Message from nmacanish

[Anonymous]

During the month of June I had the pleasure of going on a tour of the Japanese American Museum in downtown Los Angeles. This museum focuses on the experience of Japanese Americans during the internment camps. The idea is to show the experience of the immigrants through the lens of this historical mishap. The museum docent spoke to us about how this experience changed many Japanese families for years to come. The docents at the museum were all people who had experienced internment. Some remember, others were too young to remember.

This museum would be a great experience to take your students of US history. It shows how many of the Japanese packed up their belongings in a basket and made the journey to the West Coast. There were pictures from Angel Island and even some examples of the picture brides. The pictures in the exhibit were very powerful. Most of them were real, but others were thought to be staged government propaganda. The propaganda pictures were interesting because it would show a “typical” Japanese American family sitting around a table, 1950’s Cleaver style, while living in an internment camp. Scary what they can make us believe.

The museum works hand in hand with the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy. I took a stop over there on the same day. They also have an interesting exhibit highlighting the contributions of varying ethnic groups in the effort to preserve American Democracy. A few of them were Asian Americans. Both exhibits were powerful reminders of the will of any people to want freedom and fight for freedom, even when the country of their supposed freedom turns against them.