Question: What can we
learn from petitions written by interned Japanese American citizens during WWII?
Answer/Quote: “However
successful or unsuccessful they may have been in changing the internees’
circumstances, these documents provide evidence for subsequent generations that
their Issei forbears were neither
passive nor afraid to raise their voices to argue for change in their lives.
They contribute to the ‘written legacy’ of resistance desired by Mira
Shimabukuro. When these petitions were viewed as historical and rhetorical
documents, we can see that the internees in a sense put their lives on the line
to make their political arguments. In doing so, they show that they somehow had
maintained some belief in a system that had failed them. Perhaps that belief
made them the supreme patriots and democrats: they had faith that the written
word in America would somehow convey not only their views, but more important,
their humanity.” P. 66.
Comment: The NCTE is apparently suggesting the study
of writing for resistance. Several articles have featured the writing of
indigenous people like the Cherokee, and now this article on the petitions of Japanese -American internees during WWII.
Interesting. RayS.
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