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A review by kaylabjohnson
Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo
4.0
I read Citizen 13660 as part of a course I’m taking on the main currents of American culture since 1865. I enjoyed reading it because it gave me so much insight into a period I have never learned much about-- in high school, Japanese internment was pretty much glossed over, and I never learned the details of what day-to-day life was like for the Japanese Americans held there or what their reactions to it were.
The book includes drawings and writing created by Mine Okubo depicting the harsh realities of Japanese internment, as well as how Japanese Americans sought to endure and overcome their condition, whether that be through beautifying their surroundings, creating art, and entertaining themselves with sports, or simply raising their families to the best of their abilities.
In our class, we discussed the issue of World War II being depicted as the American "good war," which was supposedly being waged to eradicate fascism and uphold democracy as a superior and moral global standard. However, the fact that American citizens and residents were held against their will in these camps, often in squalid conditions, was the exact opposite of this imagined democracy and tolerance and revealed how hypocritical the United States was in its war aims.
It is interesting to think of the paradox of these people having to prove their loyalty and patriotism to the country while being treated like prisoners and second-class citizens. How could they rationalize this? How did they explain to their children why their government kept them enclosed like animals in a zoo but expected them to fight to defend it? This book grapples with that contradiction, as well as what it means to be a loyal American, in a very subtle way that made it fascinating.
Overall, I thought it was a very profound look into a subject that isn’t discussed often, at least in my experience. My professor brought up the importance of reading between the lines, especially in cases where Okubo’s light and nondescript writing contrasts with the stark emotionality of her artwork. At times, you wish she would outright condemn the conditions or rashly scrutinize those in power. Looking through the lens of WWII propaganda, the need to avoid extremism for Okubo’s work to gain a mass audience that largely resented the Japanese, and the simultaneous desire to critique governmental mistreatment and hypocrisy, make it a lot richer of an account than you might expect at first.
The book includes drawings and writing created by Mine Okubo depicting the harsh realities of Japanese internment, as well as how Japanese Americans sought to endure and overcome their condition, whether that be through beautifying their surroundings, creating art, and entertaining themselves with sports, or simply raising their families to the best of their abilities.
In our class, we discussed the issue of World War II being depicted as the American "good war," which was supposedly being waged to eradicate fascism and uphold democracy as a superior and moral global standard. However, the fact that American citizens and residents were held against their will in these camps, often in squalid conditions, was the exact opposite of this imagined democracy and tolerance and revealed how hypocritical the United States was in its war aims.
It is interesting to think of the paradox of these people having to prove their loyalty and patriotism to the country while being treated like prisoners and second-class citizens. How could they rationalize this? How did they explain to their children why their government kept them enclosed like animals in a zoo but expected them to fight to defend it? This book grapples with that contradiction, as well as what it means to be a loyal American, in a very subtle way that made it fascinating.
Overall, I thought it was a very profound look into a subject that isn’t discussed often, at least in my experience. My professor brought up the importance of reading between the lines, especially in cases where Okubo’s light and nondescript writing contrasts with the stark emotionality of her artwork. At times, you wish she would outright condemn the conditions or rashly scrutinize those in power. Looking through the lens of WWII propaganda, the need to avoid extremism for Okubo’s work to gain a mass audience that largely resented the Japanese, and the simultaneous desire to critique governmental mistreatment and hypocrisy, make it a lot richer of an account than you might expect at first.