This article investigates how Japanese American history is taught in the US, based on observations on exhibitions as well as educational materials and activities offered at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i(JCCH)in Hawai’i. JCCH is a non-profit organization which aims to enhance the understanding of Japanese American experience in Hawai’i and has been playing an important role as a voice of the community.
JCCH has had a permanent exhibition on Japanese American history since 1994. Lesson plans for history class in high school were first made in 2009. They also began giving field trips for students and teachers at former internment camps in Hawai’i in 2011. While the museum focuses on Japanese Americans’ patience and their diligent efforts that led them to be finally accepted as American citizens, the lesson plans and student field trips emphasize their social activism, which gave rise to the Redress Movement and eventual restitution of their civil rights as well as receiving apology and monetary compensation from the US government.
The internment and the Redress have been controversial topics in the US. After WWII, the general American public praised the patience of Japanese Americans during the war instead of focusing on the federal government’s unconstitutional decision to intern American citizens. Many of the Japanese American leaders were also inclined to emphasize their success as model minority citizens of the American society and were reluctant to accuse the act of the government. These sentiments often left out the resistance and claims of some Japanese Americans against the internment. The exhibition of JCCH, which was made in the early 1990s, generally follows this trend and focuses on Issei’s value system and lifestyle in plantation era and Nisei’s contribution to WWII and postwar society.
However, the lesson plans made in the recent years focus on the act of the government during WWII and how it decided to unjustly intern Japanese Americans. The lesson plans teach about the Redress Movement and introduce many Japanese Americans who protested against the US government to protect their civil rights. At the school field trip, students learn about the unconstitutional and unjust decision of the government and are reminded of the importance of actively participating in local, state, or national discussion on civil rights.
To sum up, the exhibition at JCCH describes Japanese Americans as patient and hardworking minority who proved their Americaness. The lesson plans/ field trip present Japanese Americans as a minority group that advocates and promotes American democracy. This difference reflects the changing interpretation of Japanese American history and also the growing acceptance to teach the interment and redress in the field of American history in secondary schools.
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