cx ° ‘ Ochoa 1 Gisella Ochoa 7 Yea ( o Professor Ditch wd English 115 (sh \ i 29 October 2019 / / x Developing to Prosper ‘is Xx q | 3¢ A” OnDecember 74,1941, armostly everyone knows, Peat! Harbor was attacked by the yf {Ra sapanese. At the time, Franklin Roosevelt was president of the United States. Because of what the Sy ly Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbor did, Roosevelt held every person witha Japanese ancestry in V account for what had happened. He signed an Executive order known as, Executive Order 9066. « ‘This sentall of the Japanese within the United States territory o go into an internment camp. There g ‘was an evacuation order forall of these Japanese. There were about 120,000 Japanese Americans sent to these interament camps known as “relocation centers.” There were 10 camps in total among the United States, There were interment camps located in California, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, ‘Wyoming, Colorado, and Arkansas. Within these camps there were many children, adults, seniors, and teenagers. They all had to leave their lives behind because they were considered to be “alien ¢ enemies.” One of the kids in the concentration camps was named, George Takei. Takei had his t 2 father, his mother, a brother, and a sister. His father had a dry-cleaning business in Los Angeles at yt 1) ' the time, Unfortunately, everything had to be sold for barely a portion of what it was actually ma A Ay not just during the time they were in there but as well as being around the : , 7 Ane pe Wy / \ooked at different for their nationality. Takei, ec ti ogo luse of «& \ ae is 4 this. Formed by all the protection his parents tried to provides tiserimination;tftreatment, ge —_— ‘to now being determined, couragepus, strong-minded, inspiring, and the is(at\geag, Thankfully, {-" Tete 9author, an influential leading figure. Takei was form rites [Asa child, Takei wa oblivious of what he and his family wee going SYough because his parents tried to make everything as ordinary and similar as their regular day to day lives were. A e a) photographer named Ansel Adams from the Washington Post went into the internment camps to Awa document photographs of what was going on inside the camps. When he offered the pictures to the yy \ Library of Congress he said, “The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering Re under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of y defeat and despair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment...” This can connect to how no matter what they were going through, they were going to try their best to maintain a normal life. They weren't going to behave like the prisoners they ‘were. They tried to make the best out of everything. All along, without Takei knowing, the whole camp he stayed at tried to make it feel the whole opposite of an internment camp as possible. The ‘Tapanese established it this way not only for their own metal stability but for the sake of their kids. ‘They didn’t want their kids to feel like they were i a prison. George was shaped like this and didn’t ‘think from it until he was old enough to understand, so it gave him a “normal” childhood in his eyes | until he actually knew the reality of it. This framed him to see himself as any other child when hf oe actually was suffering. No one knew about the suffering they were going through besid dh a | Aw This . Japanese who were wrongly imprisoned and the guards on duty. They were inviSiily suff ¢ suffering made his skin thicker. He was formed to be humble, but self-confident while being 0. invisibly afflicted. * yl A couple of years of his childhood were spent in the internment camps so he saw everything | v that was going on but didn’t really understand it until he was old enough to talk about it with his gyOchoa 3 father. A writer for the New York Times, David Brooks, #rote an article discussing the role of, ( suffering in our lives. Brooks mentioned in his article, What Suffering Does” that, “It means ~ seeing life as a moral drama, placing the hard experientes in a moral context and trying to redeem something bad by turning it into something sacred.” 288). This basically correlates to how George about it. He didn’t know why his parents Were i. He only knew that people who travel on A) trains go-ofi Vacation. His parents made sure that they didn’t know the bad side about what was ‘going on. This helped Takei We an attempt of normal memories although they were in this cami. ko Since his parents always protected him and his siblings, he was unaware of what was really ey 4 happening. When they went iz “as even getting treated bad by his teacher. His by ; teacher would neglect him and make him fel ike he was diffrent and did't deserve tobe there. tt | ‘was then when he became aware of what was going on. This type of discrimination made him stronger. ‘The Japanese Americans weren't treated fair. Their time in the internment camps was ‘traumatic. They were all jammed into trains, slept in bams, had very little food, etc. Curious to know the truth and more about what had actually happened, Takei would read all the history books he could find to look further into it. None of the history books or civies books had anything i ‘what was going on since he went to 8 regarding the interment camps, what a coincidence. He studied civics and soon grasped howOchoa 4 democracy did not just for him or any of the other Japanese Americans that were interned. He considered it to be “childhood imprisonment.” In a peer reviewed article called, " Treatment of ( Japanese American Internment During World War II in U.S. History Textbooks” by Masato Ogawa, : they mention, “Discriminatory policies, programs, and practices are still present today.” All of the Japanese race get called names and mistreated being in a country of the free. Takei knew that if no { one knew about it, it would simply repeat itself. This built him to be determined and influential. He knew that it wouldn’t get in the way of him being as outstanding as possible. Even though, he experienced those difficult times, he knew there were still good people in the world. It didn’t make him dislike everyone in the United States. It made him want to meet more people, as well as let ‘everyone know what had truly happened. He wanted people to be informed and make a difference. ‘Not only did this form him to be strong, intelligent, and wise, but he was also influential to those in America, George didn’t let anything get in his way of his dreams. He went to UCLA to study theatre and trained to be an actor. He took part in many musicals. One of these musicals was known as, “Fly Blackbird.” In the book, “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei it mentions how the [ ‘musical sent out a message of “positive change and hope for a common future.” Since Takei went through all those hardships that he didn’t now much about until he understood, he was glad to be able to be a part of the message being spread. His past experiences formed him to be more of an ‘advocator rather than someone who just dwells upon what had happened. A Buddhist Monk and French writer, known as Matthieu Ricard, exchanges his view of there being an alchemy of I suffering. “We all have the potential to sweep away the veils of ignorance to free ourselves of the selfishness and misplaced desire that trigger unhappiness, to work for the good of others, and extract the essence from our human condition. It’s not the magnitude of the task that matters, it’s the ‘magnitude of our courage” (38-39 Ricard). Considering this quote, Takei didn’t let his label as an. om eh ‘enemy carve into him, but he made it something better and not only by embracing it but by not 7 letting this hold him back and putting himself down from it. He used this as a motivation to show ye himself and the people around him how much potential he had. He wasn’t just going to let other of peoples’ words or titles mark his limits. This shaped him and gave him more courage to be an astonishing proponent of those who suffered just like him. Admittedly, acknowledging everything he’s been through, it can really dwell on a person: making them, in this case Takei, hesitant, traumatized, ignorant, unmotivated; however, he was thoroughly encouraged by what he had experienced and wanted to make something so negative acne something that can be used as an example. People tend to go through some sort of hardship automatically think life is going to be negative forever. If everyone was to let themselves go no ‘one would be motivated to be happy and continue to prosper in life. Takei knew what was right m wrong. He knew his worth and he knew he wasn’t an “enemy” in his own. country and wanted et q q make sure everyone of his ancestry knew that as well. Takei is a great example of what they can 1 do with that suffering and building up from it because everyone has the same potential it just takes it jl Us “some determination. People tend to take steps backwards, Takei those steps backwards to give Ma himself a running start. Takei uses his suffering as motivation to Become te ket person an. possibly be. He knew nothing could get in the way of determined motivati yo 5 ‘Therefore, Takei went through a lot as a child. His childhood wash” ‘t necessarily something that most kids go through. Everything he went through weren’t the happiest of moments that are ‘easy to talk about, many kids would be in disturb to talk about them. Other kids would be embarrassed to admit that they were interned into these camps. Takei is an author ‘of a graphic novel explaining everything he went through. He had the courage to let the world know the truth because i everyone deserves to know the hardship they went through. That's something that takes a lot ofOchoa 6 courage after being called an “enemy” in the so known “land of the free.” Fortunately, Takei was strengthened by everything he was put through in his life. He made everything the best it could be and didn’t let anything defeat him or stop him from that,Ochoa 7 Works Cited Brooks, David. “What Suffering Does.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series Editorial Board, Mathew Parfitt and Dawn Skorezewski, 2016. pp. 284-287. Murano, Dan. "Legendary photographer Ansel Adams visited a Japanese interment camp in 1943, here's what he saw." Washingtonpost.com, 20 Nov. 2015. Gale Jn Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https:/link.gale.com/apps/doc/A435175509/OVIC?u=csunorthridges&sid~OVICE&xid=65474 Bf. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019. Ogawa, Masato. “Treatment of Japanese-American Internment During World War II in U.S. History Textbook.” ERIC, 2004. Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints, httpsi/leric.ed.gov/?id=£J718726. Accessed 22 Oct. 2019. Ricard, Matthieu. “The Alchemy of Suffering.” Pursuing Happiness, edited by The Bedford Spotlight Reader Series Editorial Board, Mathew Parfitt and Dawn Skorezewski, 2016. 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