WP4 Blog 1

While history teachers often gloss over or mention the Japanese internment camps, such as the one at Manzanar or White Heart Mountain, many fail to go much further in depth on the subject or even mention key Japanese American figures who worked to ensure that Japanese Americans received due justice for the American government’s wrongful mistreatment. This topic resonates deeply with me mainly because all of my great grandparents on my Japanese side were affected by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 that forcefully removed my family from their homes, properties, and lives. As a result of the racial discrimination towards Japanese Americans, my great grandparents and their families all decided to react in various ways. One of my great grandfathers decided to join the 442nd Infantry Regiment of the American army, my other great grandfather and his family were sent to Manzanar, my great grandmother was sent to Japan, and the other great grandmother spent her adolescence in White Heart Mountain. Prior to taking an Asian studies focused course at USC, I had very little knowledge of life in the internment camps. Since this is an extremely sensitive subject in my family, I was only able to get a baseline understanding of my family’s past in my high school history class. My history classes normally focused on praising the heroism of white historical figures — our Founding Fathers, Christopher Columbus, etc. My classes would spent weeks understanding and memorizing these leaders compared to maybe a couple slides on non-white persons. For this reason, I believe that this should be re-evaluated as schools should teach children from a multifaceted, racially inclusive perspective that looks at events, such as Japanese internment,  through the lens of the Japanese Americans who were affected rather than a more general view.