I cant imagine being a person of Japanese decent during this time. You can be an American and life a totally normal American life one day, then the next "people looked at all of us, both citizens and aliens, with suspicion and mistrust" (12). Mine Okubo was very lucky that her friends didn't abandon her as well but the unjust treatment forced upon her and her brother must have been very scary and confusing. It seems that they got the best case scenario however. They were both able to stay together, and while the living conditions and restriction were awful compared to the freedom they were use to, it all didn't seem as bad as I would have expected. Its possible that having small narrations accompanied by cartoon styled pictures lessoned the blow of the whole experience for the reader. Perhaps if the layout of the story was done in a more formal way it would have given more intensity to the story and pulled more of a reaction out of me than it did. I found myself saying at the end of the story "okay? Is that it?". The only part that really struck me out of the whole narration was the idea of having to leave your hard earned home for an unknown location all because of something people that look like you did.
Irene Bloomer
I couldn't help but think of the Nazi concentration camps while reading this graphic novel. Having read a few pieces of work from Jewish individuals and their experiences in a camp,(Night by Elie Wiesel and various poets), there is a difference in the writing of this novella and the writing of the others. This graphic novel had a very ambivalent tone to it, the author was simply stating what was going on, she never gave a personal opinion or showed/told too much emotion. Truthfully internment is not ideal any respect the Japanese dealt with much better conditions than prisoners of Nazi Germany camps. The Japanese we still corralled into same cramp areas in miserable conditions and any deaths that occur within the camp were due to health or hazard in the concentration camp there was active extermination. I think still is why the author did not complain about the conditions or treatment within the camp, she just merely observed and recorded it.
ReplyDeleteI sort of disagree about the ambivalence of the author. While she was recording the events taking place, I think that was her way of showing her emotion. In the novel, the family seemed absent when telling their story, like part of their emotion was just left off the page. Okubo, who took a different approach, really tried to present emotion in the only way she knew how: art. I agree that if she hadn't drawn the pictures the text would have been lacking significantly; but by telling this story in a much different way, she was projecting her opinion. It was just less obvious than the words on the pages of the novel.
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