003B - My Trip to JANM

Hi! I thought I'd break the ice and make the first non-Sean blog post. : )

Last Saturday, to wrap up DOR week, Nikkei paid a visit to the Japanese American National Museum. I had been here before with the College Honors Society last year, but I decided it would be kind of cool to visit this place at just not any point in time, but at the conclusion of Day of Remembrance week.

It was a totally different experience this time around, because there was a museum guide. He wasn't just any guide, however--he had actually lived in the internment camps himself. As he went through various exhibits, he would tell side stories that gave a tiny glimpses into how difficult and downright depressing the whole experience was.

Despite the fact I'm actually not Japanese American, just being in the museum and listening to the guide tell his story allowed allowed me to really put myself into these peoples' shoes and experience just a little of the hardships they had personally gone through.

Perhaps the fact that the museum curator went to USC for college made things much more relatable. When EO 9066 rolled around, he was pulled aside in the middle of his studies to be relocated in a concentration camp. The fact that this happened to thousands of Japanese American college students should really make any college kid cringe. How different would your life be, if you lived during that era, just because your ancestors happened to be Japanese?

His friend from the USC Pharmacy School died in combat on the European front for the American Army--the army of the nation that condemned Japanese Americans to camps that did not even meet the requirements in the Geneva Conventions of Human Rights. (The one camp with actual Japanese prisoners had better conditions because it was supervised by the League of Nations.) Other friends who had survived into the aftermath of World War II and were released from the camps had to face immense discrimination--people who had even graduated with masters and doctorate degrees had to become gardeners for the rest of their lives because nobody would hire them.

I'm sure my eighth grade history textbook covered Japanese American internment, but I remember not thinking much of it even, because it was a tiny section in this huge chapter I would be tested on. It wasn't that much better in AP US History, although my teacher in lecture did at least call these internment camps, concentration camps (while contending that the German concentration camps were death camps).

This time around, the meaning of DOR really hit me, full-on in the face. After personally listening to the museum guide's story, I'm really glad USC Nikkei has been commemorating DOR; it's a sordid page of history not many people (especially non-JAs) like to touch, but I feel is crucial for us to read.

By the way, sorry if this post was super-long! It's just that my experience at JANM was so enriching and I got so much out of it, haha. I'd really recommend you to visit there sometime if you haven't been there (and shake off a bit of the sad feelings with excellent Japanese food at nearby restaurants). Even if you have, I'd still recommend another visit because you absorb so much more knowledge with each visit you pay.

-Jean