Optimism In Japanese Internment Camps

The Japanese diaspora from their homes to the camps was unjustified. It was an act of hypocrisy. When the Japanese were in the internment camps, the conditions were very unhygienic. “The poorly built barracks were not much more than wooden frames covered in tarpaper. There was no insulation to ward off the brutal winter cold or the stifling summer heat. Inside, they had no running water, no kitchen or toilet facilities, and blinding dust storms blew dirt and grime through cracks in the walls”(Murphy 2-3). Despite all of this they managed to survive. The two characteristics that allowed them were optimism and faithfulness.
Optimism played a huge key role in the survival and recovery of the Japanese-Americans from the internment camps. “Despite harsh conditions, internees found ways to rebuild their lives on the Snake River plain… Many living in the camp went to work in camp offices, canteens, mess halls, hospitals, school and fields”(Murphy 3). People need some sense of reconstruction. If they find work and make money, they would have a similar feeling of what they had outside the camp. Many people didn’t have any hard feelings towards the encampment. Some believe that the experience had made them better people. It made people try
The Japanese used their optimism to look at the good side of everything. If you didn’t look at the good of everything you would become depressed and sip alcohol all day just like Jeanne’s father. “Day after day he would sip his rice wine of his apricot brandy, sip till he was blind drunk and passed out”(Houston 47). The Japanese used their faithfulness to follow what they believed in. In times of peril or melancholia, people would pray to god to grant them strength to pass them or just feel better. Overall, without these attributes the Japanese wouldn’t have been able to survive. Henceforth, this is how the Japanese