Don't Fence Me In
American Propaganda
In this image, a Japanese woman is shown smiling and apparently laughing as an American officer searches through her luggage. This was most likely shown throughout America to send out a positive message about the internment camps.
Japanese internment camps
The message revealed through this photo is that, contrary to propaganda, the Japanese internment camps are tightly packed with people creating harsh living conditions.
This first picture was found in the book Japanese American History on page 55.
Propaganda
Propaganda is essentially the act of lying to the public through media to promote a political cause. In this situation, the American government was trying their best to convince the people of America/Japan and basically everywhere else that the internment camps that the Japanese people were forced into weren't that bad. In reality, the interment camps were essentially a prison; people were forced to stay in packed barracks, they were fed low nutrition food, and if you got too close to the fence, you were shot on sight. You can clearly see the contrast between truth and propaganda.