"Many of us who had kept silent all those years about our own war experiences should reflect on why we did so. Did we feel, as our parents did, that we did not have the right to speak out?"
~Mitsuye Yamada, Teacher in the Asian American Studies program in the University of California at Irvine
Everyday we go on without thinking about it, but not realizing that it's there in our history. The internment of the Japanese Americans. So what will we do about it? We will teach each other about it, realize the unfair mistreatment against the Japanese Americans, and will try to never ever make the same mistake again. Organizations were made to help it from happening ever again, such as the JACL.
"I spent my boyhood behind the barbed wire fences of American internment camps and that part of my life is something that I wanted to share with more people."~George Takei
Teaching Others |
"History is Philosophy teaching by example."~Thucydides "I have also realized the importance of educating my own children about the experiences of their grandparents and great-grandparents, in the hope of sensitizing them to what preceded them and of encouraging them to prevent future injustices." ~ Donna K. Nagata "The incarceration of Japanese Americans is a nasty story. An it's one that we must continue to retell, for even after the publicized national redress movement of the 1980's, after sixty years' worth of documents, histories, art, literature, media, coverage, film, and video on the subject, the American public is still largely uninformed." ~Erica Harth, Professor of Humanities and Women's studies at Brandeis University |
The Japanese American Citizen League (JACL) |
"JACL was formed to look out for the civil rights of the Japanese American... JACL helped pass the McCarran Walters Act which allowed the Issei to become U.S. Citizens. JACL helped repeal the Alien Land Laws which had prohibited Aliens ineligible for citizenship from owning land. (I think you live in Florida which is the last state to still have such law.) JACL helped pass the 1988 Civil Rights Act which gave those incarcerated in camp to receive redress."~Kanji Sahara, JACL Pacific Southwest District's Civil Rights Chair and Board member, Personal Interview, January 18th, 2014. "The JACL was formed in 1929 as a civil rights organization to protect the welfare of the Japanese American community. Throughout its history the JACL has been involved in legislative campaigns to lift discriminatory barriers against Japanese American, Asian Americans, and others. Today, the JACL continues to respond to defamation and hate crimes, promotes awareness about the Japanese American historical experience."~Bill Yoshino, JACL Midwest Regional Director, Personal Interview, January 10th |
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