly due to their color and culture. Even though they are two totally distinct groups with different customs and backgrounds, they felt similar the way they were being treated. Both group were denied of their right as U.S. citizen. Despite the fact that many African Americans and Japanese Americans were born and raise in the United States, the U.S. government questioned their loyalty due to their ancestry. As for Japanese American, the main reason they were being victimized was due to the hostility between Japan and United States. Like the novel No-No Boy, by John Okada, mentions, many Japanese were forced to choose between being an American or Japanese, but not both. However, it is a little different for the African Americans. African Americans, they were being looked at as a lower class citizen, originally brought over as slaves. Even after the war, regardless of the fact that many of them are free citizens, they are still being kept from many of their rights. Even with the different causes, the African Americans and the Japanese American experience discrimination in a similar way. The war affected the Japanese Americans in many ways. Most Japanese came to United States for the dream of better earning, and one-day to return to Japan after becoming rich. However, this dream did not come true for most Japanese immigrants. Even though they did not achieve their goal, they continued to stay and form families in U.S. Thus, many second and third generation Japanese were born and received education in U.S. Many of them know and love U.S. more than Japan, the country of their original ancestry. Some of them are so Americanize that they cannot even understand or speak Japanese. Nevertheless when the war broke out between Japan and U.S., they were asked to fill out a form from Selective Service to prove their loyalty. Number 27 and 28 were two crucial questions, asking if they were willing to serve the army of U.S. in a combat duty and also if they were willing to swear alignment to U.S. government. The people that answered no to both questions were considered as no-no b oys, and immediately put in jail. Many Nisei and Sanseis were unhappy about these two questions, because the questions implied that they were at one time loyal to the emperor. As for the Isseis, since they cannot become U.S. citizens, if they swear alignment to U.S government that means they would become stateless people. Even though many Japanese did not pledge loyal to Japanese Emperor, they still answered no to both questions. For those who agreed to fight in combat for U.S., some were even send to Japan to fight against their own blood and kin. Among all the discriminatory actions taken against Japanese American one of the most severe one is the internment camp. There are several reasons that cause this incident. One of the reasons being the successfulness of Japanese in the west coast in the agricultural field. The whites felt that they are being threatened. Thus, executive orders were made to evacuate Japanese from the west cost, conducted by General John D. Dewitt. Japanese were brought to assembly centers before they were distributed to different relocation centers. Japanese were only given one week of notice to gather their belongings and to sell their properties. Japanese, regardless of their citizenship, were send to the internment camp. Unlike what the constitution states, people are innocent until proven guilty, Japanese were being looked upon as disloyal until proven otherwise. Many of the facilitys officials knew little about Japanese American, but automatically they transferred attitudes held about Negroes to th e evacuees. The racism in U.S. created many pressure between the young Japanese Americans. Like mentions in the No-No Boy, It was because he was Japanese and, at the same time, had to prove to the world that he was not Japanese that the turmoil was in his soul and urged