"Fusa Tsumagari, a Japanese American Woman, and Her Intersectional Use of Conversational and Contrastive Rhetorical Styles"

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About the Author

Skyler Drew is an undergraduate student studying public relations at York College of Pennsylvania, with minors in professional writing and speech communication. She plans to pursue higher education in the field of rhetoric and composition upon graduation at her current institution.

Contents

Introduction

Archival Methodology

Conversational Rhetoric and Tsumagari’s Letters

Feminine Rhetorical Identity Across Cultures

Tsumagari’s Intersectional Rhetorical and Future Research Applications

Conclusion

Works Cited

Introduction

During WWII, many Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps in the western and midwestern United States. These camps imprisoned men, women, and children of Japanese descent and were mandated under Executive Order 9066. These prisoners were required to uproot their lives and place themselves in these internment camps or face a punishment of a monetary fine and possible prison time (Reeves, 2015). Living in internment camps severed ties between prisoners and their communities, friends, and any relations who were not direct family or of Japanese descent (Ishizuka, 2006). Oftentimes, the only way to remain in contact with the outside world was through the mail, as visitation was limited (Tsumagari, 1942). Letters were essential for connecting people inside internment camps with close friends or loved ones who were not relocated. Letters were their most reliable mode of communication and were efficient at helping prisoners stay updated with the world outside the camp. This essay draws from the letters produced by the prisoners of these internment camps and focuses specifically on one Japanese American woman and her use of letters as communication. 

This paper examines the correspondence between Fusa Tsumagari, a Japanese American woman who resided in multiple internment camps between 1942 and 1945, and Clara Breed, her local librarian before Tsumagari’s internment. In these letters, Tsumagari rhetorically performs her intersectional identity as a Japanese American woman. I use the theoretical frames of conversational rhetoric, which helps make visible some of Tsumagari’s strategies for performing her feminine identity, as well as contrastive rhetoric, which helps make visible how both Japanese and American identities are constructed. This study contributes to the history of women’s rhetoric by considering how conversational rhetorical strategies get shaped by other cultural identities.