Japanese Community Grows, Despite Racism
The use of interviews to get information is among the best methods of data collection on historical events. An in-person interview helps the interviewer to screen the accuracy of the information given by the interviewee. Frank Miyamoto, an interviewee, describes why his father was forced to leave a company in 1910. Oral history provides information on perspectives that fill historical gaps and connect the storyline with a written record. Oral interview can enable people to get authentic information that was never documented yet deemed fundamental. Historical events are very wide hence the need to trace some people or their affiliates who played a role in building the history. The face-to-face conversation enables the interviewer to gauge the surety of the interviewee.
The second method used as a source of information is the newsreels. The growth of racism analytics uses an article written by David Starr Jordan to explain the anti-alien laws in California. Using authentic sources to get historical information can give a deeper understanding of what unfolded during the Japanese-American Warfare. Newspapers contained in the newsreel, unlike oral interviews contain information that has never been distorted. Printed information do not loose meaning over time and the factual information can be passed from one generation to another. The two sources taint a brief image of how things unfolded during the Japanese-American era. Newsreel as a source incorporates the pictorial presentation and a voice output to explain the events in a video.
Story of the interviewees
More than 130 years ago, Japanese immigrants made their way into the US. According to Frank Miyamoto, his dad was forced to leave his mill job because the American nationals tried to frustrate Japanese nationals out of the area. The frustration made the Japanese workers and families get hardships through constant threats. Workplace harassment was rampant, and some rules were passed to discriminate against Japanese and Indian immigrants. Frank Yamasaki posits that Japanese nationals were subjected to harsh treatment. He states that he went to a swimming pool with his fellow American kids at one moment, and he was denied the chance to enter the swimming pool because of his nationalism. At times the Japanese were denied the chance to go to the marketplaces while the whites were shopping.
Relation to social justice
The racial discrimination against the Japanese was chronic in California in 1907. The stoppage of more immigrants was ideal but advocating for social justice was fundamental. Japanese laborers needed equality in various sectors and the right to be absorbed as US citizens through naturalization. The federal law was not at equilibrium when Western states had the right to access facilities equally in places such as the market and other social amenities. Social ethics dictates that people should be dealt with equally for a country to be termed democratic. The revision of land laws, citizenship through naturalization, and ensuring Japanese nationals had an equal chance decided by the US Supreme Court in the 1930s tried to restore social justice. The insecurities of the US nationals against the Japanese immigrants were unjustified since it killed their morale to work, and some ended up living a life they never deserved.