[Liliana Reyes-Contreras]

As part of my make up assignment for missing session 2 I decided to go and revisit the Japanese American National Museum.  This museum is the largest museum in the country highlighting the experience of Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals in this country.  There are many exhibits dedicated to recounting the story of interment camps and the horrific conditions that many individuals of Japanese found themselves living in.  Some of the stories at the museum are from successful business owners who lost their businesses and their homes when they were sent away to interment camps.  It also explains the hopeful and positive nature of so many Japanese individuals who began to form full-blown communities in very difficult places.

 

One of my favorite exhibit’s at the museum was Sadako’s  Cranes.  Sadako was an artist who was born in Hiroshima and greatly influenced by the drop of the atomic bomb. His beautiful designs are on display and are truly captivating.

 

[Liliana Reyes-Contreras]

I had no idea that "China" was not even close to the word used by the people of China to refer to their country.  I find it fascinating that I have never heard this fact before today.  I know that many countries ave a variation in the name they use locally, but usually it is not so far from it.  I really enjoy learning how to check my Euro-centric learning and realizing how isolationist The United States can be in the way we teach history.

[Liliana Reyes-Contreras]

Geography feels like a hard science and then you notice things like labels and names and realize that with everything there is always human opinion and perspective coloring the way we perceive things and label things.  I think this is relevant in all studies of history and geography as we have learned almost all that we know from a primarily Western point of view. It make me wonder what the map would look like or what we could consider the Western world if we had history from an Asian perspective.  It is beyond facsinating that wars and battles have been waged over the names and identifications of geographic places and the cultural beliefs and identifications tha are often ignored by political quarrels. 

[Liliana Reyes-Contreras]

Hello everyone!  My name is Liliana Reyes Contreras.  I am a Los Angeles Native and work at Young Oak Kim Academy in Koreatown.  I am a school counselor and have been at my current site for 2 years.  I love to learn about new cultures and it is perhaps the thing I miss most about college.  I am fscinated by East Asia and all the things we can learn from the past and interpreting how they have shaped the countries we see today.  I enjoy traveling as well and look forward to visiting Asia someday soon.  

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