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dchui — Manzanar Concentration Camp
Published: 2005-05-02 05:01:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 7621; Favourites: 90; Downloads: 511
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***********"A viper is nonetheless a viper wherever the egg is hatched - so a Japanese American, born of Japanese parents - grows up to be a Japanese, not an American."
- Los Angeles Times
***********
Notice of evacuation
One spring night
The image of my wife
Holding the hands of my mother.
- unknown Japanese American
***********
I spent this last weekend with my friends visiting the Manzanar Relocation Center near Mammoth, California... the following are a few of my thoughts from the trip that we took to Manzanar, which I regard as one of the best decisions of my life.
I'll start by saying this is a hard one for me to write. I don't know if it is within my ability to articulate how I feel about the issue, but I hope that you will stick around and read this one the whole way through. It will be spread over the next few photos I post on DA.
On February 19th, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which mandated the immediate "evacuation" of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast to "relocation centers" around the country. I use quotation marks because the words "evacuation" and "relocation centers" were originally fabrications made up by the United States Government to cover up the fact that A) the Japanese Americans were not being "evacuated", but instead imprisoned against their will, and B) that the Japanese Americans thought of the camps as concentration camps, not "relocation centers". Also, I won't get into what a concentration camp is or isn't... as one of the formerly interned Japanese Americans told me, the JA's attempt to inform others of what happened to them is in no way in competition with what happened to the Jews under Nazi Germany.
The public excuse that the government issued was that the Japanese Americans were being moved for their own protection. This seems ironic to me, because while the various internment camps did have guard towers, those guard towers had their guns "permanently aimed inwards, into the camp". Regardless of the United States' government's attempt to pamper the issue at the time, it didn't change the facts: thousands of Japanese Americans were forced, against their will, to give up the lives they had worked so hard to achieve in order to be shipped off to lonely and remote internment camps scattered throughout the country.
"Like a dog,
I am commanded
At a bayonet point.
My heart is inflamed
With burning anguish"
The night the first convoy of Japanese Americans arrived at Manzanar, they were instructed to go to a barn full of straw and fill bags that they were given with the straw. This was to serve as their beds for the first night's rest; these were later replaced by standard-issue army cots. The dwellings that they entered were miserable. They were ercilessly dusty, and there was no privacy because of the cramped quarters and the government's decision not to include curtains or walls in the shower-rooms. In the evening, when everybody had finally gotten to sleep, the wind would come. It would whip around and carry sand and dust from the outside into the cracks in the corrogated aluminum walls of the barracks.
"Vexed beyond my strength,
I wept. And then the wind came
Drying up all tears."
Today, there is little left of Manzanar. The barracks, latrines, etc. are long gone - either blown away in time or purposely destroyed by the United States government post-internment.
What is left, though, are the memories. Just walking around this place made me sad, because of everything that it represents to me as an American. I am a Chinese-American, but I do not feel detached from the Japanese American internment just because I am not Japanese; the internment of the Japanese Americans could have happened to any race, and it can still happen today. Many of the things that Chinese-Americans had to face coming up in this country are the same struggles we see today: I didn't want to bring it up, but look at the Rodney King beating. One of the police officers peed on the guy when they were done beating the shit out of him. I grew up sheltered, thinking that racism was a thing of the past; how could there be racism if I had black kids in my school, and they were just as loved (or hated) as the other kids? It really wasn't till I stepped outside of the Palo Alto bubble that I started realizing how bad things are.. I won't get into how I came to realize racism now - that is a story for another day. Still, it makes me disgusted and sad when I think of the racism and prejudice that still exists today. This is why I feel it is of the utmost importance to understand the cultural roots of racism, its history, and its manifestations.
Please take this stuff in small doses, but really do try and think about what your liberty and your freedom means to you. What is it worth to you, and what would you do if tomorrow it were taken away from you?
I will write more as it comes to me. I rarely ask for responses from those who view my Deviant Art gallery, but I would encourage anyone who is reading this to share their own experiences with prejudice and racism, how it has impacted their lives, and perhaps, if they have time, what people think we can do to change the way things are.
- Chui
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Comments: 86
All I have to say is Japanese guys with perfect American accents turn me on O_O
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This has gotta be one of the most incredible photos I have ever seen.
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Hey Daniel, sorry about my reference to "David" above. That was my own careless error!
Fantastic photo, fantastic story and fantastic gallery. I have great appreciation for your photos. You appear to be very dedicated despite your modesty - but then that's a good thing, right? Well, both modesty and dedication are good, I guess! It's also amazing that you have responded at length to all your commentors!
Hmm...thinking about those gay pride photos... we have the celebration here in Vancouver too. It's pretty cool but you get tired of it eventually, like any other celebration. Though not exactly bi, I've always had a lot of gay friends so I think what they've done in my lifetime (51) is astounding. And young gays don't understand what people went through. I even lost a job once because I hung with this married guy who was just suspected of being gay! And that was around 1980 something.
As for the Japanese/North Americans: another atrocity the west has committed against the east. But like you say, prejudice and wars go in all directions.
Though I grew up in a tiny white bread town in the middle of Saskatchewan, Canada we were always taught that "red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world!" I found out from an "Armenian-Canadian" friend who grew up in Toronto, that this was not the case for her. She was also raised in a Christian home, as was I. (At that time, it wasn't a horrid stigma to be a Christian. Though I am no more (if I ever was), I can't fathom these so called Christians who don't realise that Jesus was a Jew and came to help his own people mostly but was totally unprejudiced. They don't appear to have read the Bible either!) Who knew? She speaks more passionately about racism than I do. Reasons below.
I never wondered too much about the native Canadians who lived nearby but unfortunately went to private Catholic school and suffered the consequences to this day! Then, we had a feeling that they were a little superior to us because they went to private schools. Duh. Little did we realise!
We often think that native (and other races) genocide was practiced in the US, we just beat them here! Disgusting.
In my own case, my family lived in Hawaii (62-3, 67-8) and I was nearly always the only "white" (then I was very brown dueto genes and the sun) kid in my classes etc. I don't recall ever suffering for that so I always assumed that racial mixing was the norm until I started learning more in junior and high school etc. I also lived in Japan and Thailand for over 9 years and there I was invariably the only "white" (though many of my aquaintances were whiter than me) and did experience prejudice in many different (fortunately small) ways but it was one of the reasons I left Asia. (Though I adore Thailand and hope to go back again someday soon!) I visited many other countries in the area then and went to Hong Kong as well to see it before the handover.
Now in Vancouver, I live in an exceptionally mixed neighbourhood. It's clear that there is some violence and stupidity here but for the most part, it seems benign. Others tell me that this is an illusion. Nonetheless on any given day you can walk a block and hear at least 10 different languages, see 8 (obviously) racially mixed couples and their babies, see groups of kids and adults in radically mixed "races" (how I hate that meaningless word) enter half a dozen different ethnic restaurants and other shops, groceries etc. It's beyond cool for me. Even if it may be an illusion and who knows what would happen if we had a catastrophe like US east coast, we might also turn into racist mobs.
When I check a few Canadian political sites, racism is barely even mentioned as an issue! Here's one: [link] and this is publically funded. Nonetheless, many people don't get why we need to ease immigration policies and welcome more people from anywhere into Canada. I'm for it!
Anyway, I'll stroll your gallery (soon but I have a huge list!) and welcome you to mine!
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I didn't hear about this story until now, and I never thought something like that could "occur" in a western civilization like the US.
But it is a beautiful picture, though. The colours rocks, and I like the flag in the sun.
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Hi - I've just stumbled upon your site through site-hopping and I'm pleased that I did.
You have some wonderful photographs in your gallery and I would bet your teacher would be proud to have had a hand in your abilities.
I have some very unpleasant experiences of prejudice and racism and I am white/British/European/caucasian whatever you want to call me!
I am a little older than you [b: 1950 - so 5 years after WWII ended] and as I said I am European - that is I have an English mother and a German father with a German surname [my father was a captured low ranking member of the German paratroopers - incidently SS]. My father and I have always differed on issues of race [he dislikes Black, Jewish, Asian, Hispanic etc. etc] in fact we have always differed, disagreed and fought on just about everything under the sun.
When I was a child you could not tell that I was anything but British/English - as I said I am white/caucasian and my first language is/was English - but I have a German surname which lead to major problems with children in the streets around where I lived and at school - it even spilled over to some of the teachers at my schools and obviously to the parents and grandparents of the children I knew. I learned to be a fighter and to stick up for myself so the abuse was largely verbal and not physical unless, on occasions at school or in the street, someone stirred up the other kids and we would go at it hammer-and-tongs, then I would come home bloodied and cursing [all this for something that was not my fault and really not about me but about bigottry, misconception and prejudice by people who did not understand what they were prejudiced about]. It took me many years, well into adulthood, to understand why this happened and even then it still occured with a few older people calling me a Nazi [I'm not, I loathe the Nazis and everything they stood/stand for] and why didn't I piss off back to Germany? The mother of one of my girlfriends when I was in my mid twenties [and the war had been over for 30 years] used to tell my girlfriend that I wasn't good enough for her and for her to tell me to "sling my hook" back to Germany.
All of this though is just small fry compared to what a lot of Black and Asian people have to go through. Here in Britain it depends to a large extent on the area you live in as to what kind of treatment you receive if you are in any way different.
I am now, and have been for 5 years, married to an American woman who herself has received comments about pissing off back to America - this is not a well integrated part of the country.
Well I have taken up enough space here so I will post this quickly before I change my mind.
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There is a huge differance between a Concentration camp, and an Internment camp.
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There is indeed a huge difference. I used concentration camp because I was told by interned J.A.'s when I visited Manzanar that the word "internment" dances around the truth of what the camps were.
Anyway, I'm not going to argue with you one way or another... I have no opinion on the matter myself. I chose to title it concentration camp out of respect of the words of some of the interned J.A.'s I spoke to while at Manzanar.
- Chui
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Very good then. Words do have iffy meanings at times.
Matt
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I've experienced direct racism maybe twice, three times in my life. The one and only thing that bothers me about it is that, each time, the perpetrators in question were several years younger than myself. And they had not known me for more than twenty seconds. One of the most disturbing of these experiences occurred in an elevator, where two boys insulted me with racial slurs and profanities, assuming that I couldn't understand English. I hadn't done nor said a thing, all that had happened was that they had entered the elevator and seen me. That was, apparently, enough.
I live in Canada, so I don't think I'm entitled to speak in place of the American government. But here's what I think. Racism, now and then, doesn't come from a country. It originates solely from a few people who are either afraid or who, unfortunately, have been hurt before by a member of a certain race.
The logic is this. People respond much more to hate than any other emotion. If someone walks through your garden with you and says "Oh, those flowers are nice" as opposed to another person, also there, who begins madly raving about how much they dislike those flowers, who will you respond the most to?
The government is much like you as the owner of that garden. I don't believe hatred originates and escalates solely based on the people in power, but as a reaction that those people in power have to the feelings of the people. Even if it is a minority that forcefully expresses their dislike of a certain race, the government will respond mostly to them because of the intensity of that expression. The rest of the people, in turn, will respond to the government because of their influence. That's how prejudice spreads, at least on the larger scale.
Still, it's a chain reaction. And like all chain reactions, it's simple to defeat. At any point in the chain, if a link is broken, the chain fails. Violence and backlashing won't defeat racism, but will merely become a part of the chain. Education, on the other hand: if people are made to see how irrational prejudice is, there'll be no reason for them to hold one any longer.
Unfortunately, for the most part, I think we're preaching to the converted. Those who are hard-set in their minds won't easily change them, or listen. The only thing we can do is keep closed-mindedness from passing on to generations who are still able to change their ways.
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Thanks for writing that.
I haven't talked as much about the issue in the past couple months, but I continue to read whenever I have a chance. Right now I'm reading a book about the Rape of Nanking, which happened in 1937 after the Japanese conquered the Chinese capital.
I won't go into details, but what happened was terrible. Over 400,000 killed, raped, pillaged, and of those most were civilians who could not defend themselves.
A huge part of what made the Rape of Nanking possible, according to author Iris Chang, was the systematic desensitization of the Japanese to the killing of and treatment of the Chinese. The Chinese were to be regarded as less than dogs.
I think that racism on the governmental level does indeed help to fuel the chain of hate necessary for things like internment, the Holocaust, and the Rape of Nanking to happen. Hopefully with our younger generation, we can come to see these attitudes disappearing.
But change comes slowly. Change always comes slowly when we need it most.
- Chui
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Thanks for writing that.
I haven't talked as much about the issue in the past couple months, but I continue to read whenever I have a chance. Right now I'm reading a book about the Rape of Nanking, which happened in 1937 after the Japanese conquered the Chinese capital.
I won't go into details, but what happened was terrible. Over 400,000 killed, raped, pillaged%
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beautifuly captured.. i like the sharpness of this..
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Very nice...quite a dramatic shot, and one of the few times I've seen blown highlights actually be used well!
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Wonderful image and thank you for the background description.
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wauw, I really love the contrast. Also emplofeyd beacause the red American flagg is in the white area in the sky, and the dark/ light clouds!!
Keep up the great work
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I like this a lot, prehaps because you have some meaning behind your pictures. Pictures with conepts = love.
I also love how the sky looks behind the flag - It's so vivid and great, and just genius to me. <3
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dude...
your photography is supreme distinctive.
your thought you always articulate well and definatley stir up a well spring of emotion in your reader. in fact if you ever could i would love to read one of your college papers.
with that said racism is utterly terrible. i distain it. before i moved here my best friend was korean and most people i knew where of some type of ethnicty. when i moved here it was a bit of culture shock. it's like 96 percent white 3 percent hispanic and 1 percent black/oriental/any other. things are chaged and the culture and communnitty is deversifing as it grows. eitherwho, thanks for your contribution to the DAsphere...
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Strange, with the sun where it is behind the flag, it looks like it's falling apart.
The quotes got to me most; eloquent and poignant.
I've got to think for a while about how to reply to it, overall. It's a hard thing for me to talk about as well. I think I'll write something for you, and see if that works.
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This piece is very beautiful. The clouds add to the emotion comingfrom it, as does the lighting. Also, the way you have the flag off center, I think, adds to the piece, as well.
I don't know much, really, about such events, as you mentioned, sadly, but what I do know of them sickens me, greatly. Just how humans can do such things to other humans, or, really, any living creature, is far beyond me.
One thing happened, near here, that my sister told me about. She and her husband were in the park, with their two small children, and their was a group of black individuals who were cussing and yelling, inspite of the presence of young children. She said that there was this small white girl, walking here dog, and that the others unleashed their larger dog, to go and attack the girl's, laughing about what it did the that "cracker dog". Just picturing that little girl trying to get away, and seeing that other dog attacking her dog, tore me up inside.
I'm not to sure if this would qualify with what you were looking for, but I believe I've experienced prejudice, due to my "disability". (I put it in quotations as I do not thing of it as such.) The main thing, concerning this, is people believing me to be unable to do things for myself. When people ask if I need help, that's all well and good and, if I don't need it, I simply say something like "Nah, I got it." The main thing, concerning my experience, nowadays, is when people don't even ask. Just coming up behind me and pushing me in my wheelchair, while perhaps well-intended, I find disrespectful. I don't know, truly, if this counts as prejudice but, either way, it still hurts, ya know?
One final thing, that happened to me, happened when I was very little, and about to start school. Again, it had to do with my condition. Because I had ( and still have) spina bifida, which causes me to be paralyzed from the waist down, the school board wanted to place me within the special education classes, rather than giving me a chance to go through regular classes. My mom had to fight for me to be able to be in the regular classes, and I make As and Bs. I don't know if they did not think I would be, physically, able to go from class to class, or that, mentally, I would not be able to handle the subjects.
So, there's my story. I've taken up a whole lot of room with this subject, but it is one I feel strong about. Prejudice in any, way, shape or form makes my stomach churn.
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Thank you so much for sharing your stories... the one about the black guys siccing their dog on the white girl's dog reminds us of how far prejudice can go in either direction; I do think that many "minorities" have a lot of owning up to do in regards to their own stereotypes against the majority. Chinese Americans included.
I'm sorry to hear about the way you have been treated for your spina bifida... I have actually heard of kids being put in "special education" for stupid reasons like that also. My mom was outraged when she found out that my little brother, who was six at the time, was recommended for "special education" based upon some test scores. We later found out that the test scores were bogus and that Kenny scored much higher than his peers did, and was well above the intelligence of kids his age, not below it; to my mom, she always felt that it was a racial thing, and I agree that this kind of "mistake" would rarely happen had the family in question been a rich white person's family - there would've been more precaution and suspicion.
Anyway... I do think it's rude to come up and push you in your wheelchair. It's so assuming... like, jeeze if my friend has something that he or she can't do I try and understand that - hey, that is a part of who they are, but at the same time realize that it's most likely not something they are ashamed of in any way.
Cheers, and thanks for dropping by
- Chui
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I, in turn, amd sorry that you and your family had to go through that. I hate to admit it, but, with the way peoples minds seem to be set, it could, very well, have been different, based on race or something like that. It's really quite sad how such things can be determined and decided, based on something like skin tone, sex, religion, and so on.
Also, I thank you for your support. It's comforting to know that there are some out there who try to think past such things, and don't just assume.
So, you're welcome, and many thanks, both for your touching words, and your art.
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beautiful photograph and very touching description, appreciate you sharing it all with us, Daniel... people sure can get very cruel and very inhuman when given power. they are like hungry wolves, scavengers, i can tell you from my own experience as i am immigrant myself. young people especially, in high school and so... im sure you know what im talkin about. i still see those animal, very primitive instincts when i play basketball and im the only white guy on the court with like 30 black dudes... i mean... once you begin to argue with one, racial comments start being thrown your way and then the rest of the group jumps in... and why? because they know its 30 of them and im 1 and they feel like they have the power to say whatever they want... im sure you know what im talking about.
people are animals in their nature, a lot of us have learned to actually be human and use our head and logic... others forget to. still... until this very day. year of 2005. sad.
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The black clouds looming over the old camp are haunting but reminders of the past. Notice there are rays of light though? Shining through the black clouds. This photograph I think captures it all. I liked it, but enjoyed reading your thoughts on it. I haven't experienced racism, and I come from a small town with barely any diversity, but one of my best friends is Chinese. I don't know, he used to be shy and quiet because I suppose he was uncomfortable with his origin, but as far as anyone is conscerned he is a Canadian and a hilarious guy.
To hopes that we never forget these moments so that we never return to the savagery.
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Many Chinese (speaking from experience) are shy for cultural reasons, often stemming from their parents. This is especially true of Chinese with parents that come from China or other Asian countries... those countries place a premium on being extroverted, so often children are conditioned to be quiet.
My parents came from China and Cambodia, but neither ever imposed upon my own impersonality in a way that compromised my happiness... for this I am totally thankful.
THank you for the response
- Chui
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That definitely makes sense, it is a cultural thing why chinese and most asisn tend to be so quiet.
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Well thank you for that tibit of information. It's not that I don't care about his background, I am interested, yet I don't pressure nor ask really about it. He just tells me what he wants and I listen and ask appropriate questions. But thank you. And once again, great work.
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I read farewell to manzanar in 8th grade.
but the Image. Can we say STOCK PHOTO?
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I read farewell to manzanar in 8th grade.
but the Image. Can we say STOCK PHOTO?
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wow, there are so many brilliant comments to this piece (its taken me a full half hour to read them all), and the issues that have been raised have been brilliantly said and needed to be raised.
As mentioned by Amanda, people really do tend to ignore sexism, as it is so sadly engrained in almost worldwide culture, it is particualarly hammered to the point in most films, there being the token female charector who's personality is skin deep and can be taken off with a potato pealer. And it does tend to be that the non-male dominated films are the better ones, with a plot thicker than gravy skin.
In the UK, there is also general view of Americans being...blind almost to this sort of thing. Well, racial and sexual discrimination in you OWN country that is. Of course, this is just generalising, mass view, but please tell me; how close would you say this is? Would you say that as a Nation America has too much patriotism to realise its own faults?
Now, before I get verbally kicked in by any other americans who have taken offence here, I'm just saying that this is the GENERAL view of the GENERAL America, and seen as I am against 'the american dream of a plastic youth' (note the quotation marks), opposing this view outright is quite difficult.
Whoops, I seem to have gone off on one here, sorry...
A great photograph, and an even better write up, a +fav so that people will read it
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Thank you so much for the thoughtful response,
In response to your question, I feel that America, for the most part, sweeps racism under the rug. I'll quote a black friend of mine... he said that racism is, in some ways, even harder to deal with than in the past. "Instead of signs that say "No negroes allowed", America has replaced it with "I'm sorry Mr. Blackman, we don't have any positions available for you at this time". This is from a highly qualified black man who was more qualified than the people who got the job.
I think that the only thing we can do is do what we can, as individuals, to let people know. I always talk to my friends about this stuff... and hopefully I can help them see how terrible the problem still is.
- Chui
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A very epic shot. I like all of the deep and intense colors. Great work.
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I like how the light seems to be tearing apart the flag.
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That photo is incredibly beautiful. My God, those mountains!
I spent almost all of sixth grade studying the Japanese internment camps--the title immediatey brought back memories of a book we studied about Manzanar. Looking back, I'm glad we studied it, since it's such an unknown piece of history, especially around here (I live in Massachusetts.) We only studied it because it was a personal interest of my English teacher, who was white but a Japanophile. It's good to see pieces like this to keep the history alive.
I was disgusted as a sixth grader, and I'm still disgusted now that the American government actually did this. What was even sadder was that when I explained what I'd learned to my father, he was completely unsympathetic, as if they deserved it because soldiers of their native country were killing Americans. I really hope such narrow-minded thinking dissipates in the future. I know, personally, that my views are much more openminded than my father's, and far more than my grandparents', so maybe there's hope...
Thanks for reminding me about this :]
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Dana, thank you so much for sharing your story... I am sorry to hear about your father. The older generation has grown up with these beliefs, so they deserve a degree of sympathy even if their views are "wrong" by our standards. I hope that with each generation, the individuals of that generation can work on educating the younger generation about what it is to be equal - regardless of one's color. Until then, America will remain a melting pot of cultures, with some at the top and some at the bottom.
- Chui
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Seems like I'm very thin-skinned these days..... The word concentration camp really shocked me, and the picture hits me right where it hurts. The bloodred flag, the dark clouds and the flagpole's shadow all seem really menacing to me. I had to think of the USA's present concentration camps in Guantamamo Bay at first. The people are contained there with no proper legal status, neither POW, nor criminals with a right to be defended by lawyers. It's a shame such things are still going on today...
I'm German, so the word concentration camp evokes horrible images in my mind. The detainment at Guantanamo Bay, Manzanar and such camps, however unlawful and heartless it is, doesn't compare to the atrocities of organized mass murder during the Third Reich. But then this comment about the wartime hysteria being stirred up by farmers who wanted to get the Japanese Americans' farmland.... that bears some unpleasant similarity to Nazi Germany's economy being based on robbery and murder, first stealing from the Jews, then from the occupied countries.
I live and grew up in a middle class area of middle-sized town, so most of the foreigner I ever met were language teachers or Asian students at the town's conservatory. People that add welcome cultural aspects to this place, so I might be living in a somewhat sheltered ivory tower; it's easy for me to be openminded to the small number of foreigners I meet. I've never witnessed any real life racism, but it sickens me to no end to find racists and Neonazis spreading their views on internet forums and chat rooms :[
In order to prevent the past from happening again we must remember it, acknowledge the wrong that was done, the wounds that were inflicted, without blaming the grandchildren of the wrongdoers. Blaming people only perpetuates the hatred, and I can understand some Germans don't want to hear about the Holocaust when 20% of all Germans think we should be personally ashamed for it... I'm not personally responsible for being descended from people who committed genocide or looked the other way. But we need to remember how this could happen and never let this happen again. What I can't understand is that whole nations fail to acknowledge atrocities like the rape of Naniking, or the killing of about 1 million Armenians by the Osman Empire. The wrongs need to be named before the wounds can heal.
Prejudices are so meaningless and ubiquitious and hurtful... I know that, apparently for the kids and even some adults around here my different color of clothes (I wear mainly black) is enough of a reason to shout bad names and other abuse at me. Sometimes I'm so discouraged about all this hatred going on for no reason at all :[ I guess I'm just too thin-skinned these days, can't help it...
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I love the contrasting colors and how they make the clouds stand out.
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The picture is very touching. The crystal clearity of it all, and the darkness that seems to hide in the background goes hand-in-hand with your message.
I am a white female living in KY. Needless to say, there are still PLENTY of men in KY who believe that women should just be kept in the house to themselves. Also, I'm a non-christian in a baptist community. Believe me, I've had my share of prejudice. Not because of my race, but because of my sex and my religion. I went all throughout high school keeping to the same ten-ish people that I met when I frirst got to high school. All the other people there would verbally spit on me and put me down. I did come across a horrible boyfriend or two who believed in female servitutude. Believe me, that didn't last long because I am human, and I am just as capable as any other to do reach the goals I want and have set in life. I don't believe people should be treated like that because of their sex, or their race, or their religion. The country's first amendment guarantees freedom of speech, press and religion. Amendments since then have given freedom to non-caucasian peoples and females. Really, it is unconstitutional to go against your fellow human being for reasons like that. I agree that the innocent Japanese Americans should never have been encamped. I disagree wholly with the idea of it, and am dismayed at the fact that they had to live like that. I love people. I can't understand why the government would've put them into those so-called 'relocation camps' IN OUR OWN COUNTRY when we were trying to free the Jews from the same thing in Europe.
Greatly needed message, great art.
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Thank you Amanda.
The situation with discrimination against women is also a subject that I am concerned about, though I have not researched it in the same depth as I have racial discrimination. I am constantly reminded of the strength of woman because my mom is the strongest person I know... my dad is a very laissez-faire kind of dad, and he lets whatever happen because he is busy with his own work. But my mom, she is out there training my little brother day in, and day out, to be a better person. She pretty much raised both myself and my little brother single-handedly... and I love her so much for it.
Women have a whole host of problems that they have to deal with; and when I think about how men add to this list of problems it makes me angry. I think that many guys just don't understand the depth of the things that women have to deal with in this society, not only in terms of the image that they are encouraged to fulfill (which results in anorexia, bulemia, and self-esteem issues) but also things like employment, getting paid less than guys for doing the same job, etc... there are a whole host of other things that women must deal with that men get it easy on, and for this reason I always try and treat the women in my life with the utmost respect.
"I wonder why we take from our women,
Why we rape our women,
Do we hate our women?
I think it's time we kill for our women,
Be real to our women,
And heal our women." - 2Pac Shakur, Keep Ya Head Up
- Chui
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I the first book I ever read by myself was called, "Danny and America's Pastime." It was about a Japanese-American boy who joined his local baseball team only to be mocked and ridiculed. Finally, his baseball coach had him stop playing for two games, in which his team lost horribly, to show the racist people in his neighborhood that "He can play the game. I don't care if he's black, white, Asian, or Martian, the boy can play a good game. So we all should let him."
I still have that book, which is now stained with jelly and peanut butter. And no, the boy's real name isn't Danny-- that's just his "English" name. 
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Thank you for sharing that story... it sounds awesome! I have had to deal with people underestimating myself before, and it is really no fun. All you can do is prove to the world what you've got
- Chui
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