*** REVISED Blog# 9 Japanese Internment Memorial essay

Ruth Asawa is an American artist who through her artwork and sculptures details the lives of the 120,000 Japanese immigrants that were forced into internment. Her artwork is nationally recognized and she is best known for her wire sculptures and public commissions.

On Display in San Jose, Calif. is her depiction of Japanese immigrants life leading up to interment as well as daily life and struggles while being housed in the camps. The Japanese Interment Memorial stretches the streets of San Jose, may times passed and unnoticed by those that pass by. However, the impact of the internment camps deserves the recognition that Asawa has molded into a permanent figure in the streets of downtown.

The Executive order 9006 signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Of the 120,000 forced into interment two-thirds were American Citizens and over one half were children and infants.

One of the first stops before heading to the camps was San Jose State University. Yoshida Hall was used to check Japanese immigrants in before they were shipped off on their way to internment.

Asawa’s sculpture is filled with a multitude of small vignettes that give you a glimpse into what life was like.

The first scene that grabbed my attention was of a small house with a family crowded around a fire outside. At first inspection you only see the family and the fire, although after looking closer you are able to see the heartbreaking images of a young child covering her face as the father figure tosses a doll into the fire. Another young child is huddled behind the father figured crying because the family has not choice but to burn their possessions.

Families were only allowed to bring the possessions that they could carry, anything that was not of incredible importance to the family. Crowded in to small, makeshift, tents there was little room for unnecessary objects that would not fit in the little luggage brought to the internment camps.

The second sculpture image at the memorial that caught my attention was of a solider standing guard at the interment camp. The simple, stoic image gave me chills thinking of the fear that the Japanese immigrants would be feeling after being forced out of their homes. The guard is hold a gun and standing on a fort over looking all of the groups that is contained within the camp. This in my opinion symbolized the lack of respect at this time in America, especially along the west coast for Japanese immigrants.

While looking that the memorial wall as a whole I could not help but notice that along the top on both sides was barbed wire. This is a literal representation of being fenced in while in the internment camps where the freedoms and rights of Japanese people were taken