Otsuka Oppression

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, oppression is a concept that means unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power. At first, it was difficult for me to fully comprehend the meaning of oppression. However, following our class readings, this concept has become clearer to me. As mentioned by Simone Weil, “Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.” In order to understand oppression you need to walk in ones shoes. The class readings gave us an inside look and life examples of how oppression comes about. Oppression is not something that happens overnight.
Reading this the author shows how little historical and cultural differences matter. We feel as if we know these women who are telling their stories. These women were oppressed: for being women and for being Japanese. In the final sentence of "First Night," Otsuka writes, "They took us swiftly, repeatedly, all throughout the night, and in the morning when we woke we were theirs." This quote demonstrates how their identity and everything they once knew has now vanished and been taken away from them. The women began to overlook or maybe intentionally disregard where they came from and who they really are deep inside their souls. They said, "We forgot about Buddha. We forgot about God. . . . I fear my soul has died. . . . And often our husbands did not even notice we’d disappeared." This is a very powerful line the book. It is suggesting the lost of their inner-selves. Otsuka writes of the women’s children, "One by one all the old words we had taught them began to disappear from their heads. They forgot the names of the flowers in Japanese. They forgot the names of the colors". This is significant because it shows how the children’s cultural inheritance would die out along with their race and