“A Challenge to Democracy” clip

In the clip called, “A Challenge to Democracy,” the Japanese-Americans in America were basically told what to do without exception. The idea was to “Americanize” them by shipping the off to centers around the United States to form their own communities. This was during the time of the war. The living conditions of these Japanese-Americans were described as having community bathrooms, kitchens and small bedrooms. These were situations that these people were forced to adjust to. Farming was pretty much their only choice of jobs and it didn’t pay well either. These were the circumstances unless professional skills had previously been developed. In this case, under supervision, they were allowed to hold other jobs. Classes could be taken to enable them to get better jobs within the American economy. This was all done in hopes of benefiting the country.

How did this sudden change in these Japanese-Americans’ lives ultimately alter their perception of the U.S. as well as their own lives? This clip was very hard to watch because I felt as though all of this happened to these people solely because of the way they looked; Japanese. Nevermind the American part, but what was looked at was the Japanese part.