"Center shatters myth of 'quiet' Japanese Americans ..." Topic

…imprisoned in camps.

"With help from elderly survivors of the World War II internment camps, the UCLA Asian American Studies Center has launched the Suyama Project to gather and make available online evidence of resistance among Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to camps by the federal government, shattering the myth of the "quiet Americans" who silently accepted their fate without question.

For nearly a year, researchers at the center have been finding, scanning and then returning to their owners letters, diaries, photographs, newspaper clippings, artwork and unpublished manuscripts to bring to light stories of resistance that the War Relocation Authority (WRA) — the civilian agency created by the U.S. government to manage the internment camps where 120,000 were imprisoned — and others tried to minimize or suppress at the time, say faculty leaders of the project. (The Asian American Studies Center believes it's not accurate to use the term "internment camps" and prefers "U.S. concentration camps." See related sidebar about the ongoing debate over terminology.)

Propagated by the WRA, the government and the Japanese American Citizens League during World War II, the myth of the complacent captives has been embedded in newspaper stories, books, movies and many history books, said Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, the George and Sakaya Aratani Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA and one of five UCLA professors who serve as advisors to the Suyama Project…"
More here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Visit Heart Mountain outside Powell Wyoming. A very good center showing a even handed view of the camp and its occupants

Given the language being used, I don't believe the UCLA people are looking for an even handed view.

Of course we Brits did the same to refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and many Germans who were living in Britain at the start of the war. My mothers family doctor was transported to the Isle of Man.

It makes for an interesting read

link

Thanks!

Amicalement
Armand