I found Valerie Matsumoto’s article Japanese Women during World War II  to be both interesting and informative. The chronological structure allowed for easy reading that flowed logically from “Prewar Background,” the first section, to “Resettlement: College and Work,” detailing the lives of Japanese-American “Nisei” women in the later years of the war and post-war readjustment.  From the beginning of the essay, when Matsumoto states her aim, to the straightforward conclusion at the end, her ideas flowed logically and chronologically, a strategy that I found effective when discussing both wartime and its progressions, and the differences between generations. The clear cut-definitions of Nisei and Issei and the contrasts and comparisons between them allowed for easy understanding of the differences between generations and where those differences came from. I thought the way that Matsumoto described the general differences as stemming from both camp life and war life, as well as being a natural and normal part of growing up in a new generation, made sense and allowed the reader to understand not only what happened, but also why it happened.  Her varied perspectives, taken from Japanese-American women with different backgrounds and experiences both within the camp and outside it, allowed us to see the whole picture of Nisei women’s lives and their various possibilities. Additionally, the way that she detailed daily life in the camp was effective when coupled with ideas of changing values and how these impacted Japanese-American women. Overall, this article gave me a good overview of how internment and the war affected Japanese-Americans, and specifically how it affected second-generation Japanese-American women, who went to college, married for love, and found new and different roles outside of the home. When we think about this article in the context of today’s society, how might we compare what happened to the Japanese with what some politicians talk about today regarding different groups? How do people who have experienced cultural trauma on a large scale cope with it, and does this coping differ depending on the race, ethnic group, or social status of the traumatized? How might Japanese-American culture be different today if the internment hadn’t happened? To what extent did this shape what it means to be Japanese-American? I wonder, did these events reverberate within Japan? How would Japanese-Americans with relatives in Japan have reacted differently than those without or younger generations? Would they have reacted differently depending on family ties?

-Maggie Lindrooth