A challenge to democracy

This film “A Challenge to Democracy” was a very interesting film. From the beginning of the film it was very clear that the idea was to try to justify what the Americans had done to the Japanese and the internment camps during world war two. The film was very misleading, and seemed to have the goal of convincing the world, and the Americans that what we had done to the Japanese was not as horrible as it was made out to be. The removal of the Japanese from their homes, into internment camps was an unjust thing to do, and the American government knew it, thus they felt a need to justify it.

To begin the film, the creators immediately mislead the public. They immediately state that the reason for removal of the Japanese into camps was for their safety. Stating that it was due to military hazard and that there was a major threat of invasion. Many chose to believe that they were removed due to their threat to the United States, and because they Japanese were disloyal. This can be proven to be untrue. Of the many who were relocated, 100000 to be exact, almost two thirds of them were legally American citizens. Despite this fact, they were still removed from their homes and placed in communities far away from their homes. There were about 10 of these major communities all over, mostly located in the middle of nowhere, like desert areas. Wire fences surrounded these communities they were living in as if it were a prison. A whole family was given a small living space to live in with only few supplies, such as: stove, pots, light bulb, mattresses and some blankets. They were provided with places for some recreational freedom, but nothing near what they were used to before. The movie states that they were fed within the communities, but they were only fed in small rations. They were provided with some sort of school system, church services, and their own government within each community. Through all of this they could still not be paid as highly as they were able to when they were home. Even those who were professionals in important fields, such as medicine, were only paid around 19 dollars a month. Though after a while some began to leave the camps, only families who were allowed by the government could do so. These people were seen by the government to have proven in some way, their loyalty to the United States, thus showing no threat toward the government. From the reading of Takaki, he ended talking about how the Japanese had hard times integrating into the American culture and society and how those hopes were devastated by Pearl Harbor. This film seems to build on that toward the end while talking about how many were able to work their way back in and into respectable positions after being treated unfairly and placed in camps. The Japanese have had a lot of overcoming to do, just as many other races have in the United States, and this film expresses more about what they went through to achieve what they have to this day.

How does this film show what the U.S government would go through to make everything just? I think that this film shows that the U.S government is willing to “sugar coat” the reality, to make it more appealing to the public. Obviously what the government had done was unjust and unfair to the Japanese, making crude assumptions that just because a person is part of a race, they are connected with the wrong doings of everyone else in the race. This all relates to the video “ethnic notions” and how there were some assumptions that just because a certain few blacks were the stereotypical “sambo”, the rest of the race was viewed as this too. And the stereotypical “nanny” or “big mamma” figure of the black lady is seen the same way. So what I think is that the U.S has trouble throughout history with refraining from making these assumptions, leading them into situations where what they do is unfair.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the film was a very good example of how the U.S, throughout history has tried to sugar coat things to make the country as a whole not look as bad for its mistakes. Everyone in my eyes is going to make mistakes, and I just believe that it is better for them to except their wrongdoings, than to hide behind a blanket of lies. This is a sort of one-sided view, both from my own perspective, and from the video, yet I think its something we should all think about. Still to this day, our government has a lot to learn about not making assumptions and giving in to generalizations.