Subject: American History Paper - on JA Internment
I'm doing a paper on the JA Internment for my American History class
and I want to do something different. I was wondering if there are
some unique primary sources about the JA Internment out there.
Something that might stand out of the rest?
Subject: Re: American History Paper - on JA Internment
What do you mean by "primary"? Books, of course,
but how about interviews, videos, films, websites?
There are a bunch of links gathered in the "History" section
of the Nikkei Nexus.
Of those, I would recommend two in particular:
The Japanese American Internment
www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html
- rich resource, many links and a bibliography
U of Washington Japanese American Exhibit and Access Project
www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/default.htm
- ditto
But if you are looking for "unique" sources, you might also
check out the links to personal stories and web photo essays.
Subject: Re: American History Paper - on JA Internment
Find Michi Weglyn's "Years of Infamy: The Untold Story of America's
Concentration Camps" Quill, 1976
Well-researched, lotsa attitude, not the greatest writing in the world.
Subject: Re: American History Paper - on JA Internment
Regarding primary resources for your report on American concentration
camps for Japanese Americans, (as well as Justice Department internment
camps for Japanese Latin Americans and some German and Italian families),
one of the best resources are people who were incarcerated.
I'm not sure what the make up of your community is like, but, time
allowing, I think it would be a great experience for you to look for Nisei
and Sansei who were placed in camp. Also, something to keep in mind for
your report is the fact that there were also many Nikkei who may not have
been put in camp, but were forced to relocate because of the war, or were
under house arrest (like in New York), or were nestled in between strict
borders in their neighborhoods (as in Arizona -> the Nikkei were not under
house arrest, but some of the borders would prohibit their travel so
strictly that they couldn't even get to the grocery store).
And, I think, MOST IMPORTANTLY in any discussion or presentation on "camp"
is the fact that the forced removal, restriction, and unjustified
incarceration of Nikkei in America was nothing new to minority
groups / people of color in this country. Specifically for Japanese
Americans, for example, Alien Land Laws were created to keep Japanese from
owning land...
ALSO - (and equally important) - injustice aimed at people by our
government through legislation is nothing "old" today. -> The
concentration camp experience for Nikkei in America is merely one of an
endless number of attacks on people of color / minority groups. In the
most recent years of California history, we have experienced the same kind
of fear of/attack on immigrants through propositions passed by our voters.
-> Just this year -> Prop. 227 was passed - to eliminate bilingual
education programs and make it illegal for a teacher to use a child's
primary language to teach academic courses such as math, science, social
science, etc. Beyond all of the official language of the proposition ->
it is a clear attack on the identity and self-worth of a child who simply
speaks a language other that english! Since when has it been a crime to
speak a non-English language?! Always, I guess ...
anyways, before i write a paragraph to vent my thoughts (!) -- my point is
that it is important to present a topic of history as it relates to NOW.
People are often bored by the topic of history ... i know i used to be back
in high school - but that changed when i learned things about our
country's history that were NOT in the books ... when i talked to my parents
and others who were in camp during the war ... and especially when i
realized that laws CONTINUE to be put into place that mis-treat,
dis-respect, and attack people who are already struggling in this country!
Subject: Re: American History Paper - on JA Internment
It's crucial that in any discussion of internment we put it into the context that
this was not just an isolated incident but part of a century of anti-Asian
attitudes in the US. It's also important to make this clear because it helps
dispel the "military necessity" myth that so many Americans were led to believe.
Subject: Re: American History Paper - on JA Internment
Many Japanese-Canadians were also placed in camps during the war too,
and their reparation was pretty shabby (from what I have read). My
father met some JCs while working in Michigan after the war. He said
they were pretty much like JAs ... For a real mind blower, try meeting
up and getting to know Japanese Mexicans! The fellows I met could not
speak English and I could not understand their Japanese. Fortunately,
I could speak Spanish! Weird exchange.
Subject: Revisionist History? (Was: American History Paper - on JA Internment)
I came across this version of the Internment while surfing:
http://www.danford.net/nisei.htm
or
http://www.cris.com/~Danford/nisei.htm
What do you Ties Talkers think?
Subject: Re: Revisionist History?
> I came across this version of the Internment while surfing:
>
> http://www.danford.net/nisei.htm
or
http://www.cris.com/~Danford/nisei.htm
>
> What do you Ties Talkers think?
I don't know what exactly to make of this... usenet posts are what they are
-- anyone can say anything, and I defend that right. But the "logic" that
the one writer uses that says that because "intelligence reports" said that
there was a possibility of espionage and sabotage by Japanese and Japanese
Americans was likely in the wake of Pearl Harbor on the West Coast is just
plain maddening. He actually says that because there were no reports of
espionage during wartime, it is proof that these "preventive" measures
worked. Geeez, that's like the old joke about the elephant repellant: When
one man tells the other that he's crazy, there are no elephants in the
area, the guy with the repellant says, "See? It works!"
And I'm sorry, it's hard to stomach the fact that the sentinels at the
Internment camps were there for the protection of prisoners from a hostile
outside population -- especially when he says in the other breath that
these weren't really prisons because the Japanese folks could come and go.
(It's true that there was much coming and going from camps for work, and
for instance Bill Hosokawa left Heart Mountain after a year to take a job
as an editor at the Des Moines Register.) But having said that, would this
man who posted those messages feel it was right if his life and family and
business were completely disrupted -- nay, destroyed -- and possesions
given away, or hidden, or stolen, and he were sent with his family to a
gawdforsaken camp in the middle of the worst parts of the country for his
own "protection"?
Subject: Re: Revisionist History?
> I came across this version of the real story while surfing:
>
>
http://www.danford.net/nisei.htm
or
http://www.cris.com/~Danford/nisei.htm
>
> What do you Ties Talkers think?
>
> I don't know what exactly to make of this... usenet posts are what they are
> -- anyone can say anything, and I defend that right.
>
> It's hard to stomach the fact that the sentinels at the
> Internment camps were there for the protection of prisoners from a hostile
> outside population -- especially when he says in the other breath that
> these weren't really prisons because the Japanese folks could come and go.
In a play about the Poston AZ camp, "12-1-A" by Wakako Yamauchi,
the men get to leave the camp to join work crews.
One of the families even gets permission to live outside the camp,
but when they are threatened with violence by the locals,
they end up returning to the camp, where they feel safer.
Presumably these vignettes were drawn from somebody's experience,
so maybe there is some truth to the usenet post. I'm just hearing
about all of this second- and third-hand, though. Hmmm.
Subject: JA Internment: Book of interest?
I just heard a review on NPR of a new novel set in
the Tule Lake internment camp:
The Climate of the Country - by Marnie Mueller
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1880684586/
Apparently the author was born in Tule Lake, where
her father was one of the camp administrators.
Subject: JA Internment: Positives?
Can any of you think of positive effects of the early
JA experience in the US and the Internment?
Subject: JA Internment: Positives?
> Can any of you think of positive effects of the early
> JA experience in the US and the Internment?
I don't know that the Internment had any *positive* effects.
In terms of a micro view of a specific early JA community's experience,
try "Farming the Home Place" by Valerie Matsumoto.
Subject: JA Internment: Positives?
> Can any of you think of positive effects of the early
> JA experience in the US and the Internment?
Here are a few things that my crazy optimist nisei parents have told me
throughout the years:
- "Before the Internment was the Great Depression. We were poor then and
had a hard time finding work. In the camps, we got free room and board."
- "There were the fellas from the Palo Alto Boys' Club, and we used to
plan lots of camp parties."
- "Ojii-chan used that time to learn about bonsai."
- "It wasn't as bad as what happened to the Jews in Europe."
Subject: JA Internment: Positives?
> Can any of you think of positive effects of the early
> JA experience in the US and the Internment?
It was there that Baa-chan started to learn shigin,
the recitation of classical Chinese and Chinese-style
Japanese poetry (kanbun).
Baa-chan also mentioned she made a lot of friends there.
An uncle mentioned that he learned more Japanese at the
Nihongo gakko in camp than in all the pre-War years at
his local community Japanese school.
Subject: JA Internment: Positives?
> Can any of you think of positive effects of the early
> JA experience in the US and the Internment?
The Nikkei Nexus has a few links to descriptions
of the early JA experience in various parts of the USA.
Nikkei Nexus (click History: US: Mainland)
http://www.najc.ca/nexus/
Last updated 15 March 1999