RACISM
Immigrants face varying degrees of racism as they move between countries. Besides just experiencing discrimination once they arrive, the process of immigrating itself leads to an experience of racism. Should people be immigrating from certain countries, they will have a different experience in crossing the border. In The Grave on the Wall, Shimoda discusses the situation for Japanese immigrants in particular. He points out one specific example of the anti-Japanese sentiment, saying,
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“The agreement, coordinated by President Theordore Roosevelt and Secretary of State Elihu Root, appeased both sides of the one-sided war, by agreeing to desegregate San Francisco school while restricting further immigration from Japan in the guise of establishing new criteria for the insurance of passports to Japanese laborers.”[B]
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Thus, Japanese immigration could only occur under three scenarios: relatives relocating, those returning to one’s home, or laborers taking control of land they had previously owned.
Of course, this is not the only example of selective racism with regard to immigration. In fact, the methods of controlling immigration that developed almost became just another way to divide and separate different races. The development of different forms of documentation that came with immigration were intended to classify and categorize. Especially at their introduction, documents such as passports did not necessarily represent the holder’s identity; instead they only represented how they were seen in the eyes of the governing body. [1]
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Furthermore, the concept of racism in immigration has developed as the word “immigrant” has been associated with the concept of an “illegal immigrant.” Despite the fact that many people immigrate legally, the idea of illegality and the idea of “taking jobs” add to the potential for immigrants to experience racism as they relocate.[1]
ALIENATION
In addition to the racism faced by new immigrants, they often face mental health issues and lack a distinct sense of belonging to one place or another -- their ‘home’ or their ‘diaspora.’ This theme is shown throughout both books, such as when Kapil emphasizes,
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“It is psychotic to submit to violence in a time of great violence and yet it is psychotic to leave that home or country, the place where you submitted again and again, forever.” [A]
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Shimoda furthers this concept by the repetitive usage of the word ‘alien’ as in,
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“He is a photographer by trade and an alien by birth.” [B]
Another source from a Japanese internment camp during World War II explained,
“The internees here, being confined and treated as enemies with no hope of ever being released in the foreseeable future, finally became resigned to being true enemy aliens.” [2]
The feeling that you are unwelcome and never will be cannot be understated in the immigrant community; it is a haunting emotion that never quite departs and places immigrants into a middle ground between two countries they love [1]. The issue has recently seen an uptick in its prevalence in the entertainment industry, such as in the recent pop song "Akasaka Sad" by Rina Sawayama:
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An example of alienation in the process of moving to a new country is a common experience among detainees at U.S. detention centers. The guards at these stations treat the immigrants extremely poorly and are notorious for forging interview transcripts in order to deport them quicker. The immigrants rights' non-profit Immigration Law Lab produced a 30-minute interview with a Venezeualen asylum seeker in the U.S. for our Georgia Tech class. Listen to the audio clip of Jesús speak on the horrid conditions in the centers:
FAMILY
Immigration and the regulations surrounding it have the capacity to divide families as some members are unable or unwilling to immigrate. Thus, tales of immigration, such as those told in Schizophrene and The Grave on the Wall, are often tales of isolation from one’s family, and therefore history. In fact, Shimoda’s journey of discovery in The Grave on the Wall largely revolves around discovering his family history and ancestry following immigration. For example, he tells tells the story of how Midori, Shimoda’s grandfather, had immigrated to the United States from Japan at the age of only nine. Although he had planned to board the boat to the U.S. with his three older brothers, he was the only one to pass the health test, so he boarded alone. Shimoda describes Midori’s experience as he realizes he is traveling alone, saying,
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“Midori would have to go alone. The small, floating city was not only the passage between the brothers’ world and the new world, it was already the new world. Midori and his brothers shared the same body. At home, they were four. In the unknown, they were one.”[B]
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Like in this anecdote, an immigrant’s journey can become even more lonely as they leave family, friends, and culture behind them, whether this separation was planned or not. In another example, Shimoda describes the “picture brides,” who immigrated to the United States to marry a husband they had never met. By getting married in the United States, they left behind everyone they knew at home, losing the family and culture that they had established. Instead, they had to assimilate to the Western lifestyle, fragmenting their own families back home.
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The idea of fragmentation also plays into Schizophrene. While the concept of fragmentation is mainly used in reference to mental health, it also reflects the larger theme of the fragmentation of family in post-Partition diasporic communities. In fact, the style of writing in both books reflects this as well, as they both jump from topic to topic; the broken format mirrors the broken concept of family that emerges from immigration.
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