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“Life Begins With Freedom”: The College Nisei, 1942–1945

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Thomas James
Thomas James*
Affiliation:
Faculty of the School of Education at Stanford University
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Extract

Education, wrote Margaret Mead in 1943, creates a “drama of discontinuity” between parents and children in modern life. By encouraging children to be different from their parents, education holds forth the possibility, unknown to traditional societies, of introducing new values, even bringing new worlds into being. The dark side of this possibility is that education can degenerate into “techniques of power,” teaching through indoctrination and locking the future into coercive relations of superiority and inferiority while conditions of life change in other respects. To avoid such a prospect, she argued, education should be placed at the service of learning instead of manipulation, spontaneity instead of control. A proper use of the discontinuity between parent and child would be to “devise and practice a system of education which sets the future free.”

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 1-2 , Spring-Summer 1985 , pp. 155 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by History of Education Society 

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References

Notes

1. Mead, Margaret, “Our Educational Emphases in Primitive Perspective,” American Journal of Sociology 48 (1943):633–39.Google Scholar

2. War Relocation Authority, The Evacuated People: A Quantitative Description, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1946, p. 4. Mead, , “Our Educational Emphases,” p. 638.Google Scholar

3. For the 1940 figures, see U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Part I (Washington, D.C., 1975), p. 14. These figures are for the continental United States and do not include Hawaii. For a comparison with previous decades, see Daniels, Roger, Concentration Camps USA: Japanese Americans and World War II (New York, 1972), p. 21. The figure for median age was computed by the Evacuation and Resettlement Study at the University of California; see Thomas, Dorothy Swaine, The Salvage (Berkeley, 1952), p. 19.Google Scholar

4. The phrase “another Indian problem” appears in the weekly reports and field notes of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council (NJASRC), Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.Google Scholar

5. O'Brien, Robert W., The College Nisei (Palo Alto, 1949). The organizational files of the NJASRC at Hoover were augmented in 1982–83 with files of Nason, John W., an NJASRC official and president of Swarthmore College, and the papers of Thomas Bodine, a Quaker who served as field director of the council. The Bodine papers include transcripts of hundreds of letters sent by Nisei students to NJASRC staff. A comparison between a sample of these transcripts and originals in the NJASRC organizational files, which are also at Hoover, shows the transcripts to be accurate, including grammatical errors. Since only a small percentage of the individual student files of NJASRC were saved in the Hoover collection of the organizational files, the Bodine papers are an invaluable source of Nisei views during the relocation from camp to college. The Bodine papers will be referred to as Bodine-Hoover in subsequent notes; the NJASRC organizational files will be referred to as NJASRC-Hoover Archives; and other NJASRC materials at Hoover but not in the archives will be known as Hoover Library. Archival restrictions do not allow use of individual names for the letters written by students, so the letters are identified by their dates for the Bodine-Hoover papers and by student identification number for NJASRC-Hoover Archives.Google Scholar

6. Cosgrave, Margaret, “Relocation of Japanese American Students,” American Association of Collegiate Registrars Journal 18 (1943):221–26; Provinse, John H., “Relocation of Japanese-American College Students,” Higher Education 1 (16 April 1945):1–4; O'Brien, , College Nisei, p. 34; War Relocation Authority (WRA), Evacuated People, pp. 95, 100, 81. For an overview of the work program and compensation, originally published by WRA, see Spicer, Edward H. et al., Impounded People: Japanese Americans in the Relocation Centers (Tucson, Arizona, 1969), pp. 88–96.Google Scholar

7. Sakata, George, University of Toledo, as quoted in “Nisei Students Speak for Themselves,” Junior College Journal 14 (1943–44):246. Barstow, Robbins, “Help for ‘Nisei’ Students.” Christian Century 59(1942):836.Google Scholar

8. “Bulletin No. 2, Student Relocation Committee, May 16, 1942,” quoting a written statement by Monroe E. Deutsch, vice president and provost. University of California. Berkeley; in President's File, Bancroft Library, CU5 Box 588, University of California, Berkeley. Also relevant is the testimony provided by Deutsch and other university officials and faculty for the Tolan Committee, Hearings, Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, 77th Congress, 2nd Session (Washington, D.C., 1942).Google Scholar

9. Student letter, January 29, 1942, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

10. Letter from McCloy, John J. to Pickett, Clarence E., May 21, 1942. Nason, John W. Collection, Box 1, Hoover Archives. Executive Committee Minutes and Staff Reports, NJASRC-Hoover Archives. For a description of meetings, organizations, and people involved in the formation of the NJASRC, see O'Brien, , College Nisei, pp. 60–73.Google Scholar

11. Cosgrave, , “Relocation of Japanese American Students,” Education for Victory 1 (15 September 1942):2, 24. On funds raised for scholarships at Topaz, see Newsletter 6 (5 August 1943):2, in NJASRC-Hoover Archives. The newsletter was prepared by NJASRC staff for student counselors in the camps. Letter from Thomas Bodine to Joseph S. Daltry, May 24, 1942, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

12. Student application forms, staff reports and memoranda, NJASRC-Hoover Archives and Bodine-Hoover. Cosgrave, , “Relocation of Japanese American Students,” Education for Victory, p. 2. Provinse, , “Relocation,” pp. 3–4. Also see official list of conditions for leave clearance in letter from McCloy, John J. Assistant Secretary of War, to Myer, Dillon S., Director, War Relocation Authority, August 5, 1942, Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Records. Bancroft Library 67/14 C1.08, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar

13. Notes and correspondence of the field director of NJASRC, Bodine-Hoover. Restrictions on movement and communication of NJASRC field staff were gradually relaxed later in the war at most of the camps.Google Scholar

14. Student letter from Smith College, 1942 (undated), Bodine-Hoover, . “Japanese Evacuation Report #5,” March 10, 1942, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

15. The notion that Nisei leaders were cultural ambassadors bridging the gap between East and West had a history going back more than two decades before World War II. For a discussion of this background and the alternate visions of Nisei leadership before the war, see Takahashi, Jere, “Japanese American Responses to Race Relations: The Formation of Nisei Perspectives,” Amerasia 9 (Spring/Summer 1982):31–32 and passim. “New Pioneers for America,” a play presented at commencement services, Amache High School, May 19, 1944, p. 18, Bodine-Hoover, . Student letter, January 3, 1943, Bodine-Hoover. Trek 1 (February 1943):34, where the final quote appeared in an article from a student at Wellesley College, was a literary magazine produced by evacuees at Topaz, Utah. The word Nisei was not capitalized in the article.Google Scholar

16. Student letter, June 22, 1943, Bodine-Hoover, . According to Section 60.4.21.A-C of the WRA Administrative Handbook, return to the camps by those who had been granted indefinite leave was allowed only with the permission of the authorities. Evacuees were encouraged not to return, but could reapply for residence if they could persuade a Relocation Officer that they could not keep outside employment. Visitors to the camps were required to give up their indefinite leave permits in order to enter. Although the permits were returned to them upon leaving, the procedure seemed unpleasantly akin to giving the authorities the power once again to determine conditions of exit.Google Scholar

17. Wollenberg, Charles, All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclusion in California Schools, 1855–1975 (Berkeley, 1976), p. 51. On the affinity of Japanese Americans for education, see Caudill, William and DeVos, George, “Achievement, Culture and Personality: The Case of the Japanese Americans,” American Anthropologist 58 (1956) 1102–26; Horinouchi, Isao, Educational Values and Preadaptation in the Acculturation of Japanese Americans, Sacramento Anthropological Society, Paper No. 7, 1967; Schwartz, Audrey J., “The Culturally Advantaged: A Study of Japanese-American Pupils,” Sociology and Social Research 55 (1971):341–353; Montero, Darrel and Tsukashima, Ronald, “Assimilation and Educational Achievement: The Case of the Second Generation Japanese American,” Sociological Quarterly 18 (1977):490–503; Suzuki, Bob H., “Education and the Socialization of Asian Americans: A Revisionist Analysis of the ‘Model Minority’ Thesis,” Amerasia 4 (Fall 1977):23–51; Chun, Ki-Taek, “The Myth of Asian American Success and Its Educational Ramifications,” IRCD Bulletin 15 (Winter/Spring 1980):1–11, published by the Institute for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College, Columbia University.Google Scholar

18. Student letters, April 16, February 9, and January 21, 1943, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

19. Kambara, Gloria, “Nisei Students Speak for Themselves,” Junior College Journal 14 (1943–44):251. On the idea of a “reprisal reserve” and the correspondence in which the phrase appeared, see Weglyn, Michi, Years of Infamy (New York, 1976), pp. 54–56. National Legionnaire editorial quoted in its entirety by Rep. Paul W. Shafer of Michigan in the Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 89, Part 9, Appendix, p. A358.Google Scholar

20. Student quoted in Newsletter 6 (24 September 1943), Bodine-Hoover, . Student letters, May 25 and 29, 1944, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

21. Student quoted in letter to NJASRC, December 22, 1943, from psychologist working for American Friends Service Committee, Bodine-Hoover. Rhetorical question from letter of Nisei girl quoted in Richardson, Otis D., “Nisei Evacuees—Their Challenge to Education,” Junior College Journal 13 (1942–43):10. Student letters, November 28, 1942, March 17, 1943, and March 31, 1943, Bodine-Hoover. For an example of black opinion toward the situation of Japanese Americans, see Howard, Harry Paxton, “Americans in Concentration Camps,” Crisis 49 (1942):283–84, 302. For additional perspectives on the attitudes of blacks toward racist propaganda during World War II see Miller, Delbert C., “Effect of the War Declaration on the National Morale of American College Students,” American Sociological Review 7 (1942):631–44; Lee, Wallace, “Should Negroes Discriminate Against Japanese?” Negro Digest 2 (September 1944):66, wherein a national poll of blacks found them strongly opposed to the discrimination taking place against Japanese Americans because “discrimination against the Japanese is based on color, much the same as prejudice against Negroes”; Myrdal, Gunnar, An American Dilemma (New York, 1944), pp. 814–15; and Polenberg, Richard, One Nation Divisible: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States Since 1938 (New York, 1980), pp. 72, 78–85.Google Scholar

22. Student letters, April 11–14 and March 12, 1943, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

23. Student letter, October 24, 1943, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

24. “Report of the Field Director, September 29, 1943,” NJASRC-Hoover Library. Memorandum from Bodine, Thomas to Nason, John W., November 7, 1943, Bodine-Hoover. Poem entitled “From the Dusk,” two of twenty-three stanzas, student letter circa July 1942, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

25. “Report of the Field Director, September 29, 1943.” Google Scholar

26. Ibid. It should be noted that there were some teachers who strongly encouraged the educational aspirations of Japanese Americans. There were also some teachers and many assistants who were themselves Japanese Americans, but because they were working at a maximum of $19 per month alongside Caucasian teachers who were making many times as much, their lower status tended to confirm the view that opportunities were limited by race even as they worked hard to encourage Nisei students to seek advancement through education. Notes of NJASRC field director, 1944, Bodine-Hoover. Student letter, January 1, 1943, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

27. Student letter, April 19, 1943, Bodine-Hoover. On the induction of Nisei into the armed forces during World War II, see Special Groups, Special Monograph No. 10, Vol. 1, Selective Service System (Washington, D.C., 1953), pp. 113–142; induction figures on pp. 141–42. Student letter, March 14, 1943, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

28. Notes of NJASRC field director, 1944, Bodine-Hoover. Student letters, June 19, 1944, and October 6, 1942. “final Composite Report of the Returnee College Leaders, Summer of 1944,” NJASRC-Hoover Library.Google Scholar

29. WRA, The Evacuated People, p. 18; these figures include camp residents who were on short-term or seasonal leave (such as agricultural laborers) but who were still under the control of the War Relocation Authority. “Final Composite Report,” NJASRC-Hoover Library. Returnee reports, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar

30. “Final Composite Report,” NJASRC-Hoover Library. Also see Box 28, “Student Returnee Project” file, NJASRC-Hoover Archives.Google Scholar

31. The quote from the Nisei son is in a file on “Education—Commencement Addresses and Reports by Students,” Poston Project Reports, Headquarters Files, Box 18, Record Group 210, National Archives, Washington, D.C. Student letter, May 19, 1944, Box 36, File 676, NJASRC-Hoover Archives.Google Scholar

32. Student letters, July 2, 1943 and January 19, 1944, Bodine-Hoover.Google Scholar