post a link to a great article in our local paper about Manzanar. if you don't know what that is, well, it was one of the internment camps that our government forced mostly American citizens to move to because they were 1/16th or more of Japanese descent. (Wikipedia has a great entry on the camp) yeah, I am not going to get into the politics of that decision. I wasn't there. I have my views and if you know me....well, then it shouldn't be too hard for you to figure out how I feel about it all. if you need a little hint.....I wrote my upper division California History report on Manzanar (to Joe Serna...... in case you follow local politics) and cried several times while researching and writing the paper.
oh, but why didn't I post the link?!?!? because of something that has become so overwhelmingly prevalent in the day of the anonymous internet: the comments. I don't want you to see how horrible people still treat each other......and how the comments have turned to bitter tirades against other commenters, against other ethnic groups, etc. everyone is entitled to their own opinion....but where is the respect? did these people learn NOTHING from what happened at Manzanar??
the respect is at Manzanar.....atleast now it is. the article talked about an annual trek made by people who survived the camps, their descendents, as well as others. these others weren't persecuted, but went to see and show their respect. one day I would like to take my boys. I want them to know what they probably won't learn in their US or California History class.
so, anyway.....that is my heavy topic for the day. take a moment today and be thankful that most of us live in this world free of persecution.......and do whatever small thing you can do so that others can enjoy the same freedom!
4 comments:
chicken
glad that you brought that up...when I was in grade/high school, we were never told about these camps-I had to learn about them in a comic book.
I plan to change all of that once I start teaching, so thank you for the great resource!!!
Maybe this is common knowledge, but I was shocked to learn on a Battle of Okinawa tour here that as censored as the US text books are, Japanese ones are even more so. Once the generation that is old enough to remember WWII dies, it will be treated as if it never happened. Text books (according to our tour guide) basically say, "Chinese bandits came and stole our things and we went to get our treasures back and then the US bombed Hiroshima."
I'm certainly not trying to be controversial in any way--we'll leave that to MUD. Your post just reminded me of it and makes me think... I wonder how much we're really allowed to know about anything. And not just "us"... people in every country all over the world. And after a certain time frame, what we're told is all we'll ever know.
sigh. the scariest thing of all of this is that I cannot say with any confidence that it could not happen again. (and if you believe some accounts, that it is happening on a much smaller scale).
it is so sad... during wwII, we even went to other countries and took THEIR japanese ethnic people and forcibly brought them here and put them in the american camps.
sad. scary. I just pray that we do not repeat this history - BEC is right - I think as memories fade, the risk increases. :(
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