Camp Notes by Mitsuye Yamada

Nationality can be acquired by birth within the jurisdiction of a state, by inheritance from parents, or by a process of naturalization. However, no matter what nationality you are, you will never be able to change your race. Race describes genetically divergent populations of humans that can be marked by common phenotypic and genotypic traits. Some people can take advantage of their race; others have to suffer greatly with their race. The readings of this week are mainly about Japanese in the United States during the World War II. Civilians are always the victims of any social turbulence. What have they done wrong? Most of the people just want to have a normal life; to have a complete home where they do not have to worry about where they will be the next moment.

Evacuation

As we boarded the bus
bags on both sides
(I had never packed two bags before on a vacation lasting forever)
the Seattle Times
photographer said
Smile!
so obediently I smiled
and the caption the next day read:
Note smiling faces
a lesson to Tokyo.

It is so sad to read this poem where people were evacuated from their home due to the war between Japan and United States. Although they were sad and anxious about what will happen to them next, they were asked to smile. It is a smile with bitterness because nobody wants to be kicked out of their own community. I feel like the author of the poem was forced to smile since he mentioned that he obediently smiled to the photographer. Also, I think the exclamation mark could mean that the action was instead a command. The title of this poem is “Evacuation” however; the poem ended up with a note that says smiling faces a lesson to Tokyo. It is just an illusion that the media want to deliver to the public that evacuating Japanese or Japanese American is under their will or they are happy to be relocated.

Curfew

In our area
was a block head
who told us
what’s what
in a warden’s helmet.

Turn off your lights
it’s curfew time!
I was reading
with a flashlight
under my blanket
but the barracks boards
in the hot sun
had shrunk slyly
telling
bars of light

Off with your lights

There must be no lights

There is no freedom when people were put into the control camp. They have no freedom for everything even reading books. All the things has to be under controlled and under the instruction of the warden. In other words, people are treated as prisoners and all the rights have been taken away. Also, reading is a transgressive act and this will be the heaviest punishment to the Japanese or Japanese Americans locked in the control camp because they were being decivilized. What else can these people do after they were released? They can only become another Chinese men since what they only know to do are rough works.

The poem “Cincinnati” is the story after Japanese Americans were released from the control camp. However, due to the level of hatred, Japanese American or Japanese immigrants were still largely discriminated. It is interesting that the author started the poem by telling “I walked against the rush hour traffic. My first day in real city where no one knew me.” and ended the poem with the phrase “Everyone knew me.” “Dirty jap” “I” in the story was offended by the people in the city because he is Japanese. Although people don’t know this person, but people know Japanese in general, and they are the enemy of the public.


Works Cited

Yamada, Mitsuye. "Evacuation." Camp Notes. Print.
Yamada, Mitsuye. "Curfew." Camp Notes. Print.
Yamada, Mitsuye. "Cincinnati." Camp Notes. Print.

Let's go Pinoy let's go.........

I especially like this week’s reading because “Rico” by Peter Bacho is mainly talking about a Filipino kid in the US and his talents, behaviors, characteristics, and plans. One reason why I like this very much is because I am from the Philippines. On top of it many Filipinos are good fighters. In old days, when we talked about boxing, we will automatically refer to Muhammad Ali. However, in recent years, Manny Pacquiao is the rising star in boxing. His full name is Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao. He is a Filipino professional boxer. He is a seven-division world champion, and the first boxer to win nine world titles in seven different weight divisions. He is also the first boxer in the history to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. (Wikipedia) One interesting thing about Manny Pacquiao is people created a nickname for him. “Money” Pacquiao is a more common nickname to be called. Manny is similar to money” and Pacquiao in Filipino means grab all of them. And one reason why this is more of a common nickname is because he won most of the fighting and took all the money.

I have personally met Manny Paquiao in several awarding ceremonies in the Philippines. We both were selected to be the Top 10 outstanding sportsman of the year in the Philippines. On top of it, he had visited our training venue for couple times. Now that I read the story “Rico” I found some interesting common traits from Filipino fighters. “Rico was short and wiry, but he made up for it by being strong, fast, and clever.” (Bacho 18) This is what exactly reporters and people praise Manny Pacquiao in the news. He is about my height, but his fists are so powerful that I can almost compare him to Bruce Lee. He has a very good sense of fighting. His moves are sharp, neat, and effective. He is definitely a gifted boxer.

Philippines is called as the Pearl of the East. It is the country of music and art. Actually my first impression to Manny Pacquiao the first time we met was his fancy music sunglass. The music was a little big loud. He was listening to rap songs. I think the reason why athletes like rap songs is because of its rhythms. It is fast and strong which fits for many athletes. However, I can sense some discrimination or racism in the story. “Filipinos always hired black bands: this was black music, not white, and the horns make it raw and powerful, something white bands could never do.” (Bacho 19) It is more of between black people and white people. I think the author was sort of separating Blacks from Whites, and he also mentioned that Blacks are more masculine and Whites are more feminine.

Manny Pacquiao was poor when he was young, yet he became rich from winning many games. Millions of dollars then flow into his pocket. Since he is the center of the media, he has to be responsible of his behaviors and characteristics. While in the story, Rico Divina was from a poor family and he has nothing else to lose. But people want to be given attention and become popular. So, he chose to be the baddest which worked well. People scared of him and girls wanted to follow him. He even got a collection of many girls’ contact information. This maybe is not the best way, but it worked for him at that time.

I think Rico treated Buddy as his brother. In fact, at some point, I thought that Buddy is the imaginary friend created by Rico. Just like having dual personality. I watched a movie about a tough nut having dual personality where his friend always advised him to hold his tempered and avoid him to be impulsive. Buddy is another side of Rico where he wants to stay for another year, goes to college, and receives education. Buddy is a good listener to Rico and someone that he can talk to. The main reason why I have this weird thought was because of the movie I watched. Also, Rico became somehow sentimental when talking to Buddy which I think a touch guy like him would never do because he doesn’t want to look WEAK?!

Homebase

The story started with the author recalling his youth. He recalled his father and personally expressed that his father is important to him. He loved his father very much. “When a son or daughter dies, the parents have another or adopt another child to raise and love”. “When a father dies, there is only violence” (Wong 8). I think I can feel how the author felt that time because I treated my parents as the center of my life. When I was young, I love to be around with my father. He taught me things and told me stories and different things. Now that I am here in the US, everything is just different and I miss my parents. I think the author want to express his loneliness and that loneliness has a large impact on him. Interestingly, he also revealed that her mother had the loneliness moment too where her mother received a letter from China after she married to Rainsford’s father telling her that China was closed to her, that it is no longer her home (Wong 10).
The loneliness expanded to Ransford's great grandfather where he worked alone in the US as a railroad worker. His great grandfather came to the US illegally. The risk of getting in to the US is very high where they were chained together on the lifeboat and cannot escape or swim when disasters happened. His great grandfather has a wife in China, yet they can’t get to see each other. Although she eventually made the way to the US, she was killed in this land. To the great grief, the great grandfather determined to move deeper into this land. But then, the great grandfather sent his son back to China for being rejected by this land. From here, we can see there is another separation which eventually leads to loneliness.
“The wind did not bring death, but the dread of it in any season was even more powerful than the freezing nights of winter that stiffened the limbs of the sleeping workers”. “After few hours, the wind makes them deaf, and after a few days of the strong wind, they begin to lose their sense”. The author is excellent at using or creating these scenes to show reader that loneliness is more intimidating than death. He vividly presented to readers how lonely people were during the railroad construction period in 1800’s. How much dedication should one made to stay and work under such a condition? Probably no one, but Chinese workers had no choice, but to bear the loneliness so that they can earn income for their love ones in China.
This story is full of sorrows and memories. Rainsford showed his loneliness by tracking the history of his family through letters. I especially like the part when he talked about many Chinese workers had contributed their time, effort, skill, and even lives here in the US, yet not being recognized in the history today and just quietly buried in this land. Also there were funny conversations between Rainsford and the Indian old man. The Indian old man was making fun of Rainsford that he was more Chinese than Rainsford. Another thing that I think is great was when the Indian old man told Rainsford: “This is your country. Go out and make yourself at home.” (Wong 83). I think this is the message to tell Rainsford that is it time to get out of grieves and loneliness.

Gish Jen’s short story “Who is Irish?” is very interesting. First of all, her writing style is very different. While I read the story, I can feel that the author is very Chinese because she chooses to write the story with some kind of broken English, and it is sometimes funny. “My daughter tell me I should not say Irish this, Irish that”. (Jen 177) At first, I thought this story is mainly about Irish culture or something related to Irish topic. However, the main story is actually about an immigrant grandmother that shares her story about cultural gaps. There are different kinds of gaps presented in this story. First, the grandmother talked about how parents were treated differently in China and in the US. In China, children have to take care of their parents and serve them as their top priority. Yet in the US, it is the other way around. And if the parents did not offer the help, the children will complain that their parents are not supportive. (Jen 177) Actually this practice of children taking care of their parents when their parents get old is not only in China, but in different parts of Asia. It is our obligation to take care of our parents because this is one way to show our love.

The grandmother is somehow contemptuous of her son-in-law (John) because he was unemployed, yet he does nothing but going to gym and leave his wife (Natalie) to be the only source of income of the family. This is another cultural gap. In Asia, it is the responsibility of the husband to earn income for the family that’s why the grandmother said: “if John lived in China, he would be very happy”.

I think the most interesting part of the story is when the grandmother talked about spanking her granddaughter (Sophie) for her misbehaviors and the stories came with it. In Asia, many parents spank their children when their children did something wrong. When I said something wrong, it means something that is not tolerable or something really bad. This is actually very effective, because my parents used to spank us when we were young and did something silly. We did not complain nor hate our parents for spanking us because we understand the message that our parents want us to understand. It is just a small punishment that we need to keep in mind and should not repeat the same mistake.

I was kind a surprised with anger when Natalie asked her mother to move out of the house because she spanked Sophie. This is not acceptable especially Natalie was raised with Chinese culture. The grandmother was heartbroken when Natalie and John threw some heartrending words on her. “You are crazy!” said Natalie and “It is your family”, said John. (Jen 185) It is true that the grandmother should not use stick to hit Sophie, but Natalie should listen to her mother’s explanation first. Sophie was too stubborn, and the grandmother was too old to jump into the foxhole to bring Sophie out. Besides, if she wanted to blame her mother, it should be in front of her husband and Sophie because the grandmother will lose her face. In Asia, under no circumstances a child should take care of their parents at all cost. We will never exist if our parents didn’t bring us to this wonderful world and took care of us.



http://asianweek.com/062499/ae_gishjen.html

This is the link to an interview taken in 1994. I actually thought that Jen was the grandmother before I read this article. LOL