This story, “The Bracelet” written by Yoshiko Uchida, is a powerful story about a Japanese girl named Ruri and how her family was sent to an internment camp in California. During World War II, the Japanese bombed the United States, which was one of the reasons why the United States joined the war. The first act of revenge that the United States took was to make all the Japanese-Americans either leave or go to internment camps. This is exactly what Ruri’s family was being subjected to. Right before they left, Ruri’s best friend Laurie came over to their house and gave Ruri a golden bracelet as a present. Ruri promised Laurie that she will never take it off. However, Ruri lost the bracelet somewhere along the way to the camp. She searched for a long period of time, but was finally persuaded by her mother to stop, who told her that the truly most important thing is not the bracelet, but the remembrance of Laurie.
We should realize the extreme effects that war can have on innocent families. One of these great effects is the racism and discrimination being put on people who are innocent. During World War II, Japanese Americans were subjected to unjustified racial discrimination and were forced to leave their homes and live in internment camps. In the story, Ruri and her family are subjected to numerous instances of racism, both before and after they are interned in the detention camp. They must have been greatly discriminated against simply because they were Japanese and had a Japanese face and in the country United States. Simply from the story we can find how much war can affect the world and its people in bad ways. Besides these discriminations, there are also many other ways that war can affect people in ways that are harmful. We should realize this and try to stop these acts from happening. Even though there are many people who are of different races, and racism still does exist, we must also realize that friendship between races is indeed possible. The bracelet symbolizes the great friendship between Laurie and Ruri, who are of different races. Therefore, we can find that wars and battles will have great effects on people’s lives, no matter in a physical or mental manner.
The most precious things in our lives are sometimes something physical, but the opposite, they are always in our minds. It is more important to focus on mental ideas rather than physical objects. Physical objects are way too easy to lose, and once we lose our precious objects, chances are they will not show up again. But things in our mind are not the same. Once something is in our mind, it is etched into our brain forever. Forgetting simply means a shallow etch mark. Things we will want to remember and care for will stay in our memory for a long time, if not our entire lives. It is especially difficult for physical things to do the same. In the story, Mom explains to Ruri, who was desperately trying to find the golden bracelet Laurie had given her, that as long as she can remember Laurie forever as her friend, she does not need to find the lost bracelet. Ruri understands this, and most likely will keep her memories of Laurie for the rest of her life, if not until they meet again. Even though the bracelet was gone, their friendship will stay in place as a bond forever. As you can see, friendship, and most other important bonds, are not kept as simple physical bonds, but instead mental.
We should sometimes make decisions too easily, especially if they will affect many people at once and will change many things at once. These big decisions are best dealt with using careful consideration, and if it is big enough, a vote could also be considered as a method to make the decision. The reason for this is because if we accidentally mess up on one part and make a decision that is not for the best, problems will start to pop up and cause bigger problems, from the scale of one company’s decline to the issues of a country. One example of this is when the Japanese had bombed the United States. There were obviously some reasons for doing this, including war, but might not have been the best because it would cause extreme political tension and cause the United States to join World War II. But after this event, the United States took a big action as well, which is to make all Japanese people in their country go to concentration camps without their consent. This is what will cause major problems. Though we can understand that the United States was taking revenge on Japan, they should be taking it on the people who made the decision to bomb the United States, not on innocent families living in the U.S.. Thus, all decisions should be made carefully and after great consideration.
“The Bracelet” by Yoshiko Uchido talks about a young Japanese girl named Ruri who was forced to go to a concentration camp with her family during World War II. Through Ruri's experiences, we can find that war will wreak great chaos even to people and places who are innocent. Some of these devastating effects are in the form of prejudice and discrimination. We should be the ones who spread kindness to combat discrimination. Also, we must realize that the most important things in our lives are many times mentally in our mind rather than physically in our hands. The story provides another important idea that we should only make decisions after careful consideration. These ideas are excellent ideas that will help us throughout our lives and we will benefit from them if we learn to use them correctly. The story serves as a powerful reminder of the need for people to stand up against discrimination, to make decisions carefully, and to preserve the ideas we hold in our minds .
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