Altered Lives, Enduring Community: Japanese Americans Remember Their World War II Incarceration

7. Occupational Patterns

SEVEN Occupational Patterns I don't think people got up in the morning and said, "Gee, what am I gonna do to hold down the Japs?" But some way they told you in so many unwritten ways that, "Just stay in your place, just do your thing, and don't make waves, and you'll be okay." And by and large the majority of the Nikkei said, "Well, okay, and that's fine." (Tomio Moriguchi, denshovh-mtomio-o1-00I 6) As we have seen in previous chapters, the momentous events associated with the mass removal and its aftermath created major discontinuities in the life-course trajectories of our Seattle-area Nisei respondents. In this chapter we explore how these shifts may have impacted the former incarcerees with respect to a key lifestyle determinant in advanced capitalist societies , that of occupational attainment (e.g., Blau and Duncan 1967). We also examine how incarcerees, now approaching the end oftheirlives, make sense of the impact of wartime events on their career trajectories. As with any major social upheaval, the incarceration had different consequences for individuals depending upon a person's specific location in the social structure (e.g., Rosow 1978). For example, if one examines the impact of World War II generally, most people were negatively affected, as would be expected. However, the range of outcomes individuals experienced was very wide (e.g., Mayer 1988; Rosow 1978). Some Americans, such as those who worked in industries essential to the war effort, did well. For instance, since foodstuffs were critical for the war effort, many Puget Sound agriculI s6 tural interests profited from the forced sale ofJapanese American farms and OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS IS7 crops in the spring of 1942 (cf. Daniels 1993, 47-48; Conunission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians 1997, 69). Another example of an occupational sector that benefited would be construction firms, such as Del Webb and Morrison-Knudsen, that made large sums building the War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps on a cost-plus basis for the federaigovernment (Burton et al. 1999,205; Finnerty 1991,40-43). In the specific case ofJapanese Americans and the incarceration, since there were few wealthy individuals before the war and the incarceration experience itself was quite similar for most individuals, their range ofoutcomes was "flattened." CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Economic Dislocation As discussed in chapter 3, one unsurprising consequence of the mass removal and incarceration was that the families ofourNisei respondents generally experienced major economic setbacks. If they were old enough to own a store or small farm, they had to sell their equipment, merchandise, and crops for whatever the market would bear. Those who decided to keep their real property ran the risk of vandalism as well as losing it due to forfeiture for unpaid taxes. If Nisei were still students, not only were their Issei parents and therefore their own resources damaged, but also their education was, at a minimum, temporarily disrupted. Certainly, the quality of instruction in the "assembly centers" was subpar, as it was provided by the incarcerees themselves using very makeshift facilities. Even in the "permanent" WRA camps, the facilities were generally crude, and equipment. such as that needed for chemistry classes, was nonexistent.The instructors varied widely in quality. Sometimes they were not even certified teachers but fellow incarcerees who were trying to fill in as best as possible. Thus, for those respondents who had significant prewar resources, the incarceration was a major setback. For those still in school, their education was interrupted and the quality of their educational experience significandy degraded in many instances. Economic Opportunities Occasionally one hears the following rather different perspective expressed in the contemporaryJapanese American community. As noted in chapter 5. ISS OCCUPATIONAL PATTERNS some former incarcerees credit the events ofWorldWar II with forcing them out of their "isolated and cliquish" ethnic communities and exposing them to a much wider array of opportunities in the larger society. One narrator stated: The evacuation forced some of theJapanese populations in the three states of Washington, Oregon and California to seek an opportunity to go elsewhere after they were released from camp. For those people that wanted to go elsewhere, or for those that didn't want to come back for various personal reasons. And it gave the people of the United States, other citizens , a chance to find out, some part ofwhat happened, and gave us opportunities to explore other fields of work besides...