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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:07:38 GMT
This topic got started on the "what is everyone here reading?" thread, but seems to have developed a life of its own.
During WWII, and especially after Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese, thousands of Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to detention centers or internment camps.
The town I live in, Missoula, Montana, hosted one such camp, and it is the best-preserved site remaining from this sad era in American history.
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:08:27 GMT
I started reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. I was afraid Hotel on the Corner... was going to be cloying, with that cutesy name, but the theme interested me and it's quite well written. It's about one of the more shameful moments in US history, when new Americans of Japanese descent and first and second generation Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up and thrust into camps, often losing their health and property and businesses they'd worked years to get. Warning: I did not read the link I provided, as I don't want to accidentally see any spoilers! |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:08:44 GMT
Bixa, you might be interested to know that right here in Missoula, Montana, we had an internment camp that housed about 2000 men, mostly young, unmarried Italians who were rounded up off cruise ships and from the worlds fair (they loved it here, called it "Bella Vista", and several married local girls and stayed after they were released), and about 600 Japanese men who had been yanked from their homes, businesses and families on the West Coast after Pearl Harbor and held here until their loyalties could be determined.
Right now, the courtroom where these trials were held is being restored to tell this story. It is part of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula where I volunteer. We also have one of the barracks buildings that housed the men. www.fortmissoulamuseum.org/aliendetention.php
After the 9/11 attacks, people warned against a similar rounding up of Muslims, and we are trying not to repeat this sad chapter in history. |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:09:39 GMT
Oh, thank you for that, Kimby -- really interesting!
I knew that there were Italian and German prisoners of war in the US during WWII, but I'd thought they were all soldiers. I had no idea that tourists were rounded up and incarcerated.
Was Missoula chosen because at that time it was considered remote enough to hold these "dangerous" people?
So much of this stuff was taught so sketchily in school, either glossed over or not even mentioned. I remember the first I ever knew about the internment of Japanese-Americans was a small photo in a high school history book. It was of a general presenting a posthumous medal for her son to a mother in one of the camps. Even as a feckless teen, I recognized the event as grotesque hypocrisy.
I want to go to Missoula and of course visit the museum, of course with the hope that you'd be the docent that day! |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:10:10 GMT
The docent AND the hostess, if you need a place to bunk! The Italians were not tourists so much as workers on the boats and at the world's fair. Some of them were musicians and chefs and performers, so they led a rich cultural life while in the camp. I understand the Japanese men were much less happy while here, though they did plant some irises that still bloom outside what used to be the steps of the barracks.
Missoula was chosen because it had a fort (established during the Indian wars) that was on the verge of being decommissioned as unneeded, so it was a ready-built facility available for this use. It was on two rail lines, so transportation from the coast was also easy.
BTW, a year ago the art museum hosted an exhibit of paintings by Roger Shimomura who was interned as a 2 year old with his 3 generation family at Camp Minidoka in Idaho.
The 1100 5th graders who visited the art museum over a 3 month period were also bused to Fort Missoula to see the internment barracks and participate in a discrimination activity. (As they got off the bus, they were given ID tags similar to those worn by internees getting off the train. Those whose tags had green dots got special treatment - sitting on benches, a handful of M&Ms, glasses of water - while those with yellow dots sat on the floor and got nothing. The docents also gave preference to the green dot wearers when choosing who to call on.) It was a great experience made possible by the coincidence of exhibits at two different museums.
This link has background on the artist, though from earlier, edgier exhibits than the one featured for the 5th graders.
www.gregkucera.com/shimomura_reviews.htm |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:10:29 GMT
My family lived in Oxnard, CA for 6 years (I finished high school there). It was the location of the largest Japanese concentration camp in the U.S. It also had the highest percentage of Japanese & Japanese-Americans in the U.S. when we lived there, so I guess it is "normal." The mayor was Japanese-American and so was our family doctor. When I returned there a few years ago, I saw that Oxnard has now gone completely Mexican and all of the signs in the stores were in Spanish; it was even hard to find English. |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:10:49 GMT
Thanks, Kimby ~~ lovely, & hope you know that is ditto from my end.
I looked at the Shimomura link. He's from Seattle, where Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet takes place.
Like Kerouac, my first exposure to any Asian-descent population was in California, where one of the positive side effects was great bulk food choices in the supermarket.
Kimby, who thought up the yellow & green tag device? It's absolutely brilliant. Were you privy to any of the comments the kids made about their experiences with that & with the exhibits in general? |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:17:10 GMT
Kimby, who thought up the yellow & green tag device? It's absolutely brilliant. Were you privy to any of the comments the kids made about their experiences with that & with the exhibits in general? Historical Museum staff came up with the idea. We docents got to play with it. The kids were initially surprised at the disparate treatment, but were good sports about it. It did generate some serious discussion about discrimination, though. Most of the kids had felt discriminated against at some point in their lives, though in mostly homogenous Montana, it usually wasn't for racial reasons. More likely weight, or learning disabilities, or family's economic status. We did have a few Native American kids - and some offspring of Hmong refugees - who could add their own take on the subject. |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 14:20:22 GMT
It was the location of the largest Japanese concentration camp in the U.S. Though the camps definitely served to concentrate people, they are never referred to as "concentration camps" in the US. I believe this is to differentiate them from the Nazi camps with their "final solution" incinerators. When we were done with them, we sent them home. Though some of the Italians liked it enough here that they stayed for the rest of their lives. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2011 14:33:49 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jun 12, 2011 15:08:02 GMT
I stand corrected. Apparently some people DO use that term. www.greatdreams.com/concentration.htm"Dee" doesn't say where she lives now, though she was in Wisconsin when she had her "dream". There are rather a lot of these wackos in the Montana Idaho area. They are on constant lookout for black helicopters, and have assembled huge arsenals in their off-the-grid bunkers. My theory is that they like it here because there are so few "people of color" here, and there is a high tolerance for firearms of all sorts, being hunting states with predator animals that can kill you. BTW, FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency www.fema.gov/and I thought they were here to HELP us, not imprison us! |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2011 16:12:31 GMT
But now you have seen their true objectives and the camps that they have prepared for us, as well as the darkies and wogs.  |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 13, 2011 6:59:19 GMT
 This is an aerial view of Fort Missoula today. The open field just right of the center is where the 30+ internment barracks used to be. The one that we still have is the long, skinny building below the one with the green roof, left of center. The white building across the road and to the right is the building in which the trials were held for the Japanese men whose loyalty was in question after the Pearl Harbor bombing. |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 13, 2011 7:24:10 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jun 13, 2011 20:27:56 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 14, 2011 1:45:41 GMT
This is such a good thread, Kimby. I'm almost to the end of the novel, and the tags were mentioned. It's so nifty that the kids were willing to go along with the discrimination mock-up and were able to identify with people discriminated against and to discuss the issue. Well, the camps really were concentration camps in the sense that people were rounded up and concentrated there for the single reason of their national origin. Of course they're not referred to as concentration camps, officially, but what else were they? I agree with you that another term had to be used to differentiate them from the camps in Germany, but it's sort of specious spin, nonetheless. "Relocation center" sounds fine, except they were relocating people who didn't want to relocate, nor had committed any crime. Check this out. It's ironic that the government itself referred to the detainees as Japanese- Americans. Click here to see the document: www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/documents/wrapam.html |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 14, 2011 15:20:24 GMT
"Relocation center" sounds fine, except they were relocating people who didn't want to relocate, nor had committed any crime. Looking over the photos at the American Memory site, I was struck by the smiles and party atmosphere captured on film. These people look like they were going on a trip, not to jail. |
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Post by Kimby on Jun 14, 2011 15:22:18 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2011 17:03:00 GMT
Get that man into one of those camps!
Meanwhile, I would like to know who would name a place "Fort Fizzle"!
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Post by Kimby on Jun 15, 2011 14:16:33 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Jul 12, 2011 23:15:09 GMT
Jun 10, 2011, 2:15pm, bixaorellana wrote:
I have just begun reading this book, and was struck by the photo in the front of the little girl with the tag on her jacket. Just like the pictures above from the American Memory Project collection.
And also, researching Ellis Island for the geography game, I learned that it, too, served as an internment camp during WWII:
After 1924, Ellis Island became primarily a detention and deportation processing center. During and immediately following World War II Ellis Island was used to intern German merchant mariners and enemy aliens - American civilians or immigrants detained for fear of spying, sabotage, etc. Some 7,000 Germans, Italians and Japanese would be detained at Ellis Island. It was also a processing center for returning sick or wounded U.S. soldiers, and a Coast Guard training base. Ellis Island still managed to process tens of thousands of immigrants a year during this time, but many fewer than the hundreds of thousands a year who arrived before the war. After the war immigration rapidly returned to earlier levels. Noted entertainers who performed for detained aliens and for U.S. and allied servicemen at the island included Rudy Vallee, Jimmy Durante, Bob Hope, and Lionel Hampton and his orchestra.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 13, 2011 2:06:37 GMT
Wow -- you'd think, since Ellis Island looms so large in the national consciousness, that the use you cite would be known to everyone. New to me!
Incidentally, I just realized my link in #15 was messed up, so I fixed it. Sorry!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2011 4:50:08 GMT
I don't know how many of the rest of you have visited Ellis Island, but when I went there, it certainly did not paint a pretty picture of how people were treated there.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 13, 2011 14:44:30 GMT
Were you there since the "new" museum was opened in the "old" building?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2011 19:47:39 GMT
I did see a museum, but whether it was the new one or the old one, I can't say. There were computers for researching surnames.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 13, 2011 20:58:24 GMT
The museum opened in 1990, I think. From wikipedia: The wooden structure built in 1892 to house the immigration station burned down after five years. The station's new Main Building, which now houses the Immigration Museum, was opened in 1900. Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building's design. The architecture competition was the second under the Tarsney Act, which had permitted private architects rather than government architects in the Office of the Supervising Architect to design federal buildings.After the immigration station closed in November 1954, the buildings fell into disrepair and were all but abandoned. Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until its landmark status was established. On October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
Boston based architecture firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc, together with the New York architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle, designed the restoration and adaptive use of the Beaux-Arts Main Building, one of the most symbolically important structures in American history. A construction budget of $150 million was required for this significant restoration. This money was raised by a campaign organized by the political fundraiser Wyatt A. Stewart. The building reopened on September 10, 1990. Exhibitions include Hearing Room, Peak Immigration Years, the Peopling of America, Restoring a Landmark, Silent Voices, Treasures from Home, and Ellis Island Chronicles. There are also three theaters used for film and live performances.
As part of the National Park Service's Centennial Initiative, the south side of the island will be the target of a project to restore the 28 buildings that have not yet been rehabilitated.There are some nice photos on the wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island |
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 6, 2011 17:17:26 GMT
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Post by Kimby on Aug 7, 2011 16:19:52 GMT
Ms. Hayashida seems to harbor little resentment. “We looked like the enemy,” she explained. “And I trusted the government to take care of us. At least the family was all together. I was confused, but I just followed the rules.”
If this isn't patriotism, what is?
The Bainbridge Island Historical Society is exhibiting a collection of photographs by Ansel Adams of the inmates at one camp, Manzanar.
I didn't realize Ansel Adams photographed anything but landscapes. Interesting coincidence: the 25th Annual 5th Grade Art Experience at the Missoula Art Museum this autumn will feature 160+ photographs by Ansel Adams, a collection purchased by a private party from the Ansel Adams family. He had wanted to buy just one print for his wife for their anniversary or her birthday, and was told by the family that they couldn't do that, but was he interested in buying the whole collection? He was and he did, and we will be showing it in Missoula this fall, and exposing 1200 5th graders to it. I wonder if any of these images of internees will be among the landscapes I'm expecting to see.
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Post by Kimby on Aug 7, 2011 16:25:10 GMT
Among the islanders were Walt Woodward and his wife, Millie, a white couple who ran the local newspaper, The Bainbridge Review, and who were among the few editorial voices to speak out against the exclusion. During the exile the Woodwards published news from their incarcerated correspondents, announcing weddings, births and deaths and detailing camp conditions. The paper began to receive national recognition after the war, and in 1994 David Guterson’s book “Snow Falling on Cedars,” with a character inspired by Mr. Woodward, brought their story into the general public. Bainbridge was one of the few communities that would welcome back the prisoners and help them pick up their lives.
Might be time to re-read this book...
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Post by Deleted on Aug 7, 2011 16:27:26 GMT
Thank goodness that Bixa is about to return home and inundate us with new United States photo threads and reports. As much as I think this thead is useful and informative, it kind of depresses me to keep seeing it as one of the most active threads on the U.S. board.  |
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