Friday, October 31, 1997
Exhibition commemorates Japanese internment
EXHIBIT: Display in Powell, programs aim to educate
community
By Michael Weiner
Daily Bruin Contributor
During World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans were
forced from their homes and businesses, and collected into camps
surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military police. At the
time, the Supreme Court ruled that this internment was
constitutional in the context of war, and therefore legal.
This episode in history is now being commemorated on the UCLA
campus. The opening ceremony of an exhibition entitled, "A More
Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the United States
Constitution" was held Thursday in Royce Quad. The highlight of the
ceremony was a speech by UCLA alumnus George Takei, a former
internee and the actor who played Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek."
Taiko drummers from the Nikkei Student Union performed at the
ceremony, and afterward Takei signed copies of his autobiography,
"To the Stars" in the College Library rotunda.
"I remember that confusing, chaotic and scary day when the
soldiers came and took us from our home," said Takei, who was a
small child when he was interned.
In addition to the exhibition, which will be displayed at Powell
Library until Dec. 22, there will be panel discussions, film
screenings and electronic projects presented by the College
Library. The Asian American Studies Center will seek to educate
students, staff and the surrounding community about the experience
of internment.
"The idea of this program is that you just don’t plunk down
pictures; you want to generate ideas," said Janice Koyama,
associate librarian for public service. "The library, in
conjunction with the Asian American Studies Center, has brought
something very unique to this campus."
UCLA was chosen to host the exhibit because of its location and
the fact that the library already has a substantial amount of
information on internment, according to Eleanor Mitchell, head of
the College Library.
Several programs are planned to augment the exhibition. On Nov.
1 and 8, the Los Angeles Unified School District will hold teacher
in- service training sessions in an attempt to add more information
about the internment to school curricula.
Other programs include a special screening of the film "Beyond
Barbed Wire" on Nov. 16, a panel discussion on interned Japanese
Americans on Dec. 6 and a presentation of UCLA electronic projects
regarding internment on Dec. 10.
Don Nakanishi, director of the Asian American Studies Center,
emphasized the effect of internment in the UCLA community.
"Many of the faculty members who are here of Japanese American
descent either went through it or had parents who went through it,"
he said.
Students from the Nikkei Student Union said that it is important
for all Americans to learn about internment.
"It makes everyone see their own histories as immigrants," said
Kelli Nakayama, a third-year English student. "It affects
everybody, not just Japanese."
The exhibition, which travels around the country, is sponsored
nationally by the American Library Association and the National
Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. It is
funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the
Humanities.