World War II, Internment, Bracero
World War II, Internment, Bracero
- What knowledge of the history of the Philippines do you bring to this reading?
- Why might it have felt like a contradiction to Filipinos to wear U.S. military uniforms?
- Where is the historiography section of this reading? What is Gonzalves’ historiographical intervention? (What is he adding to the scholarly conversation?)
- What does Gonzalves argue were the range of beliefs about their loyalties and ambitions that Filipino soldiers in World War II had?
- What does Gonzalves mean when he writes in the Afterword that “’citizenship’ is not simply a matter of belonging to a single country.”?
- What does Alice Yang Murray suggest are differing views on the reason the U.S. decided to intern Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans? (On the second page of the reading, she refers to a reason that has been given, disagrees with it, and offers her own argument.) How can you connect her argument to Omi and Winant’s concept of racial formation?
- What combination of factors led to the U.S. policy of internment? What are the forces of historical change in the reading?
- Why do you think so few Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans resisted internment when it was announced?
- What concerns emerged among Japanese Americans and immigrants regarding the loyalty review program?
- Why do you think Murray focuses so much on various forms of resistance?
- We have read material by Chacón and Davis before. What historiographical school of thought informs their work?
- What was the Bracero Program?
- During the 1930, the U.S. government responded to the Great Depression by passing a series of reforms known as the New Deal. Among the new laws, the government gave workers the right to form labor unions. New Dealers believed that unionized workers would be able to collectively improve their economic standing, which would make the nation stronger. Agricultural workers were not given the right to unionize, however. Why do Chacón and Davis find this a problem?
- How do Chacón and Davis critique the Bracero Program?
- How do Chacón and Davis argue that the Mexican government subsidized the Bracero Program?
- How do Chacón and Davis argue that the Bracero Program benefited American agribusiness and the Mexican government after World War II?
- How do Chacón and Davis connect the Bracero Program with undocumented immigration, and how do they argue undocumented migration was more financially beneficial to growers and other employers?
