How External Events Affect

One’s Life:

The Role of History in the Life

of an Individual

Chapter 1 – What is Pearl

Harbour?
 The Arrival of the Japanese –
United States of America
• Japanese immigrants began their journey to the United
States in search of peace and prosperity, leaving an unstable
homeland for a life of hard labour and the chance to provide
a better future for their children

• However, before the first generation of immigrants could

enjoy the fruits of their labour, they had to overcome hostile
neighbours, harsh working conditions and repeated
legislative attacks on their very presence in the country

• Acceptance came only after the immigrants and their

children were forced to endure one of the 20th century’s
worst crimes against civil liberties and from that crucible,
fought to claim their place in the life of the nation
 The Arrival of the Japanese –
United States of America

“ Ten children and a lot of hard luck had

worn him down, had worn away most of
the arrogance he came to this country
with”
Japanese Migrants Fishing in Pre-WWII USA
“ A lot of fishermen around San
Pedro Harbour had similar
contracts with the canneries. In
typical Japanese fashion, they
all wanted to be independent
commercial fishermen, yet
they always fished together.
They would take off from
Terminal Island, help each
other find the schools of
sardine, share nets and radio
equipment – competing and
cooperating at the same time”
• Japanese engaged in the herring processing
business.

• American fisheries did not attach the same level of

importance to herrings as they did for Salmon.

• This led the herring industry to be monopolised by

Japanese fishermen for a period in the 1920s and
1930s.
 Terminal Island
The island was home to 3500
first – and second generation
Japanese Americans prior to
WWII in an area known as East
San Pedro or Fish Island
 Ocean Park
Ocean Park is on the Long
Beach Peninsula and
adjacent to Pacific Pines
State Park
 Bombing of Pearl Harbour

“…a fellow from the cannery came

running down to the wharf
shouting that the Japanese had just
bombed Pearl Harbour”

Watch the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2kSnlS4xX8
 Bombing of Pearl Harbour
Class Activity

Read President Roosevelt’s

Executive Order and respond to the
following questions:
• To what extent does the Executive Order reassert the discrimination Japanese
faced before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbour? How is this
discrimination presented in Chapter I?

• How does the Executive Order provoke discussions about immigrant identity in
a foreign country? How are your views represented in Chapter I?
 White American Reactions to Pearl Harbour
Bombing

“The confiscators were often deputies sworn in

hastily during the turbulent days right after Pearl
Harbour, and these men seemed to be acting out
the general panic, seeing sinister possibilities in the
most ordinary household items: flashlights, kitchen
knives, cameras, lanterns, toy swords”
 Reliability of Narrator

• As we proceed to read Wakatsuki’s memoir, to

what extent are her descriptions and views
reliable?

• What role does a memoir play in our

understanding of a historical event?
How Japanese Americans were Forced into
Concentration Camps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU-k0uG8pAw