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AnonymousDuring the dark times of the Japanese interments, there was a vast piece of prime real state on Wilshire Blvd. Frank's nursery-landscape-belong to Japanese and Japanese-Americans that unsuspectingly entrusted the care of their real state and nurseries to their Americans friends, while the Japanese people were in the internment camps-Manzanar. However, when they returned-Frank's Nursery and other properties were already appropriated by the people entrusted to look after their real state. Also, in the West LA area on Sawtelle Blvd. bound by Santa Monica in the north and extending south towards Pico Blvd. There was a large Japanese community and every year they celebrated the beautiful Obon Festival-a cultural and religious event, coexisting in harmony with 5 de Mayo Hispanics celebrations and other holydays. Both groups working in their respective landscapes nurseries. Sawtelle Bl. was lined with plenty of Japanese & Mexican food restaurants and gift shops. My favorite spot on Sawtelle Bl. was a fossil shop across the "Y" and Angel bakery. Wars and political conflicts have a divisive effect among fellow human beings.
AnonymousI have never gone to Manzanar but only have passed by while driving to Mammoth Lakes. I have always been intrigued by the place and what it represents and will definitely make it a point to visit. Just last week my classes visited the Museum of Tolerance, and interestingly I don't recall seeing anything on Manzanar. It is an important part of American history, and I definitely plan to incorporate into my classroom and curriculum. If anyone has any good material and literature/short stories regarding Manzanar, that would be great appreciated!
AnonymousI would really encourage people to visit Manzanar (especially if you are already driving by). There aren't a lot of buildings left but the museum there is really nice and they have done a great job of recreating the living quarters so that the visitors have a sense of what it was like during WWII. I like that they have the stories of several of the individuals who stayed there and they tell you about what happened to them after they were finally released. You are also able to walk around the entire property and see where the different buildings were located such as religious centers, baseball field, doctor's office...etc. Very interesting place.
As for the Museum of Tolerance, I will NEVER take my students there again. That is a very reactionary institution that obviously only serves the interests of pushing a Zionist agenda while at the same time excluding/negating MANY very important elements of US/World History. They have a wall/timeline of the Civil Rights Movement/60's/70's and they did't have anything on Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, the Brown Berets, the Red Guards, the American Indian Movement...it was really a shame. What they did have was prominent organizations of people of color listed as "hate groups." Lastly, when I took my 9th graders there several years back, one of their staff members yelled at my students (I was standing right next to them) and said "Don't you speak any English???" For good measure, I went back a few laters later and decided to wear my "Free Palestine" shirt to see how "tolerant" they really were. When I got there, they refused to let me join a group of educators that was there who was about the start the tour. I very respectfully informed them that I too was an educator and they then asked me to take the tour on my own or that I could just leave. They aren't very tolerant at all. Skip the Museum of Tolerance and visit Manzanar or any other museum that doesn't push reactionary/racist politics.
Rob_Hugo@PortNWI added late to the class so since I missed the first class session, I decided to visit a place that I have been wanting to visit for several years but had not had the opportunity to do so. Because I have taught US History for 10 years now, every year I teach my students about the concentration camps that were built by the US government during WWII to incarcerate hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese-Americans who they believed could be spies who were loyal to the emperor. The Japanese-Americans were held there against their will until the end of the war.
Visiting the site was a really powerful experience because I was able to physically be in the same location where so many people were held captive. Reading the diaries of the people and seeing picture from that era made me really sad and angry at the same time. It was really great to see that even in the face of such brutal discrimination and bad treatment, the people were never broken and they were able to build community to the best of their ability. They maintained their culture, their traditions and their language, no matter how hard the Americanization schools tried to make them change. It took for me to see the surround mountains and vast landscape to understand how truly isolated they were. They were far from home and even if they tried to escape, they wouldn't really have anywhere to go.
A very important connection that I made and that I will share with my students is the concept of being help captive by an unjust government. Many of my students and/or their family members who migrated to this country have been held at immigration detention facilities. I will show them pictures of Manzanar so that they see that these camps are not new and that this has been a practice of the US government for many generations.
I am happy that I was able to visit Manzanar and that there is a beautiful museum there to preserve the history so that we never forget what the US government did to Japanese-Americans and hopefully nothing like that will ever happen again.
edited by rgochez on 1/15/2015