Session 10 - Japanese American National Museum

[Gerlinde Goschi]

This is a great idea for a lesson or discussion.  I would add in my class a couple of pictures from today's historical moments or events happening today and ask students to compare it to the pictures of the smiling faces in the prison camps.  Do photos depict what the eyes of the viewer tell him/her? This is a provoking question that will stimulate a lot of good discussion and debate in class. Students would first take notes on a graphic organizer and then participate in a class discussion with the pictures as evidence.

 

[Gerlinde Goschi]

This was my third time visiting this museum.  The first time, I went through the exhibits studying the artifacts and photos.  The second time, I spent a lot of time in the museum’s library looking and reading through the many volumes of testimonies and historical writings.  This third time, however, my colleagues and I had the honor of being led by a docent who was a survivor of an Internment Camp. Our docent was a child during his stay in the camp and recalled amazing details of everyday life at the camp and relocation process.  One story that struck me was the unwillingness of the US government to give those Japanese soldiers who volunteered to fight in WWII in Europe for the USA relatives in the internment camp their freedom. That stunned me! But, this happened and it was accepted during that era in history.

 

[Ann Huyhn]

 

The Japanese American Museum is located in Little Tokyo.  The exhibit that the docent talked about was the detainment of the Japanese in America during World War II.  Many US born Japanese was forced into internment camps and saw their lives changed dramatically overnight. It was a very heartwrenching experience that left many Japanese angry.  I would like to discuss with my students why people came to America. The events leading to World War II would be too difficult for them to understand since they are only 6 years old.  

 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

Hi Anthony, I am glad you brought up the groups of students (at least I think they were students) at the musem. It also caught my attention as we were leaving that a large group of Japanese tourists or students were in the museum. In Japan, they teach WWII with a very biased perspective and leave out much of Japan's role in the war. Seeing the tour group made me wonder if they also censor the US actions in WWII as we battled Japan in the Pacific front, and imprisoned our Japanese Americans at home. 

[Donna Jamshidnejad]

Thank you for sharing the link on Japanese internment. I use similar sources for a lesson on the Holocaust, and have found that students are much more empathetic and connected to the lesson when we introduce oral histories through survivors. I think I can use these audio clips along with videos from storycorps.org on internment in additon to videos on Islamophobia and immigration or ICE raids today. 

Here's one video on internment: https://storycorps.org/stories/roy-and-aiko-ebihara-170217/

[Nelson Ta]

I would definitely take my students to visit the museum. It isn't too far from my school and I honestly think it would make a great field trip. My students are always fascinated by other cultures and have asked many times about my background. I enjoyed learning from experienced docent and felt their style could really help visitors relate to the pain and misfortune that went with the internment camps. There are so many parallels to current politics. I would compare them to the housing of migrants from Latin America.

[Joel Jimenez]

My students would really love coming to the Japanese Museum.  They could visit the museum and then visit Little Tokyo after.  What I found most interesting was learning about the interment camps here in the United States.  I knew that there were sevearl camps throughout California, but I did not know that there were also many camps throughout the country.  Very sad time period in the U.S.  It reminded me of the show, 'The Man in the High Castle' on Amazon Prime.  Except in the show, Japan and Germany had won WWII, and Americans were the ones who were segregated in certain areas of the U.S.   I wonder where the writers got their idea for the show??

[Joel Jimenez]

I also found this very interesting.  Not only did our guide have a very vivid memory on his time in the internment camps and when he was a child, but due to the shame and embarrasment that he felt by being Japanese as well as the stigma that many Americans had on Japanese cutlure, he did not want to learn the Japanese language.  To this day, he doesn't speak Japanese, I find it fascninating that even up to today, he didn't want to learn Japanese language.  

[Joel Jimenez]

I hope to one day visit the Japanese concentration camps as well.  I think it is a very humbling experience and everyone should take this tour at least once in their lifetime.  We would be much more empathetic towards minorities and the pains and struggles that different cultural groups have had to endure here in the U.S.  I also visitied Auschwitz in Poland two years ago and that was truly an eye opening experience, one that would be very impactful on my high school studetns.

[Kathrin Simmons]

Even so it has been a while ago, I remember the visit in the Japanese History Museum very well. I was very impressed by the tour guide and his up-beat personality. It makes such a difference to have a docent who personally experienced the Japanese internment camp in World War II. The dozent who was a young child druing his stay in the camp, recalled details for the visitors of his and his families painfull experiences in the camp. As a visitor, listening to his stories while seeing the artifacts and pictures of that time period, it is easy to relate to the pain and misfortune that happened to the japanese people and gain knowledge about the discrimination against the japanese people during that time in the United States.

 

[Kathrin Simmons]

That is indeed surprising thatthe docent  did not know his native language anymore and had not learned it to this day. It does reflect the discrinmination Japanese people faced at this time. 

 

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