The Japanese American Internment Memorial is dedicated to those Japanese Americans who were placed in internment camps after Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Sculpted by artist Ruth Asawa, the memorial was unveiled in 1996. Each panel has incredible details of the depicted events on both sides of the wall. Asawa is a Japanese American artist who was among those interned during WWII.
Both sides have similar details but unique in meaning, such as barbed wire.
On one side, the barbed wire is curled, symbolizing the farm wire as seen in farms owned by Japanese American citizens in California prior to the removal. The other side depicts straight barbed wire that was used as part of the barriers for Japanese American internment camps.
San Jose itself played a role in the internment process. A San Jose State University building was used as a processing center for Japanese Americans who reported for relocation. The building was later named after SJSU judo trainer by the name of Yoshihiro Uchida, who served in the US Army during WWII.
Can something like this happen again? Most likely not since the current state of the world is a lot different than what it was back then. It shouldn’t be seen as impossible to happen again but realistically I don’t see it happening in the near or distant future. The countries of the world today are surely not at peace with every other country as there will always be turmoil among nations for whatever reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment