In the article ‘Japanese American Women During World War II’, Valerie Matsumoto makes the statement that “the war altered Japanese American women’s lives in complicated ways”[1]. The rest of the article is a testament to that very fact, as Matsumoto simultaneously evokes the difficult hardships and the surprising advancements in the lives of Japanese women both during and after life in the internment camps.

Having been completely uprooted from their homes and swept into the camps, despite the fact that the vast majority of the Japanese Americans were citizens with the same rights as any other American, life in internment camps was undeniably traumatic. Such notions are reflected in Miné Okubo’s graphic novel Citizen 13660, one of the few visual representations from the period created by an actual evacuee, which depicts the mixture of both anger, sadness and despair at the prospect of entering the camps, as seen in the image below.[2]                                                     

Life in the camps subsequently had a significant impact on family relations and affected all women in the camps. Poor communal facilities coupled with overcrowded barracks meant that, as Matsumoto contends, “the sense of injustice and frustration took their toll on a people uprooted, far from home”[3]. Again, these ideas are similarly evoked in Miné Okubo’s graphic novel, in which she draws out the complete lack of privacy and the cramped living conditions that the Japanese women had to face on a daily basis.                                                      

Despite these awful living conditions, Matsumoto also notes a sense of growing independence for Japanese women in the camps, fostered by the fact that both men and women received the same wages for work. This equity in pay, Matsumoto contends, subsequently gave women the opportunity to explore the variety of jobs available for them in the camps. However, what I found most surprising was that the camps had newspapers, such as The Mercedian, The Daily Tulean Dispatch and the Poston Chronicle, which subsequently gave women the opportunity to create columns specifically for women, particularly aimed at Nisei women. The content of these columns mirrored the mainstream periodicals of the time, varying from how to impress boys, take care of their skin, to what the latest fashions were and subsequently reflected a desire to keep morale high despite the depressing environment. Such notions can also be seen in Citizen 13660, in which the resourceful way people create furniture to gardens from next to nothing is inspiring. Okubo therefore shed’s light on how although the camps were unjust, the Japanese women and men were able to overcome the hardships they endured.                                                          

Ultimately, I think that this period of American history is widely understudied, and being from the UK, I have never even studied Japanese internment until now. Therefore, I think personal accounts, such as Miné Okubo’s Citizen 13660 and the talk we were supposed to have with Lorna Uno, are vital for constructing an important narrative to a relatively ignored historical past.

[1] Valerie Matsumoto, “Japanese American Women During World War II” in Women’s America, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 535.

[2] Miné Okubo, Citizen 13660  (New York: University of Washington Press, 1983)

[3] Valerie Matsumoto, “Japanese American Women During World War II” in Women’s America, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (New York: Oxford University Press,  2016), 531.

 [3]

The shortage of labor seen after millions of young American men shipped out to the European and Pacific Theaters gave women the opportunity to transcend any sexist notions of what jobs and professions they could do. These jobs ranged not only in places like the industrial or business sectors but also in entertainment areas, like big band jazz. Sherrie Tucker explores this last point in her “When Subjects Don’t Come Out.” Although largely a piece regarding the quandaries surrounding the question of sexuality in these outfits, especially in the 40s, the article dives a bit into the fact that this void was being filled by these women, who came up out of the niche and into more mainstream demand. She states, “In the 1940s, however, they helped to fill the wartime demand for dance music and the band shortage caused by the draft vulnerability of male musicians.” [4] Tucker shows how widespread and prolific the issue of “wartime shortage” was, and how much women could fill these gaps.

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Women were coming to the forefront in various ways, and Japanese American women were no different. Once released from the camps and relocated from the West Coast, Japanese American found jobs for themselves in industries that were cut off from the previously twofold – for gender and race. “Prior to the war, racism had excluded the Japanese Americans from most white-collar clerical and sales positions…” but by 1950, “47 percent of employed Japanese American women were clerical and sales workers and operatives; only 10 percent were in domestic service,”  domestic service being their premiere pre-war profession. [6]

During the war, women, both of color and not, were able to assert themselves and provide in ways previously barred from them. Entertainment, business, industrial work – it was all needed, and they could do it. Japanese Americans benefited from this labor need, both in overcoming societal prejudices of their sex as well as their race, a factor that subjected them to harsh treatment in camps just months before. Although a largely destructive force for many different reasons, World War II also provided the means for women to make a chip in the wall that is societal gendered segregation.

[1] Valerie Matsumoto, “Japanese American Women During World War II.” In Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, 531. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[2]  Matsumoto, 532.

[3]  Dorothea Lange, “Internment,” Getty Images.

[4]  Sherrie Tucker, “When Subjects Don’t Come Out.” In Queer Episodes: In Music and Modern Identity, 294. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

[5]  Charles Harris, “All-Female Band,” Getty Images.

[6]  Matsumoto, 535.