English 20-41
Journal Two
16 September 2003

Identifying with Mukherjee

    In “Manzanar, U.S.A.” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, a life in which one was forced in to an interment camp was described, an internment camp which was in the “land of the free” nonetheless. Houston describes what went on in the camp that America forced the Japanese in to in 1941. She tells of the anger and despair that brewed inside from the fact that “America had accused us, or excluded us, or imprisoned us” because they were Japanese. Houston, her family, and many other Japanese Americans had done nothing wrong. They were United States citizens, and yet their freedom was taken away from them just because of their ethnicity. Isn’t America supposed to be above all of that? Isn’t America the country that is fighting the other countries to do away with this discrimination? Obviously America is not the “free” country that it claims to be, especially after this display of complete betrayal of its citizens.
    “Two Ways to Belong In a America” by Bharati Mukherjee is about how the author herself, Mukherjee, and her sister, Mira Mukherjee, have long lived in the United States (more than 35 years) and how one is a United States citizen and the other refuses to be. From India, a country which has little woman’s rights, these girls came to America for education and found their freedom. Mukherjee embraced the U.S. and became a citizen. Mira, on the other hand, insists on remaining an Indian citizen but keeping the rights of an American. Political decisions made it so immigrants who were not citizens of the United States were not able to receive the benefits of citizens, and the sisters felt betrayed by the system.
    Mira’s views on the political decisions of the U.S. made her “feel used … manipulated and discarded. … I’ve obeyed all the rules, I’ve paid my taxes, I love my work, I love my students, I love the friends I’ve made. How dare America now change its rules in midstream?” Almost out of the blue America changed its feelings on Asian immigrants for what seemed to Mira as little reason at all. In this aspect, I think that Houston would identify with Mira rather than Mukherjee. Both women were going about their normal everyday American lives, and then suddenly their freedoms and American rights were taken away from them. The fact that Mira was not a citizen and also refused to be made it so her point isn’t as impacting, but the rights and privileges in which she had one day were suddenly taken away the next. Rather than enforce the new decisions on the new immigrants, and not the ones who had been living in America for a while, the U.S. “punished” all immigrants. Rather than looking in to and targeting only Japanese immigrants, or only the “suspicious” Japanese, all Japanese (citizen or not) were taken to the internment camps. Both women were in the America for the freedoms it gave, and they were betrayed by it.

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