A Challenge to Democracy

A Challenge to Democracy was a documentary on the evacuation of hundreds of thousand of Japanese-American citizens in the US in the pacific coast region. Produced by The War Relocation Authority, it was evident that the documentary was written from their viewpoint and intended for the American viewers.
The author attempts to convey the thoughts and beliefs of the Japanese-American citizen during this time of war. Without seemingly knowing it, they defined who these citizens were and what they were to become in the future. They described these camps as a reinforcement to reduce military hazards, calling the citizens in the camps dislocated casualties of war. They overlooked the fact that these camps were bound by wire fences and guards. Even though they explained that they weren’t the most suitable living arrangements, the video constantly reinforced that it was comparable to the rest of America’s standard of living at that time. These camps by no means constituted a symbol of freedom. The camps were on barren desserts and unoccupied land. There were many regulations that the evacuees had to follow such as, only being able to spend .45 cents a day on food, small one room houses, low wages (avg. $12-16 a month). Even with the less than adequate standard if living in the camps, the video managed to portray the contentment of the citizens, showing happy families and workers, laborers learning skilled trades and students in standard curriculums. However the producers were impervious to the fact of the class and race separation they were also displaying. In many scenes a white male is overseeing operations as guards, supervisors, or in the case where the white man in the business suit is handing out wages.
I question the producers’ beliefs when they stated that the citizens were loosing a sense of Americanism in the confines of relocation centers. They attempted to portray the beliefs and views of the Japanese-American citizen at the time of war. However they contradicted themselves in many instances. At the end of the movie the narrator states that many of the Japanese-American soldiers were fighting against the militarism and oppression of Japan and Germany, while fighting for their “American upbringing, freedom, democracy, and equality of opportunity regardless of race, creed or ancestry.” Yet the movie struggled to actually display visuals of these qualities.
It would have been more interesting to here the viewpoints of the Japanese-American citizens who were part of the self-supported relocation centers. While the birth of equality was upon our country at the time the movie it is a good display of how we are blinded by our actions involving ethnicity and class separation. I thought it was interesting to see how the documentary continues to relate to the struggle of inequality today. Like explained from Johnson, the dominate culture did not realize their privilege and therefore unknowingly promoted inequality while attempting to portray freedom.