Japanese American National Museum

[Anonymous]

Mary our host at the Japanese-American National Museum shared her personal story of her internment during WW2. Her worlds were very powerful in putting a face on an event from the past. I thought having a guest speaker would be a great way to make theses event “real” to my students.

[Anonymous]

The Remembrance Project display of barracks from the Japanese internment camp was quite moving. I wasn’t expecting the same emotional response I felt when visiting the Museum of Tolerance in LA. It would be a great experience for students to visit both museum listen to the words of survivors and journal about the personal impact of both experiences.

[Anonymous]

I really appreciated the educational resource guide provided by the museum. It listed web link to access the museum content. It also provided grant opportunities to fund field trips. The best part was that they have provided a guide showing what learning standard and common core standards are met with the tour/activities hosted by the museum.

[Anonymous]

Masami Taraoka was born in Japan in 1936, but educated here in LA at the Otis College of Art and Design.
http://masamiteraoka.com/archive/early_work.html
*** Screen images carefully. Many NSFW or children. Taraoka continues the tradition of erotic art, sometime with hilarious commentary on contemporary life

Gaijin Fujita was raised in Boyle Heights. He attended the Fairfax high school art magnet, and Otis College of Art and Design.
http://www.lalouver.com/html/artist.cfm?tArtist_id=251&tArtistExhibitionGroup_id=84
*** Screen images carefully. Many NSFW or children. Fujita continues the tradition of erotic art-- mixed with street art.

Bruce and Norman Yonemoto, active in Los Angeles Area. One was a filmmaker and the other artist, but they often collaborated and made many artworks that commented on the media. (My favorite piece an installation that comments on the effect of Apple computer on their home town of Santa Clara- a video installation depicts peach blossom petals raining down onto a 1984 classic Mac, and suddenly, boom, there is an explosion and the screen goes dark... the end of a quiet farming community). Their work has been shown at JANM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_and_Norman_Yonemoto#Work
[font=sans-serif]Norman Yonemoto's training was in [/font]film[font=sans-serif]. After [/font]Santa Clara University[font=sans-serif], [/font]University of California, Berkeley[font=sans-serif] and [/font]UCLA[font=sans-serif], he attended the [/font]American Film Institute[font=sans-serif]for two years where he earned his [/font]MFA[font=sans-serif] in 1972. Bruce Yonemoto, however, sought his training in the [/font]visual arts[font=sans-serif]. After UC Berkeley, he went to Tokyo studying at the Sokei Bijitsu Gakkō. Once he returned to California, he obtained his Masters in Fine Art at [/font]Otis Art Institute[font=sans-serif]. He is currently the chair and professor of the Art Department at the [/font]University of California, Irvine[font=sans-serif].[/font]

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

http://www.janm.org/exhibits/

This is the web site for the Japanese American National Museum. It is an excellent resource for students. It lists all of the collections, exhibitions, and events for the museum. I might consider creating a scavenger hunt for students, in which, they must find different images for each site, including this one. Additionally, I know my students would be intrigued by the tattoo exhibit on this site.

[Anonymous]

Our tour guide was himself a survivor of Topaz. He even provided us with an old picture of him as a young boy at a long table with friends and family at Topaz. He seemed very friendly in the picture and there were several other boys close to his age in the picture as well. When we asked him if he kept in contact with them he said no. He said that he tried to block the experience out of his mind. In fact, when Topaz or other internment camps were brought up, he never mentioned that he was there to anyone because he preferred to forget this ever happened. I just thought this was so ironic considering now he spends a great amount of time volunteering at the Japanese American museum. He does the exact opposite; he tries to educate people so this experience will not be forgotten. I wondered then, as I wonder now, what caused the shift. I did not want to ask him at the museum in front of our group lest he feel uncomfortable so I am left to ponder the possibilities. I am left thinking that perhaps as he got older he decided he wanted to leave some kind of legacy. A perfect legacy for him would be to inform others of the atrocities of internment camps so history does not repeat itself and nobody has to go through what he and those friends in the picture had to endure.

[Author]

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