US called them internment camps, not concentration camps

I didn't even know those were still open to the public. That's really interesting to know, thanks for the information on them. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'm hoping this isn't going to happen again except now with anyone of Middle Eastern descent. It's sad that we don't learn about these "internment camps" in school, which makes it eerily possible that the same mistake could be made again.

OperaGhost -- you don't learn about this in school?? What kind of history teachers do you have? The kids I teach certainly learn about it. And about the Sand Creek massacre of Indians. And about the contributions of the Nisei to the fighting in Warold War II. And about how we stole Hawaii from the Hawaiians.

In high school we just never got to that point in history sadly. We barely even touched on the Civil War which is now what I study in my spare time. I think we spent a few minutes on World War II. Mostly we learned about World History and less of American history. I always preferred American history of course!

Sorry, MA. Those were all post grad for me too.

MA, it's good to know there are some teachers out there who are willing to tell ALL the facts they know, and not just the selected material people want us to hear. I'm sure your students appreciate it too!

Since most of my students are from minority groups, I try to present American history from a minority point of view. I spend of lot of time on the conditions of slavery during Colonial days; the contributions of African-Americans during the Revlutionary War; the problems of Mexican-Americans following the War with Mexico (1846-1848); the first wave of Asian immigration during the California Gold Rush (1849 etseq.), the contribution of the Chinese in building the transcontinental railroad; the Westward expansion from the Indian point of view; the acquisition of Puerto Rico and Hawaii in the 1890s and the consequences of the (temporary) acquisition of the Philippines; etc. etc. I try to overcome the anti-Japanese tenor in teaching about World War II by stressing that the 442d Regimental Combat Team, made up entirely of Japanese-Americans, was the most highly decorated Army unit during the war in Europe. And so on. The basic dates etc. the kids can get out of the books. When I talk about it, I don't parrot what's in the book. I expand on it at great lengths. I have yet to see a high-school level history taxtbook which even mentions that one of the reasons the Texans wanted independence from Mexico (remember the Alamo?) was because Mexico had outlawed slavery and a number of the most influential American-born Texans were slave-owners. This sort of omission is, to me, odious.

Opera Ghost


I keep posting the history of such events because we are in the throes of a new era of fear much like WWII, the McCarthy, etc. It's at times like these that we must remember the mistakes made in earlier times of fear so we don't repeat them. We always seems to repeat our errors.

BBB

I didn't learn about these camps in school either. I learned about them as an adult.

For that I'm glad, because for me, it made much more of an impact seeing it from an adults view.

I'm sorry I can't remember his name, but that Congressman or Senator that recently died in California?
I learned he had been raised there for a least part of his childhood.

I mentioned this to someone shortly after his death, I couldn't believe the response "Well, things were different then. We were doing what we thought we had to do to protect our country"

God help us.

In all fairness, Chai Tea, back then people really did think it was the right thing to do to insure the safety of the country. They were wrong, it was a despicably inhumane thing to do, but it wasn't deliberately malicious or purely racist in its intent. Hindsight is always 20/20, as they say. At the time, though, there was so much confusion and fear, that any measure to protect us from sabotage was seen to be good. I'm just glad that we seem to have grown up a little since then. I haven't heard any serious suggestions yet that all American Muslims should be similarly incarcerated. Maybe sometimes we do learn from our mistakes.

Japanese-Americans interned in Second World War get diplomas
Japanese-Americans interned in Second World War get diplomas 50 years late
Aug 22, 2005
LAURA WIDES

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Amid tears and their grandchildren's shouts of glee, 58 Japanese-Americans sent to internment camps during the Second World War received diplomas, finally earning recognition from the communities they were forced to leave more than half a century ago.

The honourees, wearing colourful leis and sashes, walked down the aisle of Los Angeles Trade Technical College's auditorium on Sunday. Some needed canes, a few were in wheelchairs, and more than a few had tears in their eyes.

The graduates represented the largest group of former internees to ever receive their diplomas at one time.

Takashi Hoshizaki, who should have graduated from high school in 1944, was one of two student speakers. He told the crowd how his education and life detoured when he was sent to the camps in Wyoming.

"Some may consider a high school diploma just a piece of paper, but it's a symbol to me," Hoshizaki told a crowd of several hundred.

Toshiko Aiboshi, 77, accepted her diploma while her grandson Nicolas Echevestre, 23, accepted one for Aiboshi's husband, Joe, who died in 2001.

The Los Angeles resident said she hopes the event gave her grandchildren insight into a chapter that for so long was a source of shame to many of her generation.

"We both went to Nic's graduation. That was a very special moment," she said. "I hope Nic will feel this is a special moment."

The diploma project is the result of legislation sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber to allow school districts to bestow diplomas on Niseis - second-generation Americans of Japanese ancestry - sent to the nation's 10 wartime internment camps. The vast majority were from California.

The federal government interned more than 120,000 ethnic Japanese, most of whom were born in the United States, amid widespread anti-Japanese sentiment, between 1942 and 1945. Children went to school in the camps and received diplomas there, but not from the schools they were taken away from.

Since Lieber's legislation passed last year, more than 400 people have received diplomas, some posthumously.

Aiboshi was 14 and living in Boyle Heights, Calif. when she and her mother were shipped to a camp in Amache, Colorado.

"For quite a long time, most of Japanese Americans did not talk about being in the camp. It was as if you were in jail and then released. You didn't talk about being released," Aiboshi said.

Even when she did, it was hard for her children to relate to her experiences.

"As children, it takes a while to for you to see your parents had some kind of life," she said.

In 1988, the U.S. government officially apologized for the internments and offered $20,000 US to eligible survivors, but the diplomas have helped survivors make their experience relevant to the younger generations.

"For all you young people who are going to call out to grandma for representing your family today, this is the unfolding of history right before your eyes," said Warren Furutani, board of trustee member for the Los Angeles Community College District.

Jordan Maldonado, 14, of the Fresno, Calif. area, learned about the experience of her great-aunt Harriet Shirakawa Ishibashi through the state's California Nisei High School Diploma project.

After learning about the program at her high school, Maldonado persuaded Shirakawa to get her diploma and to begin talking about the family's past. Maldonado began searching for all the Niseis forced to leave high school during the war and found 58, 14 of whom received their diplomas this year.

"They were just so thankful that someone had taken the time to realize how hard it was for them," Maldonado said.

Tom Machida, 79, of Sacramento, said getting his diploma in June, along with the 800 graduating seniors at Elk Grove High School, provided a long-awaited sense of closure.

"I'd never had one before because I left the camps before graduation," said Machida, who was sent to a camp near Poston, Ariz., and later served in the U.S. Army. "I realize it's a symbolic gesture, but it felt so good."
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On the Net:
California Nisei High School Diploma Project: www.canisei.org