Japanese internment camp art display

Japanese Internment Camp Art Display

There’s an ongoing question of identity in Europe and especially to those who have immigrated there for a specified and abundant reason. The narrative of what it means to be French, English, German, has all changed in the last decade as more and more people from different backgrounds come in. But in the United States we have fundamentally ingrained ourselves as a melting pot of cultures due to our history as a nation. And that’s not the luxury most of these old European countries have.

By all the recent developments of political correctness, human rights, war time rights, and a plethora of other public sentiments, it’s by human intervention that the Japanese internment camps would not and cannot happen on American soil again. But we continue to see similar events happen during heights of fearmongering and ignorance. We saw it during the vilification of Muslims, and now the afflicted immigrants with Hispanic backgrounds being rounded up and placed in confinement. Making you wonder if we have come any farther than what we had wished. Given the right circumstances and events, there’s no doubt that any single group can be marginalized and discriminated against even if on the very basic level it is a human rights violation. That said, there’s something about listing the old Japanese feudal clans and showing that those name hold no weight on American soil is very telling. When those people step off those ships and onto this new world on the art display, they now held the same lineage as every other Japanese citizen, being a newfound American citizen. And those touches that really make this artwork powerful.

When the artist paints them as a group of people who share the very glint in their eyes as every other American citizen it resonates the ambition we all share. Of course the artist does not paint the guys on Capitol Hill arguing about the possibility of Japanese agents infiltrating the general public and that’s understandable. Even if there were agents, this was not the way to go about things, and displaying this atrocity is a more so a display of atonement and the past mistakes of the American policy on towards her people. This artwork doesn’t change any feelings towards internment camps but more so place a thought that this is the frightening vicious circle we continue to battle against. As we continue along the art display we see the Supreme Court shown with all nine justices sitting representing our Judicial branch as well as the President’s Executive Order 9066, showcasing the executive branch. But what’s more interesting is the small businesses on display showcasing small mom and pop stores that are here from San Jose.

When we think of San Jose now, it’s a mixture of the tech money boom rising in the United States, the urban development of cities, and the general suburban neighborhoods around the area. Which really tells how quickly and how much the Bay Area has changed in just a generation. Nevertheless, the imagery of Japanese men signing up for the military, gathering around the fire talking, eating, all in the name of Uncle Sam is very compelling. The scene next to it is of a general giving what looks to be a Purple Heart medal to a mother in declaration of her son’s valiant and honorable sacrifice to the American armed forces. You feel the sense of patriotism and you understand the burden of privilege as most if not all of us have never faced a scenario like this.

There’s something very appropriate about a group of resilient people with the insistence of assimilating to a new land with grace and humility onto America. In places like France or Germany, there’s no precedent of Japanese-French or Japanese-German you either are French or German or you aren’t. And it becomes an ongoing battle of identity to these countries with these very deep and long histories. But we as Americans have understood this problem for a long time now, and those differences is what drives us to be closer to one another. Not just as a nation but as people. In any case, these people may have never been able to visit their homelands again, but they’ve earned a place back into their new homes as Japanese-Americans.