{"id":22835,"date":"2021-12-16T11:00:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=22835"},"modified":"2024-04-08T16:12:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T20:12:02","slug":"wartime-incarceration-of-deaf-japanese-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2021\/12\/16\/wartime-incarceration-of-deaf-japanese-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"Wartime Incarceration of Deaf Japanese Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Circulating Now welcomes Selena Moon<\/a>, MA, a public historian researching Japanese American mixed race history, military history, and disability history. Today she joins us to discuss her research into the experiences of deaf Japanese Americans in the wartime incarceration camps.<\/em><\/p>\n

On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066<\/a>, to \u201cprescribe military areas\u2026from which any or all persons may be excluded<\/a>.\u201d The order required German, Italian, and Japanese Americans over fourteen to register with the government, established curfews, and created restrictions.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Final report, Japanese evacuation from the West Coast<\/em>, 1942
National Library of Medicine #01130040R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The War Relocation Authority (WRA) exempted German and Italian Americans based on military enlistment, (pending) citizenship status, jobs, and age. Of Japanese Americans, only those who were hospitalized or institutionalized and could not be removed without endangering their lives, orphans, and \u201cthe totally deaf, dumb, or blind\u201d were exempted, but ultimately only a handful would stay behind.<\/p>\n

Of the 120,000 Japanese Americans and their families who were relocated, the National Park Service<\/a> indicates there were 2,000 over 65 and 1,000 disabled or infirm people. The incomplete online National Archives database of Japanese American Internees<\/a> lists 158 under \u201caid to dependent children, blind, old age association\u201d and 1,808 under \u201cuncorrectable major physical defect\u201d. I have identified 50 blind and visually impaired, 64 Deaf and hard of hearing (including the White wife of a Japanese incarceree), 100 physically, 45 intellectually, and 11 multiply disabled people, though there may be overlap as not all documents used names.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Final report, Japanese evacuation from the West Coast<\/em>, 1942
National Library of Medicine #01130040R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most were first sent to temporary assembly centers and lived in horse stalls<\/a>, livestock pavilions<\/a>, and hastily-built barracks<\/a> on fairgrounds and racetracks. Several months later, they were transferred to ten incarceration camps: Manzanar and Tule Lake, California;\u00a0Minidoka, Idaho;\u00a0Gila River\u00a0and Poston, Arizona;\u00a0Topaz, Utah;\u00a0Heart Mountain, Wyoming;\u00a0Amache, Colorado; and\u00a0Jerome\u00a0and\u00a0Rohwer, Arkansas.\u00a0Institutionalized and hospitalized people were exempt \u201cuntil their physical condition permitted movement or until they were released<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 Artist Markel Uriu, relates the story<\/a> of how her grandmother was in a full-body cast on December 7, 1941 after a car accident. As soon as she was mobile, the government \u201csent her straight from the hospital on crutches to Poston.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
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Among this disabled population, Deaf and hard-of-hearing people’s experiences are the most documented.\u00a0 In his paper “The Wartime Incarceration of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Nikkei in U.S. Camps, 1942\u20131946<\/a>,” Deaf historian Newby Ely identified 32 deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals held at Tule Lake before July 1943.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Figures from “The Wartime Incarceration of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Nikkei in U.S. Camps, 1942\u20131946<\/a>,” by Newby Ely in Proceedings of the 6th Deaf History International Conference, July 31-August 04, 2006 at the Humboldt University, Berlin<\/em>, 2006
National Library of Medicine #101561747<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The WRA attempted to return or relocate Deaf students to Deaf schools<\/a>, but many refused to enroll them or had prohibitive costs. Initially there were no schools for disabled children in the camps. Policy change in fall 1943 required each camp to identify and educate all disabled children. But the quality and inclusiveness varied. Ely notes that, \u201cOnly\u2026Topaz and Heart Mountain\u2026conduct[ed] special education classes for Deaf students, together with other handicapped children\u201d. However, Manzanar and Tule Lake\u2014the first camps to establish classes in April<\/a> and May<\/a> 1943\u2014also had all-inclusive classes. Granada kept students in mainstream schools and provided accommodations.<\/p>\n

There was a surprising amount of discussion about disability in WRA and camp documents. Students\u2019 compositions and activities were included in the Manzanar elementary schools newspaper, the Manzanar Whirlwind<\/em><\/a> and camp newspapers<\/a> discussed the schools\u2019 activities and efforts to aid disabled children, including \u201cCripple Children\u2019s Clinics\u201d where children with various disabilities were taken to local hospitals for treatment.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

However, classes were unsuccessful, especially for Deaf students. Hannah Takagi, described her experience<\/a> at Tule Lake: \u201cChildren suffering from deafness, blindness, mental [disability], and physical paralysis were lumped into one class under the supervision of a teacher\u2026who understood the needs of none of us. She did not even allow me to use sign language<\/a>.\u201d After the war, many disabled students were so far behind that they struggled in school. Some never returned.<\/p>\n

Many former incarcerees and their families have shared their struggles with disabilities<\/a>, including Hannah Takagi<\/a>, Mabel Ota\u2014whose daughter Madeline<\/a> was born intellectually disabled because of inadequate medical conditions in camp\u2014and soldiers disabled in combat. Yet, eighty years later, these stories are still largely left out of Japanese American history.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Selena Moon received her BA in history from Smith College and MA in history and public history certificate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is writing books for adults about Japanese American mixed race and disability history, a picture book about Hannah Takagi Holmes, a Deaf teenager incarcerated at Manzanar and Tule Lake, and a middle grade book about five children with various disabilities in the camps. She can be reached on Twitter at @SelenaMMoon\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Circulating Now welcomes Selena Moon, MA, a public historian researching Japanese American mixed race history, military history, and disability history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":22897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,51014],"tags":[1343,40576,2062,40477,62291],"class_list":["post-22835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-guests","tag-children","tag-disability","tag-japan","tag-map","tag-world-war-ii"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/01130040R_transfer-table_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-5Wj","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22835"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27920,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22835\/revisions\/27920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}