Japanese Relocation

“Japanese Internment,” Internet Archive video, 0:23, sponsored by Shaping San Francisco, published in 1942, uploaded by “Chris Carlsson,” May 10, 2004, https://archive.org/details/ssfjapint

This historical object is a video of Japanese Americans being relocated to the internment camps during World War II. It is a silent video clip published by Shaping San Francisco in 1942. One important thing to note about the fact that the video is silent is that with no commentary you can just view the video for what it is instead of being biased by any commentary about it. This provides an interesting look into the experiences of Japanese Americans when they were being moved to the internment camps. In the first part of the video you can see all of their luggage being packed on to trucks to be taken away. In the second part you can see all of the people being crammed onto buses to be taken to the internment camps. This whole experience can have an interesting impact on their development of their ethnic identities. Because of the fact that they are being crammed together to be shipped away it seems as if they are being treated like cattle which makes the whole situation a very dehumanizing experience. This could possibly prevent them from connecting with other Americans and forming an American identity. Thus this video provides an interesting view not only into one of the major experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II but also how this experience could impact the development of their ethnic identity.

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