Japanese-Americans and the Constitution

1941 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Discrimination and persecution of the Japanese internment camps

Japanese-Americans and the Constitution

A Review of the Smithsonian's "A More Perfect Union" Website

Brief Description and Museum's Purpose

"A More Perfect Union: ..." is organized as a chronology of events centering around one basic theme: the confinement of Japanese-Americans to "concentration camps" during WWII. I believe the message being conveyed to the public is one of a major apology to these Japanese-Americans and their descendants for the great injustices forced upon them. In addition, the museum attempts to warn the overall public that since such a violation of the constitution has proven possible in the past, we cannot blindly rely on the fabric of our constitution to prevent such injustices from occurring again. We must proceed with caution in matters of civil liberties and work towards achieving a "more perfect union".

Organization

As indicated above, the exhibit is theme-based, centered around a historical period of time. Because of this, there is a large proportion of text, revealing background history, in relation to the actual artifacts. In my second, more thorough run-through, I certainly found myself reading more than looking at "things". In fact, it seems as though the exhibit only tells the true chronological history to those patient enough to read all of the text. A less thorough visit to the exhibit will undoubtedly result in a skewed view of the past. I will address this issue later in the Critical Assessment section.

The exhibit has an obvious beginning (with a mural of the Constitution and an introduction video) and then leads the visitor through a somewhat delineated path towards the exit. There is some freedom to back-track, skip around, and even to go through the entire exhibit backwards if you wish. However, during my time in the exhibit, I observed nearly everyone following the predescribed path.

Along this delineated path, the exhibit seems to be broken down into five main "subthemes": the Japanese migration to the U.S., the incarceration process, life inside the detention camps, U.S. military involvement by the Japanese-Americans, and repairing the Constitution. By traveling through the exhibit in this order, the visitor gets a feel for the basic chronology of the events and perhaps how one event led into the other.

Critical Assessment

Effectiveness and Biases: I believe the exhibition team did an excellent job of conveying their intended message although I am not in total agreement with it. Again, this message is to apologize for the Americans who acted out of hysteria in imprisoning a multitude of fellow citizens who were completely innocent.

Show More
Related

  • Japanese Internment After Pearl Harbor

    2439 Words  | 5 Pages

    21 . Robinson, Greg By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans,2003, Harvard University Press

    Read More

  • Lack of Food Safety in America

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    To give background on the FDA and USDA for better understanding the USDA is responsible for meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for dairy, seafood, and vegetables. The USDA was founded in 1862 to encourage food creation in the United States (Sherrow 15). Dr. Peter Collier was the first person to suggest rules and laws for the safety of our food (Sherrow 15). Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act in 1890. The Act made the USDA inspectors inspect all pig products (Sherrow 15). In 1906 the Comprehensive Meat Inspection Act was passed. The act assigned inspectors from the UDSA to the United States’ 163 slaughter houses. In the slaughter houses the meat needed to be inspected before and after slaughter (Sherrow 15-16). The FDA is also responsible for protecting food from terrorists and anyone who wants to try to harm the public (Wilson). The FDA oversees 167,000 farms in the United States and 421,000 worldwide farms. The FDA only has 1,100 inspectors to inspect those farms (Wilson). The number of inspections done by the FDA went from 4,573 in 2005 to 3,400 in 2006 (Sherrow 34). According to the Center of Science in the Public Interest the FDA has no authority for prev...

    Read More

  • Keeping our food supply safe and secure

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    On January 4, 2011 President Obama signed into law The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This law has shed new light on the safety and security of our food supply. The last update to the food safety laws in the United States was in 1938. The food safety modernization act pays special attention at trying to modernize the food safety policies in the United States in hopes to prevent problems and concerns before they happen. As we all know, most of our food comes from overseas or sometimes from your neighboring state. The food products travel by car, truck, airplane, boat, or even train. We are all very happy to be receiving our bananas from Costa Rica and all of our other fresh fruits and vegetables that are imported into the United States, but we never stop to think about what pathogens are contaminating our produce and other foods on the way over and if they are safe for us to eat. In an article by Neal Fortin, he states that the law also gives the FDA new standards to hold imported foods to the domestic food standards and it also encourages the FDA to establish and develo...

    Read More

  • Essay On Japanese Internment Camps

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Japanese-American internment camps were a dark time in America’s history, often compared to the concentration camps in Germany (Hane, 572). The internment camps were essentially prisons in which all Japanese-Americans living on the west coast were forced to live during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor Naval base in Hawaii. They were located in inland western states due to the mass hysteria that Japanese-Americans were conspiring with Japan to invade and/or attack the United States. At the time the general consensus was that these camps were a good way to protect the country, but after the war many realized that the camps were not the best option. Textbooks did not usually mention the internment camps at all, as it is not a subject most Americans want to talk about, much less remember. Recently more textbooks and historians talk about the camps, even life inside them. Some Japanese-Americans say that their experiences after being released from the internment camps were not as negative as most people may think. Although the Japanese-American internment camps were brutal to go through, in the long run it led to Japanese-Americans’ movement from the west coast and their upward movement in society through opportunities found in a new urban environment such as Chicago and St. Louis.

    Read More

  • Supporting Literacy for All Children

    1030 Words  | 3 Pages

    These theories, methods, assessments along with the evidence of success in reading at home make it clear that it is extremely important we try our hardest to support literacy in every child. All students can learn. It’s just a matter of making materials interesting and relevant to them, challenging them (but not to hard), and supporting them along the way.

    Read More

  • Farming the Home Place, by Valerie J. Matsumoto

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Matsumoto studies three generations, Issei, Nisei, and Sansei living in a closely linked ethnic community. She focuses her studies in the Japanese immigration experiences during the time when many Americans were scared with the influx of immigrants from Asia. The book shows a vivid picture of how Cortex Japanese endured violence, discriminations during Anti-Asian legislation and prejudice in 1920s, the Great Depression of 1930s, and the internment of 1940s. It also shows an examination of the adjustment period after the end of World War II and their return to the home place.

    Read More

  • The Right to Privacy

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although many people could not explain or define the concept of privacy very precisely, based on Baase, S. (2012), A gift of fire: Social, legal, and ethical issues for computing technology, he mentioned three key aspects of privacy:

    Read More

  • Reading Is Important: Why Childhood Reading Is Important?

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The importance of reading to children is their ability to grasp abstract concepts, apply logic in various scenarios recognize cause and effect, and utilize judgement.” (Stan, n.d.) Reading helps with concentration and discipline. Which not only helps them in school but allows them to make better choices in everyday situations. Pie Corbett did his own research and discovered that “children were at risk of being left behind at school and failing to develop the creative talents needed to lead happy and productive lives.” If parents were told this, they might make better parental

    Read More

  • Use of Multiple Stretegies to Teach Literacy

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    Literacy is the term used when talking about the ability to read and write. It leads to success in K-12 school, post-secondary school, the ability to compete in the job market, and participation in democratic process (Wei, Blackorby, & Schiller, 2011). Teaching young children how to read and write however is a very complex process that requires a teacher to employ a myriad of strategies to help students. When a teacher takes into consideration all the different abilities in a classroom having multiple strategies that help all students become proficient in speaking and listening, reading, and writing, is essential.

    Read More

  • My Philosophy Of Reading And Writing Curriculum

    2147 Words  | 5 Pages

    While I believe every child is a reader, I do not believe every child will be enthralled with reading all the time. All students have the capability to read and enjoy reading, but just like any other hobby, interest will vary from student to student. The students in my classroom will be encouraged in their reading, be provided with choice, taught how books can take you into another world but, my students will not be forced to read. This paper will illustrate my philosophy of reading through the theories I relate to, the way I want to implement reading and writing curriculum, and the methods I will use motivate my students to read and help them become literate.

    Read More

  • Integrated and Balanced Approach to Literacy

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every child deserves a positive, safe, nurturing, and stimulating learning environment where they will grow academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. My role as an educator is to provide my students with this type of environment as well as an education that will help them succeed academically and become life long learners. It is the responsibility of a literacy educator to provide students with this type of environment, but also to provide instruction that will help students become successful readers and writers. There are numerous programs and philosophies about literacy and reading. Through years of experience and research, one begins to develop their own creative approach on teaching these skills. After looking at different programs and seeing the positive and negatives of each, an integrated and balanced approach of literacy seems to be the best way to teach the differing needs of each student.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Parental Involvement in the Raising of Children

    1092 Words  | 3 Pages

    Finally, parents are encouraged to read with their children at home which not only promotes literacy development with the children getting the adequate encouragement and support they need to read and learn from their parents, but also help in the children’s social and emotional development and achieve “more resilience to stress, greater life satisfaction, greater self-direction and self-control, greater social adjustment, greater mental health, more supportive relationships, greater social competence, more positive peer relations, more tolerance, more successful marriages, and fewer delinquent behaviors” (Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003).

    Read More

  • Foodborne Illness

    2492 Words  | 5 Pages

    Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)

    Read More

  • Reading For Children: The Importance Of Reading To Children

    1418 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The single most important activity for building knowledge for their eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children,” a report from 1985 by the commission

    Read More

  • The Dow Theory: The Dow Theory

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Dow Theory had laid down the basic principles of technical analysis. However, with the advent of more advanced techniques and tools the Dow Theory needs some expansion. One of the big problems with the theory is that the conservative nature of a trend-reversal signal. A reversal in the bullish and bearish trend is confirmed when there is an end to successive highs and successive lows respectively. However, it is difficult to predict the end of trends and by the time it gets confirmed the markets have already moved a long way.

    Read More

More about Japanese-Americans and the Constitution

Open Document