Having Mr. Doi talk to us about his experienced before,
during, and after his time in a concentration camp taught me a lot about what
it was like first hand. Finding out that before the order to round up all of
the Japanese he had a well-mixed friend group was very interesting. You would
think that they would have been more excepting and could have questioned what
was happening due to having been exposed to so many different cultures. I knew
that once the order had been placed the Japanese cooperated with what they
said, but it was different hearing it form someone who went through with it and
was genuinely confused as to why it was all happening. There was a different
feeling hearing the story compared to reading it from a book or textbook. Once
in the camp, Mr. Doi told us that the school there had great teachers and a lot
of sports teams to keep them entertained. It was eye opening to see that the
school in the camp was very similar to the schools we have today. Going back to
a society that didn’t trust you after three years is obviously tough but it was
heartwarming to hear that some people’s neighbors took care of the belongings
that they had to leave behind. There were the normal emotions of being scared
and awkward around everyone but for some it wasn’t as hard as it could have
been. Mr. Doi confirmed what we already knew about the $20,000 and how for some
it helped with a lot of the debt and for some it was just a penny in the bucket
of money they needed to recover from being gone for several years. Overall,
hearing Mr. Doi speak was a once in a lifetime experience and I am thrilled
that I got to experience it.
I completely agree with your statement. It was very different and much more empathetic to hear someone talk about Japanese internment, who actually went through it.
ReplyDeleteSpot on Sabina. Actually hearing the individual experiences of Mr. Doi struck a much deeper chord with me than answering questions about Internment. While the other stuff widened my understanding of the event, Doi's presentation went into detail that you can't find anywhere else.
ReplyDeleteHearing Mr. Doi's personal experiences definitely made the learning much more powerful and gave me a better understanding. I agree that it was a different feeling to hear his experiences. I was also happy to hear about the people who were nice enough to save some of the Japanese American's stuff although not all of them did. His story was unique and helped initiate deeper thinking.
ReplyDeleteListening to Mr. Doi's story was much more personal then anything that you can read, and hearing his views on the internment, and the parallels and contrasts to other things I have read, was interesting
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