EXHIBITS
Convicting the Innocent: Japanese American Youth at Topaz: Conflicting Identities
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Conflicting Identities
“It was a time of very confusing events. I was considered a disloyal person until I was 18 years old. Then suddenly, I was considered a loyal citizen and drafted into the army.” —Jim Noda[1]

Japanese American woman singing national anthem at Topaz.
(Photograph courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society)
During internment, Japanese American adolescents faced an identity crisis. Internment signified to most that they could not be viewed as American while they were viewed as Japanese.” In order to combat this, many began replacing Japanese cultural elements with American ones and encouraged their parents to do the same. In class papers, students suggested that they and their parents adopt American manners such as eating with a knife and fork, always washing before eating, and men removing their hats when ladies were present.[2] Many Japanese American youth believed that if they displayed themselves as Americans, they might be viewed as such. This caused many Nisei youth to distance themselves from the Kibei, who were more likely to behave like “Japanese.”

Minoru Kiyota, a Kibei’s life at Topaz.
[click the image to enlarge; click the image again to browse all pages]
(Courtesy of University of Hawaii Press)

Crowd of Japanese Americans at Topaz.
(Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Leonard J. Arrington Photograph Collection, P0316, Box 3, Fd. 27, image 4)
Minoru Kiyota, a Kibei, recalls how he was rejected by other Nisei at school in California. He states: “I reacted against them with contempt, becoming more and more attracted to the Japanese tradition that had been the source of so much solace to my soul. In fact, I had begun to take great pride in that tradition.”[3] Because of the Kibei’s cultural preferences, the WRA and FBI were more suspicious of the Kibei than they were of the Nisei. As a senior at Topaz High School, Kiyota was summoned to an interview with an FBI agent who interrogated him and called him a “dirty Jap.” The FBI agent deemed he was a “dangerous individual” and that he must remain in camp.[4]
Even before internment, many Nisei and Kibei were compelled to choose a cultural identity, but internment exacerbated this. Some began to side with the United States in order to prove their loyalty while others did not want to do so as they felt betrayed.
