The Silent Significant Minority

The Silent Significant Minority is an article detailing the experiences of JapaneseAmericans chronologically throughout World War 2 and pertains mostly to the women of this
time period. The article goes into the gender roles in Japanese-American culture before the war,
during the war and their time in internment camps and then towards the end and after the war.
This article is significant to me because it brings up two key higher level issues, one of which
that has been talked about at length in this course and that is the underrepresentation of women
in history and the other being the horrors of internment camps that we are for the most part
shielded from in the American academic system.
One of the most important points initially brought up by the Author was that the stories of
Japanese men have been told fairly consistently and portions of the general public are very wellversed in what happened during this time period with the men, however, the women are almost
completely ignored. This article discusses an incredible shift in the culture and gender roles of an
entire group of people, but this shift goes almost completely undiscussed. Japanese-American
women were treated as almost slaves to their husbands and their children. There was no sense of
individualism or opportunity for them to expand past the roles society had laid out to them. As
they entered the internment camps all of the gender roles suddenly became neutral. Men and
women were treated virtually equally and this was a radical shift that for the most part is not
discussed whatsoever.
The shift discussed in this article is one example, but there must be countless others that
we havent learned about and havent been discussed. Because women werent in the positions of
power throughout history up until recently there seemed no need to document their experiences,
however, this is a massive flaw in human history. Women often would have the third party view

that was never discussed in history books. They werent viewed as a threat by most men and
therefore got to witness things that other men may have never gotten to experience. Weve
discussed time periods ranging from the Revolutionary War through WWII and its become more
and clearer as time goes on that women were not only underrepresented, but also possessed the
ability to throw an entire twist on history as we know it.
The other incredibly clear thing that stuck out to me in this article was lack of discussion
of the Japanese internment camps in American schools. I can honestly say that if it wasnt for
this article and research Ive done on my own, I wouldnt have learned anything about the
Japanese internment camps. This is obviously more of a dark history that the American
government most likely does not intend to shed light on, however, its something that absolutely
needs to be discussed.
Internment camps were the closest the United States had ever come to creating something
like the camps the Nazis had during WWII. Its a scary thought that when you compare them, yes
the Nazi camps were significantly worse, but in principle the concept of the camps was the same.
Grouping people of the same race in the same place for an extended period of time in less than
perfect conditions. This type of segregation, while tolerated at that point by the US government,
is completely unacceptable and needs to be taught as a dark patch in American history. That level
of racism cant stand and needs to be discussed more.
This article clearly brings up two points of broader significance, the underrepresentation
of women in American history as well as the lack of discussion on internment camps in
American public schools. Both of these topics I believe need to change and will change. Women
are becoming more and more prevalent in our society, as we can see with Hilary Clinton most
likely going to be the democratic nominee for president along with all of the other important

roles women play today in America. As for the internment camps, the more people realize about
these injustices, the more they will work with legislators and educators to discuss what they were
and how truths like that cannot just be swept under the rug, but rather need to be taught and
explained so we can learn from them. Society today has made great strides from where it once
was and will hopefully continue making such strides as we move into the future.