In America, every citizen is entitled to individual freedoms as captured in the American constitution. In the orange story, Japanese citizens were limited their freedoms due to racism by the American government after Japan had bombed pearl harbor. Many Japanese nationals had to sell their properties in which they had gathered and built for years. Properties were sold at low market prices, and the Japanese were forced to buy commodities at a higher price. This inconvenienced them even after having the freedom to move and to settle in any part of the country. This is similar to Nisei’s daughter’s story, which shows how their freedom was ignored during the family camp experience.
Itois family experience share similarities to Koji’s story since both are experiences of before and during the war. In all stories, the incident happened after the executive order 9066 authorizing the military to incarcerate all Japanese and American Japanese from the west court to justify national security concerns. Both families experienced losses since they had to leave their properties behind by selling that at low prices. Their living standards changed and became expensive since they were forced to pay high for commodities compared to the native American citizen. Freedom to equal treatment of citizens was ignored, and the order’s implementation was done and led by the military influencing the natives.
Japanese experienced discrimination based on their ethnicity. They paid a higher price for goods in stores. Koji paid 50 cents for a bag of oranges while a white native paid half the price. Some white natives, like the lady who got into the store with a little girl Judith, discriminated against the Japanese. She tried to stop Judith from interacting with Koji by telling her to wait for her upfront after Koji offers her sweets. In the orange story, posters depicted by signs written “Japs keep out rats “in the streets. The public was on the lookout for Japanese as spies in their daily papers. The news report on the radio also referred to the Japanese as “enemy aliens.”
The order redefined the term citizenship in the united states, and immigrants were at risk of being removed from the West Coast because of their ancestry linage. The American Japanese resulted in making a clearance sale discounting their stock products and eventually selling their businesses. They had few offers for their shops and sold the stores at a loss to the few people who offered. Koji traded his grocery store at a price lower than the store’s inventory to an American native. The white Americans took advantage of the situation as they intentionally did not offer a decent amount for the shops. The lady who bought Koji’s store offered a thousand dollars and said, “that is the best can do.” Most of them sold their family belongings like cars at a price next to nothing.
During this order 9066 period, the relocation experiences had a significant effect on children considering their ages. The ruling dealt a blow to an individual’s occupation since relocation led to the loss of jobs. Families were affected in cases where there were intermarriages between Americans and Japanese nationals. They lost friends because of the influence of the racism campaign against Japanese citizens. There was coexistence in the communities where all races ran businesses in America. After the order, all these changed. Many companies had to be shut down or sold to the natives who were allowed to operate them.
At first, the Japanese families had the option to evacuate their homes on their own. Eventually, optional evacuation changed to forced evacuation. Over half the people evacuated were Nisei, or second-generation Japanese who were born in America. After nearly three years in the internment camps, countless Japanese found they could not return to their pre-war homes. Anti-Japanese sentiments also prevented people from going back to business as usual. The internees were not charged with a crime against the United States. They were also not given the right to appeal to their circumstances. It is estimated that as a result of Japanese internment, internees lost over $1 billion in property damages and nearly $3 million in incomes.