Learn
Analyze the Photographs
This photograph was a "picture of the week" in Life magazine in May 1944. The following caption was printed with the photo: "When he said goodbye to Natalie Nickerson, her handsome Navy lieutenant promised her -- a Jap."
Consider the "Home Front" during WWII to make an educated guess about the following questions.
- Who is this girl?
- What is she thinking about?
- Why was this the picture of the week?
Respond to the questions on your 8.03 Notes Outline.
Photo Explanation
Paul Fussel, a well-known historian, said the following about the photo: "She was his girlfriend, apparently, and a very respectable girl...And here she was present at this bizarre and gruesome exhibit of this Japanese soldier's skull. It became a real service problem as what to do with these cleansed bones of former Japanese soldiers as gifts and souvenirs. My point is, this never happened with the German corpses. They were never boiled down to get their bones to send home. Never! Germans were white people. And I think this ought to be talked about in exactly those terms, because it's been forgotten. We didn't lock up people with German names. We locked up people with Japanese names even though they were American citizens."
Lesson Preview
The vilification of Japanese led to the evacuation of 100,000 Japanese Americans from their homes. The hatred directed at the Japanese was never directed with such intensity toward Germans--Germans were white.
Read Fingers in the Attic to learn more about this type of racial violence and how it still continues, in some form, even today.
 |