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Executive Order 9066 was issued on February 19, 1942 by President Roosevelt. This order called for the removal of national threats, which was essentially just targeted to Japanese people and caused them to be relocated to camps. This is basically the action the US took to try and restore national security, as this became a large concern after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, although unjust. This connects to We Are Not Free because this order caused all of the Japanese characters in the book to have to move to the camps, which created the first part of the conflict in the book where the characters were forced to leave their homes with minimal luggage.

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Chee, Traci. We Are Not Free. Thorndike Press, a Part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2020.

“Instructional Content Platform.” Newsela, newsela.com/view/ck9noof0r03jk0iqjs42d103f/?levelId=ck7ecvj0l0idy14p7wx1jfhoe. Accessed 16 May 2023.

Ishigo, Estelle Peck. Families arriving at the Heart Mountain camp. Japanese American National Museum.

Vankin, Deborah. “Contested Art and Artifacts from Japanese American Internment Camps Go on View.” Chicago Tribune, 15 Dec. 2018, www.chicagotribune.com/la-ca-cm-eaton-collection-20180105-htmlstory.html.

“Estelle Ishigo.” Estelle Ishigo | Densho Encyclopedia, 2022, encyclopedia.densho.org/Estelle_Ishigo/.

Taylor, Kathrine. Address Unknown. 1938.

Fort Minor, director. Red To Black By Fort Minor. YouTube, YouTube, 7 May 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJOQf9Fyb4. Accessed 19 May 2023.

Densho, director. Ugly History: Japanese American Incarceration Camps. YouTube, YouTube, 1 Oct. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4NoVWq87M. Accessed 19 May 2023.

National Archives. “Executive Order 9066: Resulting in Japanese-American Incarceration (1942).” National Archives and Records Administration, 2022, www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066.

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This song is about a Japanese man named Kenji who lived in the United States during World War II. His life was changed the moment Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. This song talks about what he had to endure, his hopes, and the change he went through. His family and he had to move to Manzanar Camp. When the war ended and when they went back, their home was destroyed and they were not welcomed back. Still, they hoped for a brighter future. This connects to We Are Not Free because Kenji is going through the same experiences as the characters in We Are Not Free. He was forced to leave his home with just two suitcases to fit all of his belongings, an undetermined future, and discrimination. Just like Stan in We Are Not Free, Kenji sees that the best way for him to get out of the camps is to enlist in the army, though the war ends before he does that.

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Red To Black By Fort Minor [Clean] | Cleanest Music On The Planet

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The book We Are Not Free by Traci Chee is about the evacuation and discrimination of Japanese people living in the United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. The perspective jumps around from character to character, each sharing their own unique opinions, feelings, and mindsets. The story starts in San Fransisco in March of 1942 where Minnow, Mas, and Shig, who are Japanese brothers, tolerate violent discrimination. After having to sell their belongings for outrageously cheap, they and their community are forced to leave and settle in an incarceration camp: Tanforan. The conditions there are very bad, with houses smelling of manure. Eventually, they are all relocated to another incarceration camp: Topaz. Later, in 1943, anybody seventeen and older living in the camps completed a loyalty questionnaire that determined whether they are willing to enlist in the army. This causes violent outbreaks throughout the camps. Mas, Frankie, and Twitchy are the three out of the group that enlists and gets separated from everyone else. Stan, who was originally planning on claiming to be loyal, decides to not, and be rebellious after tensions rise further from the shooting of a man who was playing with his dog. However, this shows dire consequences: those who claim to not be loyal were sent to Tule Lake, a segregation camp with stricter security. Bette and Shig, who were part of families who claimed to be loyal, relocate to New York and Chicago. Later, Twitchy dies while serving, leaving their community to grieve him. Finally, after 3 long years full of struggle, the Japanese people are allowed to leave the camp and most of the characters return to San Fransisco. Although many things have changed in Japantown and Japanese people are still discriminated against, Minnow feels better after Shig decides to come with them after all.

The overall theme of the story is the importance of your community, no matter how separated they may become, in times of struggle, and what it takes to keep that. When Kiyoshi and his family became subject to a surprise inspection, the army takes the last of their food. Later, they help out in the kitchen, pickling vegetables, when Mrs. Katumoto gives him a jar for his family. “‘This is so kind’, she says...‘We must find a way to thank them,’ she says, patting the top of each jar, as if blessing them” (211). This shows how much a little act of kindness within their community helped Kiyoshi’s family when they were struggling. Also, when Twitchy is in the heat of battle, using every ounce of determined strength before he dies, he thinks about why he is giving up himself for his nation. “It’s for us, our brothers, here, who have died on this hill and dozens of battles before, for our families back home,” (292). This shows that Twitchy’s motive for fighting for his country is to protect his community and family, who are on an entirely different continent. This big sacrifice shows the worth of the people he’s fighting for and shows that it requires not only little acts of kindness but also large feats, even going as far as dying for them. In conclusion, the theme of the book We Are Not Free encompasses what it takes to protect your community and why you need to.

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This is an oil painting by Estelle Peck Ishigo, who was an American artist during World War II. Ishigo was incarcerated at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, as her husband, Arther Ishigo, was Japanese-American. This painting depicts families walking into Heart Mountain Relocation Center. Ishigo was born on July 15, 1899, and died on February 25, 1990. This connects to We Are Not Free because just like the characters in the book were sent to camps, the artist experienced this. Also, this artwork shows a moment they are actually arriving to the camp.

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One thing I learned was that 70,000 of the 117,000 Japanese people put in the relocation camps were born in the US. Another thing I learned was that four or five families had to live in the same barrack. Some Japanese Americans lived in a cowshed or horse stalls for a few months before finally getting sent to a relocation camp, which was often far from home in Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Arkansas. I also learned that people who were causing trouble inside the camps were sent to a special camp in Tule Lake, California. Some Japanese Americans returned to their hometown after they were released from the relocation camps, while others moved to live elsewhere, for example, only 30% of Japanese Americans living in Tacoma, Washington, returned to Tacoma, while 80% of Japanese Americans living in Fresno, California returned to Fresno. In 1943-1944, the government assembled a combat unit of Japanese Americans, it became the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and gained fame as the most decorated of WWII, which bespoke their patriotism.

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Newsela | Instructional Content Platform

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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This video presents the things a 16-year-old girl named Aki Kurose experienced after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For five decades, the Japanese community had been growing in the United States, but this event would cause them to be discriminated against and sent to designated camps upon Executive Order 9066. Aki, her family, and 7,000 Japanese-Americans in Seattle were moved to Camp Harmony where stables and barracks were poorly converted into housing and were unsanitary. Similarly to We Are Not Free, this video talks about how some people wanted to rebel while others, like Aki's family, endured. This video has connections to We Are Not Free because it essentially is another person's perspective on the same experiences that occurred in the book. They all went through incarceration camps, poor housing, and discrimination, and even shared some views, like enduring, with some of the characters.

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Ugly History: Japanese American incarceration camps - Densho

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Address Unknown, by Kathrine Taylor, is a novel that takes place in the same time period as We Are Not Free, by Traci Chee, during World War II. Address Unknown concerns two different points of view shared in the epistolary form: Max, who is a German Jew that lives in San Fransisco, and Martin, who is a German that recently returned to Germany after running an art dealership with Max. The two start off as great friends and exchange letters over personal and business matters. However, Hitler's rise in Germany begins and Max expresses concern for his Jewish sister, Grissele, who traveled to Vienna for an acting career. At first, Martin was unsure of whether Hitler was good for Germany, but as the story goes on, he becomes a fully supporting Nazi political official. Although Max begs Martin to watch out and protect Grissele, when she comes fleeing from other Nazis to Martin's door, he tells her to run in the opposite direction, fearing for his own safety and allows her to get killed. Her address is now unknown when Max tries to send her a letter. Feeling betrayed, Max continues to send letters to Martin to get him in trouble. The story ends with Max sending suspicious letters to frame Martin as a spy, and Martin's address is labeled as unknown, implying that he was sent to a concentration camp.

These two texts have similarities. They both take place during World War II and part of the stories are in San Fransisco, but the main similarity is that they have very similar experiences with concentration camps and people being forced out of their homes. "Half the community amputated, the people I've grown up with shipped off to who knows where" (29). This shows that just as Grisselle was stripped from Max, the people in San Fransisco's Japan Town were forcibly removed to somewhere anything could have happened to them. In conclusion, these texts have similarities in time periods and how people were forced to leave their homes to camps.

We Are Not Free and Address Unknown also have differences. Address Unknown focuses on two points of view that are both outside of the concentration camps. They still have significance though; the concentration camps are briefly described as a cruel place where you don't know what could happen to you. Somebody, like Max, could have survived, but you can never be sure. "...think of what it means to them if I am taken away and they do not know if I live or die" (60). This contrasts with We Are Not Free, where all of the points of view take place in the incarceration camp. You know exactly what happens there and what happens to the characters. Moving on, Address Unknown is exclusively in epistolary form between two perspectives while We Are Not Free uses many different writing styles, including 1st person, 2nd person, poetry, etc., and jumps around a lot of perspectives to highlight the different points of view of the characters. When the story was from the perspective of Twitchy, the author used quickly paced, choppy sentences to convey the feeling of urgency to reflect Twitchy's situation: war. Compared to We Are Not Free, Address Unknown uses letters to show the communication between the two characters. Some things are left out, which creates suspense but makes a different feeling for the reader. Overall, We Are Not Free and Address Unknown have differences in style and perspectives.

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I believe that the experiences of the protagonists in my book were representing the experience most people experienced. When people were causing trouble in the camps, those people would get sent to a camp in Tule Lake, California and people could sign up and become a part of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The book shows us how the Japanese struggled with things such as racism and beatings, and had to deal with them. The Japanese and the protagonists both were in shock, fear, and worry while they were in the relocation camps. Many of the things that happened in the book also happened in the Japanese relocation camps.