Week 2 Post: Narrative in the Finding Aid on Collection about Japanese American Internment

In his essay “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality”, Hayden White explores the central elements constituting a narrative. He states that a full narrative is achieved by “explicitly invoking the idea of a social system to serve as a fixed reference point by which the flow of ephemeral events can be endowed with specifically moral meaning” (White, 25). I would like to examine the contents of the finding aid on each “box” of collection about Japanese American internment, and argue that while the descriptions of certain box manifest certain traits within White’s judgement of a narrative, none can be defined as a full narrative.

Time reference can be found in each “box” of collections in the titles of the materials, but to a varying degree. Box 1 contains quarterly and semi-annual report on internment camps, and therefore lists the most accurate dates in chronological order, from “1942 October 1” to “1946 June 30”. Other 3 Boxes all have materials that are only labeled with year, and none of them is recorded chronologically. Therefore, only Box 1 exhibits the “flow of events” as described by White.

The characteristic of “a social system . . . as a fixed reference point” can also only be seen in Box 1. The reports on the internment camp build upon the framework of “general aspects of life in interment camps”, while the materials in other boxes describe a variety of social situations of Japanese internees.

Finally, “moral meaning” is implicated in the descriptions in Box 1. Words like “fears and anxieties” and “disturbance”, which suggest the fragile mental states of the internees and invoke readers’ sympathy for their circumstance, are implicitly taking a moral standpoint over the internment of Japanese Americans.

Based on the examination of connections between the descriptions of materials within the boxes of collections and the statement made by White, one may come to the conclusion that the descriptions in Box 1 constitute a complete narrative. However, one important element mentioned by White is missing. The descriptions in Box 1 do not “so much conclude as simply terminate” (White, 21). The description of the last material within the box simply states that the “report documents the end” of the agency that handled the interment of Japanese Americans, which implied the end of interment. However, the descriptions simple end without elaborating on the conclusions like the effects of the agency’s termination.

Therefore, the descriptions in Box 1 serves as an incomplete historical narrative that draws the general picture of the hardships of Japanese American internment but fails to wrap up as a story. An addition of conclusion such as the emotions of the internees or the social impacts of ending the internment can lead to the completion of the narrative.