Japanese American Internment Camps 1942 - 1946

LETTER TO THE AUTHOR (10th grade students)

May 12^th, 2016

            Dear Julie Otsuka,

            We are French students in tenth grade at the “Antonin Artaud” high school in Marseille, a city in the south of France. We have read your novel “The Buddha in the Attic” in English class this year.

            A few of us remember the passage where the Japanese women spoke with one another on the boat. One of us remembers the conversations the Japanese girls had with Charles on the boat. Some of us remember the passage where the Japanese Americans suffered discriminations in town. One of us remembers the paragraph about the Japanese children at school and another one remembers the passage about the Japanese women working hard in the fields.

            Some of us didn’t know that there were Japantowns in the western cities of the USA. Several of us didn’t know that Japanese Americans were victims of racism. And none of us knew what “picture bride” meant.

            Several of us were surprised when they read that Japanese girls married men they didn’t know. Some of us were surprised to learn that the Americans forgot the Japanese Americans so soon after they disappeared.

            Some of us were shocked by the violent behaviour of some husbands. Many of us were shocked when we read that the Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes during WWII.

            Most of us were moved when we read that the Japanese Americans were gone. We were moved by the Japanese Americans’ tragic stories.

            We would like to know how you got the information to write this novel. Why did you decide to write this story? Did anyone in your family go through this experience? Why did you use the first person plural? How long did it take you to write the book? How did you feel when you wrote the novel?

            We thank you very much for taking an interest in our letter and we look forward to reading your answer.

            Yours faithfully,

            Paul, Romain, Océane, Nouha, Manuella, Elisa, Maria, Cryola, Sylvain, Yoan, Liam, Ambrine, Léa, Pierre, Thomas, Axel, Luna, Thomas, Elyes, Laura, Ryan, Maëva and Juliette

LETTER TO THE AUTHOR (11th grade students - 1L, LVA)

Extracts from letters written by 11^th graders:( 1L)

“…for me the most beautiful part of the story was the beginning. By the way you wrote the novel, you made things really sad, emotional and universal. The lives of these women weren’t really explained before but we can imagine the suffering and the pain they felt when they had to leave their country……. To my eyes, your novel is a tribute to all these women who wanted a better life…” Carla T.

“…you gave us a real history lesson through these women, bur when we read your book it was more than that. We have emotions, we imagine the situations and we understand by all the details you give us. I wanted to know: in what state of mind were you when you were writing your novel? Léa B

 “The first impression I got when I read your novel was ‘how can a woman be so brave?’ They were so young when they left their country and it broke my heart because they lost everything to come to a new land…” Léa S. 

 “In class, we worked on extracts from you book and we read them with different voices to recreate the illusion of different points of view. We saw a map to try and recreate the path that some of these women took…” Coline L.

 “Your book gave me another look at my life and made me see what some women have to do to have a better life.” Imane K.

 “… We even tried to put ourselves in the shoes of some characters in your novel  by staging some scenes and doing oral presentations” . “Kenza A.

 “ I really like that fact that there is no main character. I think it’s an original and interesting way of writing.” Jade T.

 “ I found it heartbreaking when their own children rejected their mothers and the Japanese culture… I think it’s this passage that struck me the most in your novel. Some of these Japanese women were probably consumed by sadness and sorrow…” Alexia R

 “As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never heard a lot about Japanese immigrants and I think your novel did open our eyes. … I find the “we” voice so interesting. I felt included with all these women…” Adeline L. 

 “You are an amazing writer and I love your book and I hope you write another one soon”. Clémentine L. 

 “… It almost me cry, the way they were treated… it kind of reminds me of segregation with the Jim Crow Law. I’m saying this because they had to ask “Do you serve Japanese people?’ “Do you cut Japanese hair?” Fleur I.

“What reaction did you expect from the readers? Are the stories that you tell in the book real? Lounseny S. 

 “What was your biggest challenge when you wrote your novel? Laura A.

 “It was so striking when I read it. It was just like we were traveling into this period and it struck me. It’s human, funny and sad…”  Morgan C.

 “To me it reads a bit like a song, with short sentences, with a particular sonority.” Laetitia B.  

 ‘’ I enjoyed your book for I am interested in world history and culture… I want to thank you for teaching me what I have never learnt in school and also about your ancestors. “ Antoine A.

 

“Your characters wanted the American Dream, they found hell instead…”  Florian A. 

“Thank you Ms Otsuka for giving us this story, which is unknown to so many people. I wish you lots of beautiful things in your future work.”  Léa R.

 

“Is everything you talk about in the novel true?” Lou D

“ What will your next novel be about?” Marie-Emma C

MAP OF SAN FRANCISCO

http://images.google.fr/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.carolmendelmaps.com%2Fmapsf%2Fdowntown-San-Francisco-map-enlarged.gif&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F151081762469657058%2F&h=791&w=700&tbnid=alivIFmTYoj_YM%3A&docid=LVNOxZoTgaZ5IM&ei=w9beVoeWNIX4UKP5r9AC&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=403&page=1&start=0&ndsp=25&ved=0ahUKEwjHg7iEnLHLAhUFPBQKHaP8CyoQrQMIPDAD

 

MAP OF CITIES IN CALIFORNIA

http://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/states/california/california-maps/california-city.jpg

CALIFORNIA VALLEYS

http://www.lchc.org/wp-content/uploads/regional_networks_map7.png

Japanese Internment camps

three  documents to watch and explore:

 1. http://info.arte.tv/fr/des-camps-pour-americains-dorigine-japonaise

2. http://www.kitagakiphoto.com/#!/p/japanese-american-in : Paul Kitagaki: PHOTOGRAPHER

3. Roger Shimomura: google (Japanese internment camps ) ARTIST

4.  http://www.kitagakiphoto.com/p/japanese-american-in

PICTURE BRIDES

The picture bride system was extremely important to the Japanese immigrants during the early 1900’s. It was a system that allowed Japanese men in the United States to find wives from overseas in order to start families. Japanese bachelors would mail their self portraits to a matchmaker in Japan who then matched the picture with other potential brides. Once the matchmaker found a suitable match, they were married and the bride was sent over on a one-way trip to the United States. Quite often, the only photo that the men had access to were portraits of them when they were much younger. Most often the women in Japan were duped into thinking that their future husband in America were as young as they were in the picture; however this was not the case. The brides later found out as soon as they met their husband for the first time that they were much older than and not as attractive as they once were. In the portraits the bachelors were young, however in reality they had aged from the laborious work of agriculture and the psychological stress of social marginalization. One would assume that the bride could easily just go back home to Japan but because they lacked the funds for a ride back and also because of their culture, it was important to have pride and “save face” and deal with the circumstances on their own in order to prevent shaming the family.