Today centered on the Hawaiian perspective.
First Jon Kay Kamakawiwo'ole Osorio, director of Center for Hawaiian Studies at Universtiy of Hawai'i, sang Hawaiian songs about loss, rememberence, and reclaiming Pu'uloa. The Native Hawaiians would like to have control of Pearl Harbor, Pu'uloa. The Navy has done ecological damage to the harbor and it was a very important fishing place in Hawaii.
John Rosa, Assistant Professor of History at University of Hawai'i, also talked about the local perspective of Pearl Harbor and the attack by the Japanese.
The Second topic for the day was Japanese internment presented by Gary Mukai, Stanford Program on International and Intercultural Education. It was interesting to listen to the stories of interned Japanese. Many of the men chose to enlist in the U.S. military, even though they were forced to leave their homes and live in camps. Through history we have been led to believe the camps were updated barracks. The other side of the story tells of conditions not that nice and many people loosing everything they left behind. The camps surrounded by barb wire with gaurds with guns watching them. They were told it was for their protection, but why were the guns pointed at them?
The day ended with a sunset cruise of Waikiki and walking tour of hotels from the World War II era. It was nice to cruise the harbor and talk with some of the Japanese teachers in a less structured setting. We talked about my trip to Japan and connecting our students through email. This will be a great experience for both of our students. Now to work out the details.
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6 comments:
It amazes me how Americans could put the Japanese people in internment camps, but we thought it was horrifying when we heard stories about the Jews in concentration camps. I find that very contradicting.
The internment camps is a part of our history that I believe the Americans don't want to remember. It is something that we are not proud of, but I still believe we should be taught more about it. We learn history, to realize the mistakes, to prevent them from re-occuring.
Both of you are right on track. Great insight.
It is pretty ridiculous how our own government could put innocent people into internment camps, with guns pointed at them and barbed wire fences around the outside. If you tried to escape or flee who knows what would happen. I couldn't imagine how these innocent people felt.
I never hear a lot about the Japanese Internment Camps. I know they existed but I have never heard stories about them and what happened there. Americans believe that the Holocaust in Germany was horrible. The Germans put Jews into camps and mistreated them, so why did Americans put Japanese people into camps. They Japanese were mistreated but nobody made as big a deal about it like they did when it happened to the Jews. I think learning about the Japanese camps would be interesting; nobody talks about the camps because I think that Americans are ashamed of it.
Erin, I think you are right. I do believe we try to forget actions we are ashamed of. Great insight.
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