Post #8 - Japanese Internment Memorial

            The vignettes at the Japanese Internment Memorial depicted an emotional past of not just the artist, but the entire Japanese race. 

The Japanese Internment began shortly after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.  The Internment, authorized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowed the confinement and relocation of Japanese and Japanese Americans living in the U.S to what were known as “war relocation camps.”  This was essentially prompted by racial prejudice and fear of the Japanese people in America revolting against their own country.  Eventually, President Ronald Reagan apologized on behalf of the U.S. government and attempted to distribute more than one billion dollars in reparations to the Japanese Americans who had been held captive in the country they called their home.

 In 1942, San Jose State University utilized their gym (what is now Yoshihiro Uchida Hall) to house and register Japanese Americans before sending them off to various internment camps.

Ruth Asawa was one of those interned during the 1940s.  An aspiring art teacher, she was unable to get hired for the prerequisite teaching that was necessary to complete her degree.  She instead became a sculptor, famous for her many different styles of art including stone and wire sculptures, paintings, and drawings seen all over the Bay Area.

In her Japanese Internment Memorial sculpture in downtown San Jose, Asawa portrays much of the angst, fear, and confusion of those dark days in American history.  Scenes are pictured of children being held in areas surrounded by barbed wire fences.  This makes them look more like herds of cattle being imprisoned rather than innocent young children.  The carved images show the discomfort of tight, crowded living quarters, with families practically piled on top of each other.  Overall, the murals convey a sense of fear and frustration from the hands of an artist with firsthand knowledge and experience of such devastating times.

In my opinion, it would be almost unthinkable for something like this to happen in the future.  It seems that our country is in a much different place than in the 1940s.  I think the events of the Japanese Internment will remain a sad but prominent piece of American history.