|
|
Post by scrapmaven on Feb 21, 2023 14:39:21 GMT
Growing up I lived in a predominantly Japanese American neighborhood in Southern California. It was a mix of Japanese and Mexican Americans. This was never discussed, even though many of my neighbors would have been of the age that was affected. In fact, in 1976 a tv movie was made of Farewell to Manzanar and I watched it. When I was curious and tried to ask my neighbor about it she shushed me and told me 'no talk about, no talk!' and shamed me for even bringing it up. I had the distinct impression from everyone that it was best left in the past. I remember feeling so sad, still do. It was terrible what we did to Japanese Americans. <ed to add> It wasn't taught until High School, and by then we'd moved to a different county. The response that your neighbor gave you is a typical response. The survivors are very proud people and many are ashamed of their internment, despite the fact that it was not their fault. My in-laws explained it as being dishonored, but the truth is that evil, paranoid people held an entire group of people captive. Land was sold for pennies on the dollar and as mentioned above, each person was allowed one suitcase. some people had friends who kept possessions for the prisoners until their release. Otherwise, they lost everything. The watered down version of history that I learned in school turns my stomach. |
|
|
|
Post by Lurkingpea on Feb 21, 2023 17:11:07 GMT
We were not taught it in school. My mom taught me about it. It is upsetting how whitewashed history class used to be. I hope it is getting better.
|
|
oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,064
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
|
Post by oh yvonne on Feb 21, 2023 18:08:28 GMT
Growing up I lived in a predominantly Japanese American neighborhood in Southern California. It was a mix of Japanese and Mexican Americans. This was never discussed, even though many of my neighbors would have been of the age that was affected. In fact, in 1976 a tv movie was made of Farewell to Manzanar and I watched it. When I was curious and tried to ask my neighbor about it she shushed me and told me 'no talk about, no talk!' and shamed me for even bringing it up. I had the distinct impression from everyone that it was best left in the past. I remember feeling so sad, still do. It was terrible what we did to Japanese Americans. <ed to add> It wasn't taught until High School, and by then we'd moved to a different county. The response that your neighbor gave you is a typical response. The survivors are very proud people and many are ashamed of their internment, despite the fact that it was not their fault. My in-laws explained it as being dishonored, but the truth is that evil, paranoid people held an entire group of people captive. Land was sold for pennies on the dollar and as mentioned above, each person was allowed one suitcase. some people had friends who kept possessions for the prisoners until their release. Otherwise, they lost everything. The watered down version of history that I learned in school turns my stomach. Yes, very well said! Sharing another experience I had. My public elementary celebrated Girl's Day as well as Cinco De Mayo. Almost all the JA kids attended Japanese School on Saturdays, and the girls learned the beautiful dances. We also learned them in school and we got invited to perform at another public school in the Palisades. It was a beautiful school in a wealthy neighborhood and we were in awe. Until a bunch of boys started teasing us and making the slant eye faces to us from across the grounds. I remember being horrified and SO MAD. They all looked like little Brady Bunch kids to me and although none of us reacted or said anything we were all quietly upset about it. I don't recall if a teacher saw or if anything was said but boy that soured the experience a bit. Still, we performed in the auditorium and the audience was polite. This was probably around 1972/73 as I was in the 4th grade. LAUSD was big on offering a lot of multicultural exchange type programs. To this day I feel a special kinship with JA culture. I go to Oban festivals every year and love watching the lovely girls do the dances and it takes me back to a wonderful time. |
|
|
|
Post by lbp on Feb 21, 2023 18:11:48 GMT
Yes. We were taught about that in high school history.
|
|
|
|
Post by katlady on Feb 21, 2023 19:03:37 GMT
Almost all the JA kids attended Japanese School on Saturdays I hated it!  Initially, the school was about one hour a day, 4 days a week, after regular school. For me, that was fine. I did not come from a home that spoke Japanese, so hearing the language once a day was great for my young developing brain. The majority of my classmates came from homes where someone spoke Japanese. Then they moved the classes to Saturdays only. I would go a whole week without hearing any Japanese. The school work got very difficult for me and I started not wanting to go to school or study. My parents wouldn't let me quit until the 6th grade. I also hated that I couldn't watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. LOL! |
|
oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,064
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
|
Post by oh yvonne on Feb 21, 2023 20:02:52 GMT
Almost all the JA kids attended Japanese School on Saturdays I hated it! Initially, the school was about one hour a day, 4 days a week, after regular school. For me, that was fine. I did not come from a home that spoke Japanese, so hearing the language once a day was great for my young developing brain. The majority of my classmates came from homes where someone spoke Japanese. Then they moved the classes to Saturdays only. I would go a whole week without hearing any Japanese. The school work got very difficult for me and I started not wanting to go to school or study. My parents wouldn't let me quit until the 6th grade. I also hated that I couldn't watch cartoons on Saturday mornings. LOL! omg this makes me laugh. It seemed like half the school either went to catechism on Saturdays or Japanese School. I had neither so there was no one to play with on Saturday mornings until everyone got home! OMG I'd forgotten about that! I remember my friend Janice would practice her writing in a cute little writing tablet. IDK about you buy these kids would go to J-Town and pick up the most amazing cute pencil boxes, white erasers with a pretty anime girl printed on top that smelled absolutely delicious, and we'd spend recess making cute little fun books with puzzles and drawings etc. It was huge in my school. I was always envious of their perfect penmanship while I had messy handwriting like a boy and I'd get teased for it. But yeah, Saturday school was pretty much mandatory for the JA kids in my neighborhood.  |
|
jayfab
Drama Llama
procastinating
Posts: 5,617 
|
Post by jayfab on Feb 21, 2023 20:19:45 GMT
I went to school long ago and I do not remember studying it.
|
|
|
|
Post by crimsoncat05 on Feb 21, 2023 20:24:12 GMT
my high school history class in small town northern Illinois, mid 1980s, was a bunch of 'memorize this name' or 'memorize this date' to pass multiple choice tests, so no... probably not. (even if I did learn about it then, I forgot everything I learned in that class except the year 1066.) I read this same book a number of years ago after moving to AZ, where we lived in the same town that one of the internment camps was located, out in the desert. |
|
|
|
Post by katlady on Feb 21, 2023 20:29:37 GMT
IDK about you buy these kids would go to J-Town and pick up the most amazing cute pencil boxes, white erasers with a pretty anime girl printed on top that smelled absolutely delicious, Yup! And we would all buy the same cute school bag for our stuff. It is strange, but most of my cousins did not go to J-School. I was the "lucky" one somehow. |
|
PLurker
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,840
Location: Behind the Cheddar Curtain
Jun 28, 2014 3:48:49 GMT
|
Post by PLurker on Feb 21, 2023 22:40:31 GMT
Seems to me we got the watered down, one sentence turn the page version in junior high, if it was mentioned at all. Infuriating as well as baffling to me why actual it happened it's history history isn't taught. Will we ever learn?
|
|
|
|
Post by scrapmaven on Feb 21, 2023 22:47:52 GMT
oh yvonne, our Oban festival was grand. I, too loved the dancing. My sil still has her kimono and she described the pain of putting it on. Of course, the teriyaki kebobs were the hit of the festival, but the flower arrangements and dancing and tea ceremonies were beautiful. I married into a rich and wonderful culture.
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Feb 22, 2023 5:13:08 GMT
I removed the political label. I'm know the person who labeled it political can come back and relabel it, but damn it...this thread is NOT about politics and the passing political commentary is not overwhelming.
|
|
RosieKat
Drama Llama
PeaJect #12
Posts: 5,561
|
Post by RosieKat on Feb 22, 2023 20:40:52 GMT
Early 50's here, and I don't recall learning about it in school. We had all US history in one year, so we had to spend a lot of time on all the old white guys from the 1700s, after all. We barely touched on WWI and I'm not sure we even got to WWII. My oldest kid doesn't take that period of US history till next year, so I don't know for sure yet. I'm sure they'll only learn about it if it's a question on the state tests, though.  She is aware of it, we went and spent a full day at Pearl Harbor a couple of years ago and we've talked about it a few other times. |
|
|
|
Post by workingclassdog on Feb 22, 2023 20:44:16 GMT
I never heard of it until about 10 years ago?? It was nothing I remember being taught in school. Pretty dang sad.
|
|
|
|
Post by freecharlie on Feb 22, 2023 21:51:15 GMT
Early 50's here, and I don't recall learning about it in school. We had all US history in one year, so we had to spend a lot of time on all the old white guys from the 1700s, after all. We barely touched on WWI and I'm not sure we even got to WWII. My oldest kid doesn't take that period of US history till next year, so I don't know for sure yet. I'm sure they'll only learn about it if it's a question on the state tests, though. She is aware of it, we went and spent a full day at Pearl Harbor a couple of years ago and we've talked about it a few other times. honestly, they either need to do two years of us history of figure out a better way to teach it. Our teachers barely get into the 80s and just because we happened to live through it, doesn't make it not history for today's high school students. |
|
|
|
Post by hopemax on Feb 22, 2023 23:25:52 GMT
Early 50's here, and I don't recall learning about it in school. We had all US history in one year, so we had to spend a lot of time on all the old white guys from the 1700s, after all. We barely touched on WWI and I'm not sure we even got to WWII. My oldest kid doesn't take that period of US history till next year, so I don't know for sure yet. I'm sure they'll only learn about it if it's a question on the state tests, though. She is aware of it, we went and spent a full day at Pearl Harbor a couple of years ago and we've talked about it a few other times. honestly, they either need to do two years of us history of figure out a better way to teach it. Our teachers barely get into the 80s and just because we happened to live through it, doesn't make it not history for today's high school students. Interestingly, my high school, 30 years ago, did have 2 years of US History. We made it up to Reagan’s presidency. DH’s only had 1 year and said they only made it up to the Lusitania. We also had a semester of Western Civ, and a semester of Global History, which included things like Palestine / Israel, the Troubles and other modern conflicts(for 1991.) DH had neither of those. I feel fortunate to know that my school did a good job. However my high school was the same one Glenn Beck attended, like 5 years earlier than me. Wherever he came up with his nonsense, it wasn’t from his school history teachers! |
|
|
|
Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 23, 2023 3:54:16 GMT
I don't know where I learned about the detention centers. Certainly not at home. Little is spoken about the German POW camps either.
My mother's younger brother, my uncle, was killed on New Guinea in 1944. The Japanese red maple tree next to our house, my grandparents called it a red maple.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluebird71 on Feb 23, 2023 15:06:25 GMT
I didn't learn about this in school. We didn't study WW2 at all in high school. I was on a Math/Science track so I just had one year of American History and one year of World History. It was a lot to cover.
It's a horrible part of our nation's history. But what else is new.
|
|
|
|
Post by bluebird71 on Feb 23, 2023 15:08:49 GMT
Yes, I was taught about it in high school. I was in HS from 1989-1993… Manzanar is mentioned in Karate Kid and Snow Falling on Cedars, although a fictional place, is set near where I grew up (North end of Puget Sound). And other parts of the Western Washington area… Bellevue… has a sad and unsettling history in regards to these events. This thread is interesting to me, because I wonder how geography plays a role in people’s exposure. This is so true. I grew up in the Midwest. I went to school in Chicago, which is a major metro area, for sure. But the times I have been to the West coast / PNW [one summer in Washington, 2 weeks in LA for work] the people in those areas were far more aware of Asian countries, people, and culture than we are here. |
|
