Ota and Bayse

Peter Ota's story really affected me because it showed the emotional effects of the Japanese internment. It is easy to think you can imagine how difficult and frustrating it must have been, but there are just some aspects you do not realize to think of. For example, there must have been an enormous feeling of shame of the Japanese culture. Peters mother, felt especially this embarrassment. He remembers, "The shame and humiliation and just broke her down. She was into Japanese culture. She was a flower arranger and used to play the biwa, a Japanese stringed instrument. Shame in her culture is worse than death. Right after that day she got very ill and contracted tuberculosis". During the events and after, the Japanese felt an embarrassment for their culture. How were they supposed to embrace their culture when it was the reason they were imprisoned? Feelings of degradation was a result in being detained because of their race. It is inevitable that the internment of Japanese would cause a negative outlook on their culture. Not only did the United States abuse the rights of its citizens, but it also degraded their ethnicity. This also caused a large consequence after the war as well. It would be impossible to be able to adjust to society normally after being imprisoned. The change would not only be very difficult for Japanese Americans, but also for all citizens of the country. Taking pride in the Japanese culture would take time. Ota recalls, “We came back to Los Angeles at the end of the war, believing there was no other way but to be American. We were discouraged with our Japanese culture. My feeling at the time was, I had to prove myself. I don’t know why I had to prove myself. Here I am, an ex-GI, born and raised here. Why do I have to prove myself? We all had this feeling. We had to prove that we were Americans, okay?” Japanese were stuck believing they had to still prove their citizenship after the war. The worst result was that the Japanese culture was discouraged and those who were detained felt as though they had to deject their heritage to be accepted. Irreparable damage to was brought upon Japanese American citizens.

Betty Bayse also shares the story of how much soldiers had to suffer. There were many permanent damages that they had to live with for the rest of their lives. "Sitting at the bedside of this young flyer who went down over Leyte. He got his own fire bomb. Next to his bed is a picture of this handsome pilot beside in his P-38. He wants to be sure I see it: 'Hi, Red, look. This is me.' He was never gonna leave that bed until he got his face back. That handsome photograph he insisted be there, so that's the person you'll see. He was very hard to manage because he would scream when they changed his dressing. He was insistent that he was never gonna leave that room until they brought him back to where he was before". Soldiers were also very affected by their sometimes permanent wounds and this forever scarred their mentality. The one particular soldier Betty described just wanted his normal appearance back, to be viewed normally like the picture beside his bed. They just wanted their regular looks back and were so desperate to repair the damage the war had done. Everyone had to suffer some consequences and felt shame in their looks, the war caused both internal and external harm.