Japanese American Experience in New Mexico, part 2

The guy talks about how someone from the New York Times had asked that, if the people in the interment camps were so loyal, why weren't they fighting in the military. He said that, at that time, there was no direct answer. (Although, actually, the Nisei that were in the military were removed, and none others were allowed to join.)

Film from one of the camps. The narrator uses the term 'concentration camp.'

Then the original guy talks about the 442nd.

A different guy says that the reason for forming the Nisei unit was to prove that the Nisei were just as loyal as any other Americans. (More realistically, I think, the government realized that it needed more men in the war and the Nisei were an untapped source; also, they needed translators, etc, since they didn't have much of anyone who could speak or read Japanese. I think the Nisei were trying to demonstrate their loyalty, but the government was just really using them for its own purposes and didn't care about what the Nisei thought.)

Then the guy talks about the rescue of the Lost Battalion. He adds that the legislature of Texas made the members of the 442nd honorary Texans. That's something I hadn't read or heard anywhere else.

Beautiful Japanese dolls.

I think these are called dharma. They come with one eye unpainted. You make a wish, and if it is fulfilled, the other eye then gets painted in. If anyone played the game Animal Crossing, there are three different-sized dharma in it.

Another neat doll.

Another beautiful doll.

Another doll, this one representative of a story.

A woman plays an instrument which sort of reminds me of an auto-harp or dulcimer.

The Nisei were brought up to be proud of being Japanese, but they didn't really use the Japanese language much and adopted American customs.

She was born in a Buddhist temple and has lived in Taos for seven years.



Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page