The Writer Of Citizen 13660

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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Citizen 13660

Mine Okubo, the writer of ‘Citizen 13660’ is widely known as an impressive illustrator, who uses symbolic reflections and deeply meaningful images to depict the real situation in a rather fictitious scenario.

Mine Okubo’s mentality is complex, as shown in her writing, and she has an inclination to underline the negative phenomena and depressive events more than the positive ones. For instance:

‘The workmen struggled day after day with limited equipment. For a long time we were kept in wonderment by this activity. Everyone knew the camp was not a permanent one’. (Okubo, 98)

Being a writer, the secret of her popularity is hidden in her cynical tone, which represents things beyond their merits, thus creating a great interest for readers, but a majority of readers doesn’t realise that they are, in fact, being misguided and wrongly directed.

For example, in its page numbered 96, Okubo describes idleness as a trait ‘which the Japanese ordinarily will not tolerate’. (Okubo, 96) This sentence, as written by the writer, reflects a kind of racial superiority, whereas the frequently occurring word ‘Japanese’ emerged as a tool, throughout the book, to evaluate others’ cultures and social trends. She, further, explains that this was that ‘demoralising effect’ that made men lye ‘asleep in usual places’. (Okubo, 96) This, again, suggests, that this was not the availability of decent sleeping arrangements in the camp, but a ‘demoralizing factor’, which made those men fall asleep on unusual places. She, also, witnessed a man sleeping ‘on the top rail of the center-ñeld fence’, while ‘grandstand Hoor’ was cited by the author as ‘an attractive spot for the sleepers’. (Okubo, 96)

‘Citizen 13660’ by Mine Okubo is the best example, as each and every page of the book is, intentionally, fraught with emotions and feelings which lack genuineness and reality. And the true picture is quite the opposite than above-cited viewpoint.

Throughout the book, Okubo tries to portray herself as a very insider of the camp, but slanted depiction of camp’s life shows the opposite picture to the readers.

She is neither an insider, nor an outsider, but a woman who has one foot in the camp while another foot is, still, stood outside the camp. Okubo, in actual fact, is hanging in-between in a way that makes us incapable to judge the inside of the camp’s life accurately.

Based on the illustrations and text, Okubo’s statements are mere outcome of her own predefined mindset which can not perceive things, according to the fixed judgments and stick-in-the-mud frame of mind. She mentions the rumours about relocation of the camp which appeared to be a big worry for camp’s residents.

‘The entire area around the gate, including the laundry building and the toilets, was completely fenced off, leaving one section open’. (Okubo, 109)

In contrast, the book would have been positively different if had no illustrations whatsoever, because what Okubo illustrates is contrary to the life of the camp which gave a rise to the new generation of Japanese-Americans who was not only positively proactive, but also aligned with the American’s way of life.

History can never rule out the bitter experiences, but the positive and rather constructive outcome of such experience should also be highlighted. Unfortunately, this is not the case with ‘Citizen 13660’.

Life in the relocation camps was quite harder for the Issei (native born Japanese), as compared with the Nisei who were born in the American land, and then recognised as the Japanese-American. This is because Nisei didn’t find themselves in a strange environment, and rejoiced the status of being a Japanese-American despite socioeconomic challenges and miseries. The Issei, on the other hand, faced difficulties in adjusting themselves with a new social environment which had its own lifestyle and standard of living.

The difference was apparent, and so was the reaction shown by the Issei, as they took a considerable time in adjusting and acclimatizing in a strange country.

Starting from their social identification to forced adjustment in the given surroundings, each generation has to confront a variety of challenges and concerns. But the prime concern for them relates to their socio-political identification, as they were, mistakenly, conceived as remnants of an ‘enemy race’.

A majority of Japanese Americans are, still, not considered as son of the soil. Therefore, these are yet to be identified as they deserve to be, but their misrecognition is a burning issue, in respect of other socioeconomic challenges.

In comparison with those of the facts shown by Okubo's visual depiction of camp’s life in the ‘Citizen 13660’, a neutral observer would show the same, but in another way. In fact, if these were the actual introduction to the internment of Japanese-American citizens and Japanese aliens, as well as World War II, an impartial witness would interpret the realities of that time period in a more positive manner.

Knowing the fact that ‘Citizen 13660’ is taken as an eyewitness testimony, as well as a pictorial proof of injustice, but conversely, an even-handed approach would be to portray the camp’s life without taking sides. During war, the camp’s life is, always, supposed to be challenging and testing, and nobody can expect to be treated like a royal guest, especially when living in makeshift living arrangements.

The word ‘camp’, itself, leads to a grim situation, where humans are usually mistreated, and remain deprived from the basic amenities of life. Okubo’s personal experience and observation is confined to herself mostly, and she intentionally disregards the other side of the camp’s life, full of likelihoods and possibilities of leading a true survivor’s life.

This book, generally, reflects an ‘enslaved Japanese thought’, instead of ‘an independent judgement’. In the same way, the neutral approach would be to narrate the story being a survivor in a camp which was much better than those of the concentration camps made by the Germans in Auschwitz.

As a camp’s observer, an impartial detainee would happily write that there were no electric chairs or gas chambers ever made by the Americans in the camp, and the offered conditions were more human-friendly than residential areas of many of the slums located in middle of the Japan at that moment.