Friday, May 30, 2014
We hope you enjoyed Mr. Doi's presentation and we are sure that you have comments and observations that you would like to share with your classmates. Post a paragraph about what you heard from Mr. Doi today (Friday) (topic sentence, conclusion, plus at least one sentence for each section) to the Japanese Internment Blog. Then comment thoughtfully on someone else's post.
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Overall listening to Mr. Doi speak about his time before the internment process, during, and after really broadend my knowledge about Japanese Internment. It was interesting to be able to discuss the awful period of time for the Japanese with someone that experienced it all, and was helpful that he was at an age during the time to be able to remember a lot of what was going on. While discussing pre internment like schooling and such it was interesting to hear that the schools were integrated and where he lived the Japanese people were the majority of civilians in his town. Mr. Doi claimed that he did not have an extensive amount of knowledge about Pearl Harbor however he knew what was going on. While discussing camp life with Mr. Doi he used the term "concentration camp" rather than "internment camp", which was interesting because in class we discussed Japanese Americans relating their situation to the Nazi concentration camps. Mr. Doi said after the Internment of Japanese Americans when they were back into society people were much more hateful towards them and had more racist attitudes. Mr. Doi claimed at first he did not have very positive feelings about the repartations because the United States could never repay the years of internemnet they had to suffer and the amount of money they lost through businesses and their homes, however he and his family accepted the money because it helped a little bit. Mr. Doi claimed he has not kept in contact with people he had become friends with during the time of Internment however he did say that sometimes there are reunions for the people at places like Heart Mountain and Tule Lake. I think this was a once in a lifetime oppourtunity to be able to listen to someone who was actually interned speak about their experience and gain knowledge on the awful time of the Internment of the Japanese Americans.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, you are right, it was a unique opportunity to listen to someone who actually experienced history. I too found his choice of words interesting. Actually the term "concentration camps" was coined before WWII back during the Boer War (remember discussing that?) when the British interned thousands of Dutch women and children in South Africa in horrible circumstances. Many died of disease and malnutrition. While that certainly did not happen to the Japanese Americans, many lost their homes, land and businesses. Their liberty was taken away from them for three years through no fault of their own
DeleteI agree that it was very lucky that Mr. Doi was of good enough age to be able to remember a lot of what he went through so he was then able to teach us about all of it. Also, I too found it interesting that he used the term "concentration camp" rather than "internment camp" but I don't blame him because both are so similar and those who actually experienced it should have every right to have their own perspective. Lastly, it makes me happy that there are still reunions for those who were interned because it symbolizes that everyone has not forgotten what happened and also shows that events like these stay with a person their whole life.
DeleteHearing Mr. Doi was a very inspirational experience because of all of his experiences in throughout the war and internment. Everyone's experiences with the war were very different and hearing Mr Doi's was very interesting. He said that as a child, he had many American friends and considered him self American with few ties to Japan. He did normal things and his classes were mixed with White people, Asians and African Americans. When the jappanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he said that everything changed. In high school he was separated and even as a child he could sense tension building between races. When he moved into the camps and started school, he said that he had many organized sports and schools. The feelings between the people were mixed, as some wanted to revolt and embrace jappanese culture and others wanted to accept it and do the best with what they had, and eventually became almost self sufficient, by growing their own plants and raising their own livestock. Mr. Doi said that moving back into society economically was hard, but it was socially easy because the Americans had changed and had more acceptance toward the jappanese. When he got the reparations, Mr. Doi felt that it was not enough money but it was still good, because he diddnt even think that they would give anything at first. He said that after being interned, he met a lot of people who were in situations like him and would often ask each other what camp they were in. I think that America should learn from this and realize that interning people is not the right thing to do and it has more negative affects than positive affects.
ReplyDeleteMitchell, I completely agree with you that America should learn from it's mistake, but I think that they have already realized that they were wrong in interning the Japanese, and I don't think that I will happen again. Do you think it could possibly happen again, or do you think we have learned our lesson.
DeleteNice comments Mitchell. Do you think the US has learned enough that it could never happen again in the US? What if an Islamic fundamentalist group plants a series of bombs in the US that kills hundreds even thousands and paralyzes this country with fear. Have we learned our lesson well enough that rounding up Muslims in this country would not occur?
ReplyDeleteI do think that America has learned their lesson when it comes to disrupting innocent people's lives and putting them in internment camps because of motivational fear of their ethnicity. I believe that we our now developed enough in our thinking about war and peace, to realize the difference between the real enemy and the people on our side. However, when it comes to the attitudes towards Muslims in general, we never know how they might develop if the Islamist fundamentalist bomb us. There may not ever be a law supporting the rounding up of a certain minority group, but hatred and racism can very much develop and grow because the people share the same ethnicity as our true enemy. Society can turn against Muslims and a period of extreme discrimination, lynching, etc. is a possibility in my eyes.
DeleteI don't know if we (the American government) would have learned their lesson well enough to not make an act like this again, because when there is a war desperate times call for desperate measures. Who knows what could and could not happen during a crisis where it results in the government having to make critical decisions.
DeleteListening to Mr. Doi opened my eyes to the real tragedy that occurred here in America. I've always seen the U.S. as the good guys in any conflict or war, however seeing and hearing things from Mr. Doi's perspective, the reality of the Internment camps brought myself, for once, to see America as the bad guys. Even though Mr. Doi's family lived in America for five generations and he considered himself fully American, nonetheless even in his childhood years there was constant discrimination and oppression of his race. Though the racism targeted Asians in general, the events of Pearl Harbor, as Mr. Doi said, "changed the whole atmosphere of life", and suddenly gearing hatred towards Japanese-Americans in specific. One event that Mr. Doi recalled which represented the racism towards Japanese, was the swimming pool incident in which a Japanese girl was not allowed in the pool with the rest of her classmates. The situation surprised me, I always knew in the back of my mind that there was a period of time not too long ago in which Americans oppressed Japanese, however the story coming from a Japanese-American still alive and standing before us, made the tragedy more real and relevant for me and our time. One thing that Mr. Doi said really stood out to me because it portrayed the mind-sets of Americans and Japanese-Americans at the time, he said that when Pearl Harbor was bombed people came up to him saying "you bombed us", and he said "no, no, they bombed us". As it seemed to be conveyed by Mr. Doi, the discrimination and hatred towards the Japanese didn't invoke in them a sense of disloyalty to America, they simply didn't understand where it was all coming from because they sincerely believed that America was their country and that the Japanese bombed them too at first. The life-style at the camps was poor, and cold or very hot and overall terrible. When hearing him talk about the treatment they received from the American soldiers and how one man even got shot because he refused to be interned, it reminded me a bit of how we learned Nazis treated the Jews. Though not to the full cruel extent, for a while Japanese-Americans were treated unrightfully and undeservingly. And when finally freed, coming back into society was a brutal challenge of its own. The attitudes and feelings towards Japanese could not and did not just disappear, and it was hard for them to settle back in, economically and socially. Some were more lucky, blessed with trustworthy and good-hearted neighbors who kept their belongings, however other neighbors exploited the Japanese-Americans' properties and then when hearing the news of their return burned the remains. I thought this to be unbelievable and something that I cannot imagine happening today among the people around us. When the reparations came, Mr. Doi was clear that he was very hesitant at first but accepted them because it was better than nothing. With the civil rights movement, another change in attitude occurred in America, and today the relationships between Japanese-Americans and Americans have been more or less repaired as well. The U.S. cannot make up for what they did to Japanese-Americans, but together we can all try to move forward towards a better future. Like many Japanese-Americans, who are fighting to preserve this inner-country peace and prevent minority groups from being oppressed starting with the education in schools, which I learned Japanese culture values greatly, we can all do our best to prevent this from repeating and hopefully preserve the U.S. as a free country "with liberty and justice for all".
ReplyDeleteDuring Mr. Doi's speech of his experience in the Japanese-American Internment camp, Heart Mountain, it made me think more deeply about the real life experience and what they went through. In Mr. Doi's childhood, he brought up the idea that if the Japanese were doing something it was suspicious, yet if they weren't doing anything, it was still suspicious. There was no right action to keep them out of being watched under the American eye after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Mr. Doi had American friends, neighbors, went to an American school, and Mr. Doi's family had been living in America for 5 generations, but even one drop of Japanese blood made them candidates for being interned after FDR passed 9066. It was saddening to hear this, even though his family had been a part of American culture for multiple years, they still had to give up everything they had worked for and earned to go to camp. In the camp, Mr. Doi explained that you got to know everyone very well as the living space was very tight. They played ping-pong, other sports, and tried to continue to make the best out of their situation. After three years of being in the concentration camp, they were finally released and were told to go "home". But, many people didn't know where "home" was. Most had sold everything they owned and had little money even after the reparations, which was only $20,000. Even if the amount of money had been more, nothing could make up for the years of hard work that had been thrown away when they were assigned to their camps. I was upset that we didn't have enough time to get to the last topic of his family and race relationships today as I was curious how long it took for him to feel safe as a Japanese man, or if he ever felt safe. It would have been very interesting to hear if he thought that a law similar to 9066 could be passed again and why he thought that way. Even after the reparations, the United States can never make up for the internment of the Japanese, when they never had any evidence of anyone spying. We can only hope that in the future, the U.S. won't make that mistake again, and if the horror of internment happens again, we can hope people will stand up for what is right.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Natalie, I too thought it was interesting when he talked about how everything the Japanese- Americans did was considered suspicious. Mr. Doi's speech really made me reflect on my own life and how I will hopefully never have to go through something that hard that the Japanese- Americans had to go through. I agree, hopefully in the future the United States will realize their mistake and made sure they will not do it again on another race or religion.
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ReplyDeleteMr. Doi's speech about his experiences in the Japanese-American Internment camp gave me a much more thoughtful perspective on what all the inhabitants had to go through both in and out of the camps. Mr. Doi explained how he was aware of racism when he was younger but it had never really affected him before the internment camps. He had friends of different ethnicities and participated in the same activities as them in and outside of school. Unfortunately, he did still notice small discriminations against Asians; one being that Asians weren’t allowed to swim in public swimming pools with their class, which I don’t see to have any viable justification. But then Mr. Doi’s whole world changed after Pearl Harbor. He described how everyone started turning against him and calling him and the rest of his race “the enemy”. Newspaper articles and such came out accusing the Japanese as being “spies” even when they had no actual proof for these accusations. Then Mr. Doi expressed his opinions of FDR and didn’t seem to blame the president entirely for 9066, which was passed unconstitutionally as without due process of law. Also, Internment camps changed life for everyone; even schooling wasn’t the same. But the camp schooling systems were just the beginning of the unfortunate situations the camp brought on. Many of the struggles frightened the Japanese; for instance the weather conditions were awful whichever place you went. Furthermore, the Japanese had to face just as worse struggles post-war due to their complete lack of money and possessions when they were let out of the camps. It was extremely difficult for everyone including Mr. Doi and his family to intergrade themselves back into society with no real place to call “home”. And the government reparations in no way made up for all their loses and Mr. Doi even described how he didn’t really care for the money at first. But even with his mixed feelings, money is money, so a little was better than nothing. But not everyone shared that opinion with Mr. Doi. Sadly, Mr. Doi was not able to discuss his concerns on the targeted groups and government surveillances today with us or his family’s relationship with the United States government now much but by the way he talked about the topics, I am guessing not all of his memories have been resolved, much like most other affected Japanese. Ultimately, Mr. Doi’s talk was able to educate me a lot more on this huge mistake made by the United States and was also able to reinforce my desires to help people do a much better job at standing up for what is right so nothing like this ever happens again.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lindsay that Mr. Dois speech gave us all a better understanding of not only life in the internment camps but the after effect of it too. Instead of just reading a book and seeing the point of view from a historian we got to see and talk to a person who went through it all. This allowed me to ask questions that I could never ask before and get a in depth vision of how everyday camp life was and how he felt about everything happening around him. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience to talk and listen to someone who had to live through such a tough time.
DeleteHearing Mr. Doi speak was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and was very inspirational. He started off by talking about his childhood, and I thought it was very interesting that he lived in a mostly Japanese-American neighborhood, and that he loved a normal American life. He then talked about how he and his community felt after Pearl Harbor and after 9066. What really surprised me is how people could be so silly that even if Japanese-Americans weren't doing anything, they were still assumed to be spies because they hadn't done anything yet. Mr. Doi then talked about his life in the camp, and how there was a divide between the Japanese-Americans based on how they answered the questions that they were asked. After he got out of the camp, he said that it was hard to find a place to live, and that there was a lot of hatred towards the Japanese, even after the war had already ended. He also said that when the reparations were given out, he was not happy with the price, but he still took it because it was better than nothing, and it helped a little bit. This is probably how most people felt, but I know that ere were a lot of people who burned the checks, or just didn't accept them. The internment was a dark spot in the history of America,
ReplyDeleteNice comment Jesse. I completely agree with you that Japanese internment was illogical since the Japanese Americans had not done anything wrong. Mr. Doi stressed the concept that since the Japanese Americans had not committed any acts of treason to prove that they were spies, people feared that they would commit such acts, so they were put into isolated camps to prevent them. It doesn't make sense to intern an entire population without any evidence or proof.
DeleteYes I remember when he spoke of the reparations, he did not think the money would do much however he figured something is better than nothing. That was something I forgot to mention in my post. But I am in full agreement with you over the fact that hearing his story was inspirational in the sense that although his family faced this issue, they came out strong and were able to impressively pull their lives' back together in a relatively short amount of time.
DeleteJapanese internment, today, is certainly not the popular topic. Maybe because it is an embarrassment to the United State government, which is something I realized with Mr. Doi's experiences. In the first portion of his interview he described his life as a child, where he grew up as what one would consider an 'All American Family'. He spoke English, although his parents did not know the language too well, he went to an American school in a small, delta town just south of Sacramento (I believe it was Lodi). Mr. Doi was in a very integrated classroom where everyone was relatively close, and he did not witness much racial divisions when he was younger, only one incident where a girl of Asian decent was not allowed to go swimming with her classmates. Once the 9066 act was set in place, his family and the majority of the Japanese community were more confused rather than angry. They were confused because they were as American as those ordering them into the camps. However Mr. Doi did not judge FDR quickly, he figured that in times of war, in order to protect the country desperate acts may take place. In camp Heart Mountain, Mr. Doi claimed the schools had relatively advanced teachers and when it came time to leave the camp, he was actually ahead of American students in terms of education. People did basic, routine, day-to-day things in the camp and grew accustomed to living there after a fair amount of time. In fact, when it came time for them to leave, some people didn't want to since they'd already established their lives there. However, when the war ended with the bombing of Hiroshima they were forced to leave. I perceived this as extremely unfair (ironically, because the entire situation was unfair in the first place), because when they were forced into the camps they had to leave the majority of their possessions behind, including properties. While they were away, these properties were stolen, trashed, burned, or stolen from, so some of these people came back to nothing. However, the American government did provide a bit of money for each interned person although it was certainly not enough to repair the damage for some people and some even refused the money. Another predicament interned Japanese-American citizens faced when they had to leave the camps was a social problem. They had to somehow fit back into society, which was not so easy assuming that most Americans were outwardly racist to Orientals. However, I assume that his family managed to pull through and once again weave through society after some time of being released from the camps. After hearing all this, I questioned why Japanese were the only ethnic group being put away. Obviously, they left their country for a reason and I'd assume most of those reasons include positive imputs on the United States. Also, there was no definite proof that incidents such as Japanese spies were reporting back to the emperor. This event appears to have been a shameful part of American history, as I realized from not only Mr. Doi, but also reading Farewell to Manzanar. However, I would like to thank Mr. Doi for sharing with us his personal witnessing of this American disgrace.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Deirdre, as it was interesting to hear that Mr. Doi and his family were more confused rather than being mad at the passing of 9066. They were American citizens, yet they were being thought of as aliens. I thought it was very genuine of Mr. Doi to not have complete hate directed toward FDR after he made it legal for them to be interned. It showed that he had compassion and an understanding of what was going on, even if it wasn't morally correct.
DeleteEven though I had heard some internment camp stories from my grandfather in the past, he never went as deeply as he did on Friday which was a completely different experience for me. Although the internment happened a long time ago, it was shocking to hear the details from a family member who experienced it first hand and I heard many details I had never heard before. For example, I was surprised to hear that he had friends of different races but was in a segregated school before the war. His positive feelings about FDR were surprising but logical because it wasn't FDR alone who decided to bomb Japan and imprison Japanese American citizens, he had heavy input and advice from his cabinet. Grandpa also complimented FDR for getting the nation out of the Depression because Grandpa is an American citizen and appreciated the FDR's efforts to end the Depression. It is admirable that even though the Japanese Americans were in camp, the people in camp organized a school system for the kids to keep learning and keep part of a normal childhood. He felt that after camp the students were actually ahead of their grade level in school because the school was so well run. Grandpa's use of the term "concentration camps" was understandable because Japanese Americans did not have freedom and could not leave and it felt like a prison. He has said some people say it was not a concentration camp but he thinks Internment camp is way of making it seem less harsh and violent. Integrating back into society was very hard for him because he lost most of his possessions and had to start all over. The Japanese Americans could only take one suitcase each with them to camp. So when they left, the one suitcase was all they had to start over their lives. It is hard to imagine what it felt like to have one suitcase of possessions. Grandpa thinks that the reparation of $20,000 was not enough for 3 years of his life. But he was happy that there was public recognition that the government action was wrong and that was more important than the amount received. We didn't talk very much about family/race relations Friday, but he has said that he doesn't experience much racial prejudice today. He would like to believe that American society has changed and that people are less likely to be prejudiced because they are more educated and aware of the good of diversity in society. The Japanese American Internment was a horrible event and Americans have recognized that it was wrong to imprison their own citizens. Hearing the internment stories should make us remember that American citizens should never try to imprison others citizens because we are afraid and we can respect people who are different from ourselves.
ReplyDeleteListening to your grandfather speak was an overall AMAZING experience! It exposed me to a deeper understanding and appreciation of Japanese internment. I also recognized his use of "concentration camp" as oppose to internment. It seems appropriate given the circumstances. I also noticed what you wrote about the reparations. Besides his family's belongings, I found it interesting about your grandfather's interest in time he lost at the camps. No amount of money can buy back years of one's life and that is arguably one of worst aspects of internment.
DeleteLia - I really envy you that you not only got an opportunity to hear your grandfather's experiences from him but that you obviously appreciate them deeply. I was never able to have that experience from my own grandparents, but even had I heard them, I am no sure I would have given them as deep consideration as you have. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to hear your grandfather speak.
ReplyDeleteI was very struck by Mr. Doi's story of being interned. In addition to all the research we've done on Japanese Americans, it gave me a whole new outlook on the concept after hearing it from a first-hand survivor. I was surprised to know that his schools as a child were well integrated, exposing him to interracial friendships and connections. He explored post-Pearl Harbor in great detail. He explained that life completely changed for his family after the bombing and suddenly Japanese Americans were considered the "enemy". Mr. Doi reminisced on his feelings of betrayal of his friends, neighbors, and community. While he felt betrayed by Americans, Americans felt betrayed by Japanese citizens, concluding that all Japanese Americans were somehow involved in the devastating event of Pearl Harbor. In the camps, Mr. Doi indicated he met many friends, most of which he has kept in touch with. He displayed minimal negativity towards the education and actually complimented the teachers. However, he did regard the camps as "concentration" camps rather than "internment" camps, claiming that in the views of Japanese Americans, there shouldn't be controversy over the term. In his opinion, the association with the Holocaust is appropriate for the treatment of the Japanese in camps. When integrating back into society, Mr. Doi explained that the Japanese Americans were told to go home. The main question they faced was "Where is home?". After internment, Japanese Americans didn't know where to go as most had nothing to go back to. In the end, most ended up going back to their previous towns and started from there. Although $20,000 couldn't possibly make up for lost time and possessions, most accepted the reparations as a kind gesture and a place to start, while very few rejected the money and thought of it as insulting. Following the Civil Rights Movement, Mr. Doi was able to recognize a turn around in the way people thought about diversity. He experienced very little racism directed at him after internment, but continues to view racism as a key issue in today's society. Hearing Mr. Doi's story was a very eye-opening experience that made me reflect on the horrors of the past as well as gain a renewed empathy for diverse ethnicities.
ReplyDeleteListening to Mr. Doi speak made the whole experience he went through much more personal and not such a far off event. It felt like his entire life, except maybe his childhood, was based around his race which in some ways is a bad thing. When he was growing up all the problems based on race seemed far off. At his school it was half and half but after the war started for America he was moved and it became a whole new ballgame. He talked about it like it was yesterday and he remembered it very clearly. He remembered how everyone though he was the enemy when really he was just another citizen. And that makes it so much more personal. He was my age when that happened to him and he was public enemy #1 at the time. Just for being him. We don't live like that anymore mainly because we are a bunch of predominantly white kids who have never have had to worry for such a thing in the slightest.Then the camp itself seemed way more real. I have always thought of it as just temporary houses that people built for a short time but no. They got an education there and were there for a long time as we learned in history. But Mr. Doi is one of those people who did that. And its crazy that its not just this event that happened so long ago but there are still people that are alive and remember it.After the war is what I thought was the toughest part. Maybe not for him but what he said about other people who had to start from the beginning all over again. So much hard work was destroyed from that. That's why I think the reparations were not enough.You can't give someone 20,000 dollars and say here is 40 years of your life back. Or around there. It just doesn't work like that. But it did for him. I went and talked to him later after the speech about his worry for this happening to other people in other cultures and ethnicities. He said he had been worried when the Korean war started and as well as when 9/11 happened. That is so scary that as someone who went through being interned in that situation that he thinks it could happen again. And it scares me that he thinks that America would do that again.
ReplyDeleteAfter Listening to Mr. Doi speak, I can truly connect what we have been learning in class to his first hand experiences in the American Concentration camps. This was a once in a life time opportunity to talk and ask questions to someone who not only got discriminated for their race but got put in a form of a jail because of it. Mr. Doi started of by explaining his childhood and his pre-war life. He talked about experiences before WW2 and how he still experiences racism. This shows that racism has always been part of his life, even before he got interned. Mr. Doi also went into much detail of camp life, explaining the different living conditions and schooling. Mr. Doi ended his presentation of by talking about life after the war and the struggles with it. The biggest struggle was directly after the war when all the Japanese were let out of the concentration camps to go home, but many had no were to go. He explained how many Americans stole and destroyed property of Japanese during the three years they were interned. This shows everyone was hypnotized into thinking that the Japanese were bad, and were out against the US. Finally, Mr. Doi showed me how lucky I am, to live in a time and place right now were we are not throwing people of different race and ethnicity into jails. Even though their is still a lot of racism in the world we are taking steps to stop and it is showing little by little.
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