Itachi was furious.
It wasn't the red hot angry fury that made people want to protest, scream, or yell. No, my older brother's fury was a kind that bit at your fingertips like the cold air that cut to your bones. I hated it when Executive Order 9066 came up, because then Itachi would just become angry and frankly, it was at those times that Itachi reminded me of father the most. Then was when the bitter torrent of sadness and hurt hit me the most. It had been a little more than two months since the funeral, and still it tore at me in a gut wrenching emotional pain that my father had chosen to leave us on our own when we needed him the most.
However, temporarily I would find myself forgetting about it, getting distracted by the things that were happening in the here and now. With all that was going on, I was surprised that I didn't forget more than what I already did. It was almost ridiculous how hearing a rumor about a mass 'evacuation' of the Japanese Americans all throughout California could make me forget about the feelings of sadness, and instead make me focus on my own conflicting emotions of indignation and resignation. Why weren't they rounding up the German American citizens? Or the Italians? We were at war with them too, not just Japan! It struck me as unfair that even the Nissei - the second generation Japanese Americans, the ones who'd been born here in the 'States – were being shunted into the same category of 'those Japs'. I wasn't a Jap! I was an American Citizen! But no one could see the difference. Congress men advocated for "Catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps… Damn them! Let's get rid of them now!" and the attorney general of California said that Japanese Americans had "infiltrated…every strategic spot," like we were spy's of some sort! And General John L. DeWitt summed up the overall mentality of America by stating "A Jap is a Jap!"
A Jap is a Jap? But I'd never been to Japan in my lifetime. I spoke Japanese, yes, and I had rice and miso soup for breakfast when my mother made it. However, I wore red white and blue at the Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles, and I cheered on the American teams. My family bought war bonds, just like any other American family, and we flew the American flag on Independence Day! What was to say that we were any less American that the Norwegian family down the street, besides our faces?
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
That's what made it so bitter when the evacuations actually started. General DeWitt took great pleasure in submitting the order to have Terminal Island, a fishing community near San Pedro, be the first place for the 'evacuations' to take place. Since these people were close to a naval base, they were giving neither leeway nor understanding. They had three days to pack up their lives and submit to wherever it was the Government was taking them. They were forced to sell everything, and were horribly exploited, suffering painful financial loss. Everyone knew that this was real now, and were just waiting for their turn. Mother started to pack some of our nicer things as soon as we first heard the news. All of our books that we didn't read, all of our plates and glassware was put carefully away into our basement in boxes, and the photo albums that we'd filled near to bulging over the years were wrapped up lovingly and sent to our cousins in New York.
It left a bitter taste in my mouth, watching my mother keeping her head held high as she submitted to the hysteric whims of the our government. The government of the free. Itachi and I had tried to get her to stop packing, telling her that it might not even affect us, and that it was silly to worry about it now but all we got in return was a scolding. She told us that it was always best to be prepared.
I'd been hoping that mother was just being overly cautious, my instinctual pride in my country warring with my more practical pragmatic side. I was hoping that this would all blow over, and that my family would not be torn up more than it already had been. However the five-mile travel limit and the 8:00 p.m. curfew stood in place and taunted my optimism. We were being treated like prisoners in our own country.
Then on April 21st a new headline shattered the fragile order I'd managed to gather, and the calm in the Uchiha family.
Japs Given Evacuation Orders Here!
Moving swiftly, without any advance notice, the Western Defense Command today ordered Berkeley's estimated 1,319 Japanese, aliens and citizens alike, evacuated to the Tanforan Assembly center by noon, May 1.
That left us exactly ten days to pack up our entire lives into 'whatever we could carry'.
And Itachi was furious.
Here's another chapter. It's kind of short, but I want to do some more research on Tanforan Assembly center before I write anything about it. As always, reviews are nice, and opinions are divine.
Loves~
