In Response to Executive Order 9066 by Dwight Okita

The poem "In Response to Executive Order 9066" by Dwight Okita, is a powerful poem with vivid images. The poem is about the experience a fourteen-year-old girl during the relocation of Japanese Americans to camps. "I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling and a messy room" (Okita 6&7). This might symbolize the attitude the young girl as adopted throughout her life. She further goes on to explain how she isn't accustomed to using the traditional Japanese chopsticks, and also how her "favorite food is hot dogs"(Okita 7). "Chopsticks and "Hot dogs" are the symbolic images of two countries that surround the young girl's life. Furthermore, the narrators "best friend is a white girl named Denise"(Okita 8). The narrator describes how their friendship evolved all through their grade school and how she considers Denise to be a true friend. Without warning Denise blames how her friend is always starting a war, and "Giving secrets away to the enemy. Why can't you keep your big mouth shut?"(Okita 18&19). Many people including myself would assume that Denise was referring to how the Japanese community was giving away secrets to their government to destroy America. The speaker of the poem didn't know what to say. As a result, the narrator decides to give a packet of tomato seeds, "and asked her to plant them for me, told her when the first tomato ripened she'd miss me" (Okita 22). The image of the ripe tomatoes gives hope to the Japanese girl that one day she might reunite with her best friend.