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Japanese Internment - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The reason why Japanese Buddhists were targeted the most was because "[u]nlike Japanese-American Christian priests and ministers, U.S. government officials closely associated Buddhists with Japan and thus potentially subversive activity."
        -Westward Dharma by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 191
      - The U.S. also targeted Japanese-Americans because they believed they were spies for Japan.
        
        Japanese-Americans were suspected as being spies because "the biggest factor was the pervasive, racially motivated perception among Euro-Americans that Japanese-Americans were likely to be disloyal and unassimilable because of their 'Japanese-ness,' especially their being Buddhist."
        -Westward Dharma by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 193
      - Not only was it the FBI and U.S. government that believed being Buddhists meant being more Japanese, but as well as the public and some Japanese-Americans themselves.
        
        "This perception that Buddhists, in contrast to Christians, were most 'Japanese' than 'American' was not held only by the FBI and the Wartime Relocation Authority (WRA), but also by the public at large and by some members of the Japanese-American community."
        -Westward Dharma by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 191-192
  - - - It was obvious that "[b]eing Buddhist -while being American- was a red flag for investigators."
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 41
        
        This can be seen in how "[a] number of American citizen Shinto and Buddhist priests -but no Christian minister- were taken into custody and interned as if they were enemy aliens."
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 41
      - It's due to this presumption that "many Buddhists stopped practicing their faith of being labeled anti-American. Other converted to Christianity in a show of patriotism."
        -Asian Religions in America by Thomas A. Tweed and Stephen Prothero pg. 160
      - This "presumption that Japanese-American Christians were necessarily more loyal to the United States" was one of the main reasons that Buddhism became Americanized.
        
        Since being Christian meant being more American, Buddhist organizations, such as the Young Buddhist Association (YBA), decided to implement more Christian themes with Buddhism.
        
        For example, "the organization's first priority was to establish Buddhist Sunday schools." Sunday school is a Christian theme that the YBA wanted to implement.
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 124
  - - - As a result, the YBA organized sport events, social dances, and pageants all to prove their "American loyalt[y]".
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 126
    - - An idea circulated where Buddhists should celebrate "the Buddha's entrance into nirvana on Christmas" in order to spread Buddhism "throughout the world."
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 137
    - - This can be seen when "a public election was held to select twelve officers for [a] camp's Board of Directors of Buddhists, from a slate of twenty-two candidates."
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 145
- - - - "Anyone with more than 1/16th Japanese ancestry was subject to the removal."
        -Campu: A Podcast episode: Fences (18:05-18:10)
      - The executive order was issued after Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. To remove the threat of the possibility that some Japanese-Americans were spies, all of them were sent to the internment camps.
    - - During one of the trails of the draft resisters, a "lawyer told the judge that he didn't want to sit at the same table as his client, whom he saw as quote 'a traitor to the country.' The judge -former Idaho Governor Chase A. Clark- believed the solution to the so-called 'Jap problem' was to quote 'send them all back to Japan, then sink the island.'"
        -Campu: A Podcast episode: Fences (25:15-25:33)
    - - During an interrogation, David Kobata, 21 and an American citizen, was told "to step on an image of the Japanese Emperor to prove his loyalty to the United States".
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 39
      - While they were incarcerated, every morning Japanese-Americans "had to say the Pledge of Allegiance" to show their patriotism to the United States.
        -Campu: A Podcast episode: Fences (16:27-16:56)
      - While they weren't told to do this, some Japanese-Americans "burned Japanese-language books and other Japanese cultural artifacts to literally and symbolically destroy their 'Japanese-ness' and demonstrate their 'American-ness.'"
        -Westward Dharma by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 194
      - While he wasn't forced to do so, "[a]lmost immediately after he moved to Topaz, Bishop Matsukage pledged loyalty to the United States and against the Axis powers in a pronouncement that was widely circulated within the organization and showcased to WRA authorities."
        -American Sutra by Duncan Ryuken Williams pg. 145
- - - - Shoichi James Okamoto was shot and killed by a guard. "The guard was fined one dollar for the ‘unauthorized use of government property'—the bullet. He was acquitted of homicide."
        -Paraphrased and quoted from Campu: A Podcast episode: Fences (13:19-14:08)
      - Toshio Kobata, 58, suffered from tuberculosis and Hiroto Isomura, 59, suffered from "a spinal column injury". On their way to the U.S. Army internment camp, both men fell behind the group they were walking with. During the walk, Private Clarence A. Burleson killed Kobata and Isomura, testifying that they "'started running.' Two disabled, middle-aged men. The court-martial acquitted Burleson on both counts."
        -Paraphrased and quoted from Campu: A Podcast episode Fences (12:29-13:18)
      - After the arrest of an incarceree, who spoke against mismanagement by the WRA, protests ensued. The military police threw tear and vomit-gas grenades at the crowd. Some protesters were blindly running towards the police station resulting in some soldiers firing at them. "9 were wounded. 2 were killed."
        -Paraphrased and quoted from Campu: A Podcast episode: Fences (11:38-12:08)
      - Private First Class Gerald Philpott shot and killed 63 year old James Hatsuki Wakasa. Philpott was charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted.
        -Paraphrased from Campu: A Podcast episode: Fences (11:01-11:24)
    - - In 1885, a mob of 1500 people forced all Chinese people out of Seattle
      - In 1871 the largest mass lynching in the country occurred when 17 Chinese immigrant men were lynched by a mob of 500 in L.A.
      - Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): Chinese laborers were not allowed to become citizens and those with Chinese ancestry faced difficulty leaving and (re)entering the country
      - California's 1913 Alien Land Law prohibited all aliens who weren't eligible for citizenship (i.e. Asian immigrants) could not own land or sign up for a lease that was longer than three years
        
        Several Asians had to move from the that they owned
      - Immigration Act of 1924: persons with Japanese ancestry weren't allowed in the country
      - Americans feared that the Japanese were going to come and overrun the country with their high birth rates and aggressiveness
    - - In 1982, a Chinese American was beaten to death because his attackers believed he was Japanese and blamed him for the economic decline in the auto industry
      - Four days after 9/11, a Sikh gas station owner was murdered because his attacker blamed him for the terrorist attack
      - Eight weeks after 9/11, more than a thousand incidents of racial violence were reported, including nineteen murders, attacks on places of worship, and personal intimidation and harassment.
      - In August of 2012, a shooting rampage occurred at Oak Creek, Wisconsin that left 6 Sikh Americans dead.
      - After 9/11, South Asian Americans faced systemic racism in the form of profiling and surveillance by various government agencies and officials
    - - Several people blame Asians for the global pandemic caused by Covid-19.
        
        People have called Covid-19 the "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus"
        
        An Asian woman was attacked for wearing a face mask on a NYC subway on 2/2/2020
        
        An Asian woman was sprayed with Lysol whilst she waited on line at a pharmacy and was told that she was the infection, and was told to go home
        
        Donald Trump had tweeted messages with the words "Chinese virus" essentially enabling others to blame China for the Covid-19 virus