Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/72908
June/July 2012 www.cta.org 17 Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir about a concentra- tion camp near Mt. Whitney that once held 10,000 Japanese inmates. For Chomori, the internment issue is personal. Her father's relatives were imprisoned in Manzanar while her father fought in the U.S. Army. Her mother's rela- tives were sent to an "assembly center" at Santa Anita, also in Southern California, where they were put in horse stalls before being shipped to a camp in Arkan- sas and then relocated again to Arizona. "When they registered at the camps, they became just a number," says Chomori, a member of United Teachers Los Angeles. "How would you like to no lon- ger be a person and just be a number?" Students wonder why the inmates didn't try to escape from Manzanar. "They had nowhere to go," Mikhail Holliday says to his classmates, explaining that Jenny Chomori Manzanar was surrounded by wilderness and the Mo- jave Desert. Anniversary of an injustice This year marks the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 signed by President Roosevelt, which re- sulted in 120,000 Japanese Americans being relocated to detention camps. Inmates lived in primitive and challenging conditions. Those interned at camps such as Manzanar reacted in different ways. The Japanese culture taught gaman, to persevere or to endure, so some accepted their fate. Others resisted, protested, or organized politically. Many others enlisted or were drafted. Nisei are the first generation to be born in America. Ten thousand volunteered in the all-Nisei 100th In- fantry Battalion, the foundation for the 442nd Regi- mental Combat Team. Active for just the last two years of the war, the 442nd was the most decorated unit, for its size and length of service, in the history of the internment of Japanese Americans. "There was shame in being incarcerated. They wanted it to be forgotten," Chomori said, adding that she is grateful her parents talked about the camp, be- cause many former inmates never discussed it. As a college student, Chomori visited Manzanar with other activists and helped raise awareness about what happened there. Manzanar Pilgrimage Day be- came an annual event thereafter, held the last Satur- day in April and attended by people from throughout the country. Now a national historic site, Manzanar still has the original guardhouse plus reconstructed barracks and mess hall. Redlands Teachers Association member Gary Pep- low takes his fourth- and fifth-graders to Manzanar every year. He believes that studying the Japanese in- ternment helps students question what the Constitu- tion and the Declaration of Independence really stand for. Both are required reading in his class. Student Carl Schubert called the visit "amazing. We could see the guard towers. The cabins had dirty wood floors, no insulation or walls to separate the cabins. It's hard to imagine that thousands of people lived that way." Peplow says his students are always indignant to learn about this unpleasant chapter in American history, and for that reason alone it should be taught. "I use the past to focus on what's going on right now. I ask them to consider wheth- er racism still causes people to react in the same way to- day. By learning from our mistakes, we can make the world a better place." tion. Members of the Muslim community have come to Japanese Americans to ask us about our experienc- es. They feel a connection to us because they are also under attack." Kusaba says that the Japanese American intern- ment story is usually glossed over in history books and seldom taught in depth. "But these things should be taught — it's an issue of civil rights, freedom and what it means to be a United States citizen." By Sherry Posnick-Goodwin Photos by Scott Buschman Cliff Kusaba History repeats itself? To commemorate the anniversary, CTA's Pacific Asian American Caucus conference in May was titled "Man- zanar: A Living History Experience." Cliff Kusaba, chair of the caucus, describes the con- Gary Peplow and his students at Smiley Elementary School in Redlands discuss their field trip to the Manzanar War Relocation Center.