Japanese Internment Camps: PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF THE INTERNMENT EXPERIENCE

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF THE INTERNMENT EXPERIENCE

Please feel free to respond to any of these questions or make your own observations in the comments section so we can start a dialogue about some of these accounts.

PERSONAL ACCOUNT #1:
http://www.uwec.edu/geOGrApHY/Ivogeler/w188/life.htm

1. Who is the author of this account? How old do you think he was when he was interred?
2. What are some of the hardships and/or privileges you noticed in his account?
3. What is the tone of the author's voice? Can you tell how he feels about his experience?
4. How does the author's story make you feel?
5. What lessons would the author like you to take away from his story? Do you agree with these lessons? Why or why not?
6. Do you think the life the author describes in the internment camp was reasonable given the circumstances during the time? Why or why not?
7. Why do you think this author felt compelled to tell his story?

PERSONAL ACCOUNT #2:
http://www.janm.org/exhibitions/breed/1_6_42_t.htm

1. When was this letter written? What was going on in America during this time?
2. Who is the author of the letter? Where is she writing from?
3. What is the purpose of the letter?
4. How does Louise Ogawa describe her life? What hardships and privileges does she talk about?
5. What is the author's tone of voice? How do you think she's feeling about her situation based on the words and tone she uses in her letter? Why do you think this?
6. Imagine you are Louise Ogawa. How would you feel about your life as described in her letter. Why?

PERSONAL ACCOUNT #3:
http://www.janm.org/exhibitions/breed/11_30_42_t.htm

1. When was this letter written?
2. Who is the author of this letter? Where is she writing from?
3. What is Louise Ogawa's tone in this letter? Can you tell how she's feeling? How would you describe her personality?
4. According to Louise Ogawa, what are some of the differences between life in the internment camp and life outside the camp for Japansese-Americans? Do you think one is better than the other? Why?
5. What does Louise Ogawa think will happen once the war is over? Do you agree with her? Why or why not?
6. Do you think America today is the America that Louise Ogawa would have envisioned? Why or why not?

PERSONAL ACCOUNT #4:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/fear/interview.html

1. Who is being interviewed in this story? Who is conducting the interview?
2. Why do you think the interviewers wanted to conduct this interview?
3. What sticks out most to you in Ms. Tsukamoto's story? Why?
4. What is the tone of Ms. Tsukamoto's voice? Why do you think she feels the way she does?
5. What reasons does Ms. Tsukamoto give for why she believes the internment happened? Do you agree with her? Why or why not?
6. What do you think America can do to avoid another situation like the Japanese Internment?

PERSONAL ACCOUNT #5:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17335538

1. Who wrote this article? When was the article written?
2. How and why do you think Japanese Americans today remember so many details of the internment camps that they experienced or heard about through family members?
3. What were some of the hardships in internment camps according to this article?
4. What was the impact of the internment on Japanese-American culture today?
5. How did the Japanese-Americans attempt to protect their culture?
6. Can you think of any other past or current events in American history where one culture was suppressed by another? In what ways has this happened?

PERSONAL ACCOUNT #6:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=17335538&m=17358613

1. Who's being interviewed in this interview?
2. What is his interview about?
3. According to the interview, how much choice did Japanese-Americans have over what they ate? Why do you think this was the case?
4. Why do you think he remembers the food he had so vividly? Why do you think the food would have been a big deal to Japanese-Americans in the internment camps?
5. Imagine you were Japanese-American in an internment camp. What aspects of your life do you think you'd miss most? Least?
6. How do you think the U.S. government decided what to provide and what not to provide the people in internment camps? Why do you think they made those choices?

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Narrative Summary

As you look through the blog postings, you'll find a collection of primary source documents detailing the Japanese-American internment by the U.S. government following the attack on Pearl Harbor during WWII. The first set of documents that you'll see is a group of documents and editorial cartoons that give some context into what the Japanese Internment Camps were, and why they existed. My hope is that this section will provide both historical background, and a peek into the emotional toll it took on all Americans. The second set of documents that you'll find is a collection of pictures that capture some powerful moments in the Japanese Internment Camp process. I hope these picturs allow more insight into the plight of Japanese Americans during this time, and the lifestyles they were forced to become accustomed to. Finally, the last set of documents is a collection of personal accounts from the time spent in the internment camps. Some of the accounts are from Japanese-Americans reflecting back on their childhood in an internment camp, and some are letters written by a Japanese-American while in her camp. These letters are powerful, and I hope the context gained from the first two sections of documents helps further inform the feelings, tone of voice, and stories related in these personal accounts.

The Value of Primary Source Documents and DBQs

I hope this collection of primary source documents and DBQs helps you consider the cause and emotions associated with Japanese Internment Camps from a variety of perspectives. I think primary source documents are vital for historical understanding and reasoning becuase they offer an unanalyzed view of what the world was doing and thought as the event transpired. This allows us, as knowledge seekers, to analyze the documents ourselves to come to our own conclusions on the event. I hope the DBQs help guide thinking without forcibly offering an opinion on the subject either way. These DBQs are meant to help the reader avoid simply dismissing the time of internment camps as a time of incompetance or evil, but instead attempt to understand how a very competant and well-meaning society can fall prey to bad decisions. It's easy to look back and say we'd never engage in something like this, but unfortunately, history tells us otherwise. I hope these documents and questions engage your thinking and encourage you to honestly consider how you would have responded to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Questions to Consider When Exploring the Blog

While I already knew a fair amount about Japanese Internment Cmaps and why they were created, I found that creating this blog opened my eyes to so much of the personal hurt, pain, and misconceptions that existed behind the historical facts. Unfortunately, the internment of Japanese-Americans by the U.S. government tends to be overlooked in school, or only mentioned in passing. After putting together this blog, I believe even more firmly, that this topic deserves more time in the classroom. There is so much to be learned from this event, not just in terms of personal freedoms and constitutional rights, but also in terms of racial and ethnic prejudices, and our innate tendencies to react swiftly and harshly to fear. The attack on Pearl Harbor was sudden and terrifying for all Americans regardless of race or ethnic background, but Japanese-Americans were the ones who were quickly stripped of their constitutional rights because of the way they looked.

When the U.S. suffered another sudden, terrifying attack on September 11, 2009, Americans reacted very similarly in terms of suddently assosicating all Middle Eastern-Americans with possible terrorism or countries in the Middle East. Would more emphaiss on learning about the internment camps have caused people to think twice about the stereotypes and prejudices they developed? Would studying the internment camps have helped all Americans better understand their own reactions to fear, and their susceptibility to fear-based retaliation strategies? As we all know, history as a tendency to repeat itself, and I think learning about our mistakes and miscalculations are necessary for hopefully avoiding similar mistakes in the future.

Japanese Internment Camps