Remembering
the Japanese American Experience
By
Loyde Walters
In 1996, President Clinton designated May "Asian/Pacific Heritage Month." In honor of thismonth of remembrance, the California Historical Society in San Francisco is presenting an exhibit, "America's Concentration Camps: Remembering the Japanese American Experience during World War II."
To some, history is just a useless collection of names, dates, and events. Visitors to the HistoricalSociety's exhibit will confront the offensively subjective and white-washed Americanversion of its own history during World War II, which has compounded many Japanese Americans' feelings of bitterness and betrayal, as well as shame for many other Americans of different ethnic backgrounds.
During World War II, the U.S. government, while fighting to preserve freedom, hypocritically denied freedom to its own citizens. Japanese Americans were labeled as the enemy and forced to leave their homes and move into "relocation camps," a pretty euphemism for Concentration Camps. All "non-aliens"-meaning U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry-were "evacuated" from the west coast, which was considered a danger zone, and placed in camps for their "own safety." Not only were these "non-aliens" placed in concentration camps, but their children, U.S. citizens by birth, were also placed in detention centers across the Midwest. Ironically, Japanese Americans living in Hawaii before and during the attack on Pearl Harbor were never removed from their homes and placed in relocation camps like those in the continental United States.
The Historical Society's exhibit shows the Japanese American experience through their own eyes as well as how America saw the Japanese experience at the time.
In some instances words of famous individuals reflected a racism that was rampant during the early 1900s.
"In the matter of Chinese and Japanese coolie immigration I stand for the national policy of exclusion. We cannot make a homogeneous population out of a people who do not blend with the Caucasian race" - Woodrow Wilson, candidate for President of the United States, May 3, 1912.
"I'm for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps," -Congressman John Rankin, Congressional Record, December 15, 1941.
Numerous letters of internees/prisoners writing to their friends are part of the exhibit. Some are written in Japanese, many are in English, but both describe the conditions of the camp and their feelings about it.
During
the war, the U.S. government made propaganda films to project the image
that the Japanese were treated well, while in the concentration camps.
The photos from military photographers showed orderly and prosperous camps. Personal pictures told another story. These pictures showed the long lines for food, supplies, and sanitation. Other pictures showed the fences, guard towers, and sentries that surrounded the camps. The actual living conditions were highly understated, like comparing a Hot Wheel's car to an actual Ferrari.
Exhibit photographs sometimes tell a better story than any words could. A striking picture shows a white woman proudly pointing to a huge sign in front of her house. The sign, approximately ten feet long by three feet high, declared boldly in black, block-type lettering: "JAPS KEEP MOVING THIS IS A WHITE MAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD."
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Walking through the exhibits is a stark reminder of our country's racist history. Was I proud to be an American? Not at that moment, no.
The significance of the exhibit really hit home when a
women who lived in one of the Concentration camps started to talk to me.
Her name was Midge and she lived in the camps as a young girl.
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A
striking picture shows a white woman proudly pointing to a huge
sign in front of her house. The sign, approximately ten feet long
by three feet high, declared boldly in black, block-type lettering:
"JAPS KEEP MOVING THIS IS A WHITE MAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD."
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round and look at the exhibits and listen to other people's recollections, memories come back to me."
Midge spoke
with no resentment or bitterness in her voice about being imprisoned by
her own country. Many Issei and Nissei (first and second
generation Japanese) felt it was their patriotic duty to let themselves
be relocated to these camps.
"America's Concentration Camps" presents a more authentic
and informative history lesson than any American textbook ever could,
as wellas remind Americans of all backgrounds of the dangers of xenophobia
and overzealous wartime patriotism. "The most important thing that you
should remember from seeing this exhibit is that the government can do
this to any group," Midge says.