Japanese+American+Citizens+League+(JACL)

**NAME** - Dorothy Williams
 * AGE** - 17
 * HOMETOWN** - Alturus, California
 * HIGH SCHOOL** - Modoc County High School
 * BIRTHDAY** - June 1st, 1928
 * ZODIAC SIGN** - Gemini
 * RELATIONSHIP STATUS** - Boyfriend's location unknown
 * INCOME** - My father makes around $30,000 a year as a doctor in the army
 * OCCUPATION** - I am a student, but my father is a doctor, and my mother is now a nurse in the U.S.
 * FAMILY** - I have a mother, a father, an older brother, and a younger sister.

The Japanese American Citizen’s League, or JACL, is an organization created by Jimmie Sakamoto (Hong 1) in 1929 to protect mainly Americans of Japanese ancestry from discrimination (“JACL” 1). My old boyfriend, Juro Gunma, told me all about it. Juro’s grandparents on both sides were from Japan, so naturally his father was active in the JACL. This organization called for Japanese Americans to try to prove their patriotism for America instead of to take a stand and fight back (Hong 1). In the 1920s and 1930s the JACL had to deal with a lot of prejudices directed at Japanese Americans. In California, mine and Juro’s home state, there were more than one hundred laws limiting the rights of anyone who had a Japanese heritage (“JACL” 1). There were also organizations that worked to reduce Japanese American’s privileges in America like the Grange Association, Sons of the Golden West, and the Japanese Exclusion League (“JACL” 1). The JACL tried to deal with these groups the best they could be promoting loyalty to the US in Japanese Americans (“JACL” 1). When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, however, America was sent into a panic (Danzer 557). The U.S.A. became over-paranoid and automatically assumed that anyone of Japanese descent was loyal to Japan, even those who were born and raised in America (“Japanese” 1). False rumors that there were Japanese Americans damaging miming harbors and poisoning crops spread, and newspapers also wrote untrue articles accusing them of violent and terrorist acts (Danzer 594). Sadly, a lot of people believed what they read and heard, and the public forced the government to take action. Early in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered internment of about 1,444 Japanese Americans in Hawaii (Danzer 594). Then, on February 19th, 1942, FDR passed Order 9066 (“Japanese” 1), requiring all people with a Japanese heritage from California, and sections of Washington, Oregon, and Arizona to evacuate to “relocation centers” (Danzer 594). We all knew that FDR just used that phrase as a fancy way of saying “prison camp.” That was the last time I saw Juro and his family. They had to leave without any time to really take any of their belongings (Danzer 595), so our family is holding onto them until we meet up again. Juro always talked about joining the army to prove that he loved America as much as any other person, and since JACL recently won the right for Japanese Americans to serve in the US military, I think that he is probably fighting in World War II right now (“JACL” 2). The JACL is still working to provide comfort and relief to the people in the “relocation centers,” and I wish that I could do something to help (“Japanese” 1). My family is the only white family I know on the west coast who supports the JACL, but we will continue to believe that the people of Japanese descent are not involved with the Japanese bombers that attacked Pearl Harbor. They are every much American citizens as we are, and I dream that one day the JACL and families like mine can get that message across.


 * __Works Cited__**

Danzer, Gerald A., Jorge J. Klor de Alva, and Larry S. Krieger. __The Americans__. Evanston, Il: McDougal Littel, 2003.

Hong, Alex. __The Japanese American Citizens League.__ 2007. SCU University. 22 Oct. 2007 <[|http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/jaclhis.html>.]

"JACL History." __Japanese American Citizens League.__ 2006. Japanese American Citizens League. 22 Oct. 2007 <[|http://www.jacl.org/about_history.php>.]

"Japanese American Internment." __AsianAmericans.com.__ 2007. AsianAmericans.com. 22 Oct. 2007 <[|http://www.asianamericans.com/JapaneseAmericanInternment.htm>.]


 * __Picture Citation__

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/FindingAids/dynaweb/calher/jvac/figures/j2AD-630A.jpg__

[|http://library.thinkquest.org/04apr/00065/graphics/Camp3.jpg]**