Blog #7 - Japanese Internment Memorial essay

Word count: 547


After the attack on Pearl Harbor war-hysteria and paranoia caused the United States to isolate thousands of Japanese Americans on the West Coast and in Hawaii.


Those who dwelled in Hawaii faired better, as only a small percentage of Japanese Americans who lived in Hawaii were interned.


For those less fortunate, harsh living conditions and relocation became their fate.


Oddly enough, 110,000 Japanese Americans were interned on the West Coast, but only a small percentage of the 150,000 Japanese Americans were interned from Hawaii.  


With hysteria on the rise, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed executive order 9066, which allowed for the creation of exclusion zones that would be used to seclude the Japanese Americans from the rest of society.


To many, the actions taken by the United States seemed questionable, but the Supreme Court upheld many of the decisions made at the cost of thousands of Japanese Americans lives.


With support from the Supreme Court and aid from the Census Bureau, Japanese Americans had no chance at escaping the fate that fell before them.


Their lives were shattered in mere seconds and they lost everything.  


It is a classic example or prejudice and ignorance on the part of the United States.


To represent the atrocities committed against many Japanese Americans at the time of their internment, Ruth Asawa drew upon her own personal story and created a memorial to the men, women and children who had their lives taken away from them.


Asawa was a Japanese American citizen at the time of the internment and her father had been an American citizen for over 40 years when he was taken away by the FBI.  


Asawa and the rest of her family were then sent to Santa Anita race track in Arcadia, California.


This experience became a valuable part of Asawa's life because while she was there she learned about art from Disney animators who had also been sent to the internment camp.


One such vignette on Asawa's memorial depicts people drawing on easels, which commemorates her experience as a child.


I found this vignette compelling because it demonstrates beauty in a time of difficulty and crisis.


Asawa's experience allowed her to become the person and artist she is today.


San Jose State also played a role in interning Japanese American's.


Uchida Hall was used as a registration and collection point for many Japanese American's before they were sent off to internment camps.  


It is sad to realize this because many of the vignette's portrayed in the memorial show soldiers with guns watching those being held there in case they try to escape.


It is strange to realize that the institution I now attend contributed to prejudices against another race without any actual reason to do so.  


The last vignette that I found compelling was of the athletics within the internment camps themselves.


This vignette struck me because it portrays the continuation of life within the confines of the internment camps.


Despite having their lives taken away, Japanese Americans found ways to continue living and building community with one another.  


I do not believe that something of this magnitude could happen again in our society because of the strides we've made towards equality.


There would be an outcry for liberation and upheaval if any group of individuals were treated like this today.