Kailyn+Lyon

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Farewell to Manzanar __  Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese in December of 1941. The FBI then took everyone who had Japanese contact or history into internment camps. Nearly 1,000 Japanese-Americans were imprisoned in these internment camps. They had poor housing, food, and sanitation with little experienced authorization. They were held there for three and a half years, and then released after America had won World War ll. The internment camps were located in Owens Valley.

This photo is of many Japanese-Americans waiting for food. It was like this almost everyday.

They would also have very limited housing and space. Although the authorization loosened after a few years into the war, they still had many restrictions. They could only go certain places with certain people.

They also had a war questionnaire. It stated: 1) Are you willing to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?  2) Will you swear unqualified allegiance too the United States of America and faithfully defend the United states from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and foreswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization? You had a choice to say yes or no to any of the questions. Soon after, you would have to get deployed to the war and if you resisted, you would end up in jail. Many people gathered to see their sons, husbands, and families leave. Sadly, many of them did not return.

Luckily, in the year of 1945, all Japanese-Americans were released and able to move on with their lives. The American Friends Service helped many people find homes, jobs and supplied money until they had enough.

Site1: Google Summary: It basically states that soldiers kept momentos for good luck. Like the famous //senninbari// flag, or thousand stitch belt. It is square and white with a red circle in the middle and it has japenese writing over the edges. Similar to the one in the newspaper. My Opinion: I thought this was an excellent paragraph.

Site 2: Aol Summary: There were three main types of flags seen in Japan during the war. The first was the national flag, which remains unchanged to this day. It consists of a simple red circle on a white background. The red circle represents the sun, which has particular significance to the Japanese since their creation myth maintains that they are descended from Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. These flags are called //hinomaru// in Japanese, which means "circular sun". American collectors have often less respectfully called them "meatball" flags, to distinguish them from the other types shown below. Here is a period plain, unadorned //hinomaru// flag. Note that I show the flag with the tabs for attaching it to a staff on the right, rather than the left as is common in North America. This is how flags are usually shown in Japanese military manuals and how they are usually oriented when decorated with signatures, as shown further below (though there are exceptions, as also shown below). Early flags tend to have tabs made of leather like this one, while later ones seem more likely to have tabs made of cheaper materials like cardboard. The flags themselves were usually made of either cotton or silk. Some may also be rayon, a silk-like synthetic that was widely used in Japan in that period, but I am not enough of a fabric expert to be able to distinguish between rayon and silk very well. The hinomaru is by far the most common type of flag that was decorated to make a good luck flag.