1. Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida
Background on Japanese Internment Camps

2. Japanese-American Internment Camps
During WWII, over 100,000 Japanese-American individuals, the vast majority actual American citizens, were rounded up and sent to internment camps – over half were infants or children
These camps were poorly constructed barracks surrounded by barbed wire, guard posts, and armed guards
They were not put in these camps because they were guilty of something, but because either they or their parents or ancestors were from Japan and determined to be a “threat” to national security

4. These people were also easily identifiable because of the way they looked
There was not a similar round-up of Germans or Italian-Americans, even though we were also fighting them during the same war
These prisoners were forced to abandon their homes, businesses, and in some cases, their families

6. Many of these prisoners were held for years, without trial
The Japanese-Americans suffered severe economic losses, personal humiliation, and in some cases, death due to this relocation
This relocation was ordered by then President of the United States Franklin D Roosevelt and by an act of Congress

8. An interesting fact is that the Japanese-Americans living in Hawaii were not rounded up and sent to these camps even though they made up of a third of the population and closer to Japan than the masses rounded up on the West Coast (cultural and economic reasons)
There was already a lot of racism and discrimination on the West Coast

10. The Resolution
46 years later, the government officially apologized for their actions and paid reparations

11. Theme A central message or insight revealed through a literary work.
A generalization about people or about life that is communicated through a literary work
Can be stated directly or implied
When it is implied, readers think about what the work seems to say about the nature of people of about life
**NOTE: There is usually no single correct statement of a work’s theme, though there can be incorrect ones. Also, a long work (novel, play) may have many themes. Finally, not all literary works have themes – some may