Posted on 12/06/2016 4:59:11 PM PST by nickcarraway
An exhibition at the Museum of World War II commemorates the 75th anniversary of the attack and humanizes a larger-than-life historic event.
The Museum of World War II, a hidden gem in this leafy suburb outside Boston, has a new temporary exhibit through Jan. 7, 2017, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It features 100 of the museum’s best pieces on the subject, displayed in five large cases with the themes “Before the Attack,” “The Attack,” “The Response,” “Internment,” and “Remember Pearl Harbor.” Using maps, postcards, magazine photos, diaries, letters and a few traditional artifacts, the exhibit manages to take this larger-than-life historic event and both humanize and personalize it for visitors.
In “Before the Attack,” we see pieces related to Japan’s 1930s conquest of Asia, including a Japanese magazine photo of an Imperial Army column snaking along the Great Wall of China. In the foreground is a group of a dozen or so Japanese soldiers huddled around the rising-sun flag. A nearby panel explains that while these conquests were an affront to the League of Nations and much of the world, “Japanese magazines…celebrated each one.” There are also family scrapbooks with candid photos of Japanese sons, husbands and uncles on duty in far-off outposts, as well as Japanese Navy pre-invasion maps of the Hawaiian Islands.
One of the more interesting items is a 1937 report from London insurer Ellis & Buckle, which matter-of-factly details the human and physical toll on Shanghai from the Japanese invasion and occupation.
On the American side, a collection of buttons—“Help Keep U.S. Out of War” and “Stay Neutral”—reflects the strong isolationist sentiment in the country before the Japanese sneak attack. But perhaps the most interesting pre-attack piece of memorabilia is a menu from the Thanksgiving 1941 luau aboard the USS
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
INTERNMENT - Oh, those nasty honkies...!
But there are bits of WW2 history that are profoundly unfashionable:
After the attack, naturally large parts of the untranslated JN-25/Purple Code intercepts became MUUUUCH more interesting, especially that stuff right before the physical attack:
The last instructions to the DC Embassy and some Consulates centered on sabotage attacks on US defense companies.
It is reasonable to assume the personnel involved would come from sympathizers in the Japanese-American community.
For THAT reason the internment made for a logical choice at the time.
They COULD NOT disclose that because naturally the enemy would modify their codes and methods of communication.
Wild-card:
Germans and Italians were interned also, indeed Fort Meade was originally an internment center.
Joe DiMaggio’s dad was an SF fisherman and his boat was confiscated (presumably to prevent rendezvous with U-boats).
It wasn’t just “WE HATE THE SLANT-EYES” as the multiculti’s would prefer that you continue to believe.
I am 56. I was named after an uncle who was blown to pieces invading Luzon.
I don’t want the Jap prime minister to apologize. I want the emperor to apologize.
And now, after years of tainting my childrens’ minds, they too refuse to buy Jap cars.
I can forgive people who are dead for things they did. But I won’t forget.
As far as I know (and I don’t know much on this subject) the only internment folks were RECENT immigrants.
I had a german and an italian relative that immigrated around 1920. They had no probs in the 40s. Other german or italian relatives immigrated earlier (1900s,1880s).
From records I’ve seen, the only thing they had to say was where they were going and what their job was, if any. Obviously, not much vetting.
If someone had come over within a 5 years or so of Pearl Harbor, I think they’d be on the “hot list”.
Pretty much all Trump is saying now about Syria, et al..
Similar experience here; my uncle was wounded, survived the Philippines. He and his platoon were awaiting discharge orders at Pearl Harbor when it was struck. He lost all but two of his men, he was devoted to. Practically, on the spot, he re-uped, and eventually was killed in the Guadalcanal campaign.
I too, hold a hatred of the Japanese. I’ve been *working* on my long held hostility, and come to peace with it. To help, I watch a lot of NHK network. They have a lot of programming related to the Japanese culture. I’m enjoying learning. It is helping soften the negative that is so hard to shake.
Both my mom (Hawaiian) and my father-in-law (Hawaii born Japanese) went through Pearl Harbor as civilians and survived. My father-in-law then signed up for the famed 442 regiment of Japanese-Americans and fought in Italy and France and got the Bronze Star for Valor, among other things (didn’t find out he got that medal until after he died, he never talked about any of that). He was a rifleman and forward observer, protecting the radio team that would radio in positions of the enemy for artillery attack. Very dangerous, essentially you had to sneak up to the enemy position unobserved, direct the artillery fire in, and then escape without being killed or captured. As soon as that first shell came in, the enemy knew you were close by and immediately sent out troops to try find and kill you.
My father was in the Pacific in the Navy in WWII, two of my uncles were Marines and fought at Iwo Jima and similar places. They both luckily survived the war.
My wife of course is Japanese-American. She has relatives in Japan, including Hawaii Japanese cousins who unfortunately by coincidence were visiting Japan at the beginning of the war and were trapped there.
The Japanese of today are not the same people as those who were responsible for WWII. Most are very nice. Sometimes it baffles me how a country whose people today are so polite and civilized could have been so barbaric and cruel before and during WWII. I guess you could say that about Germany as well.
Other than the Japanese, the folks who bore the most brunt were Italians and Italian-Americans on the West Coast. The military was scared they somehow would collaborate with the Japanese in an invasion of California. There were orders that forced them to move from their homes along the sea coast, restrictions on travel in certain zones, and some who were fisherman saw their boats and businesses confiscated. Supposedly there were plans in the works also to intern west coast Italians and Italian Americans, but it was realized that this would create a sour taste in Italian Americans across the country, and the country needed that community’s support as the invasion of Italy was planned and commenced, so the internment plans were scrapped.
NHK is not bad
I like how the reporters just *READ* the news without interjecting their own bias into the reports.
The culture programs, I like.
“As far as I know (and I don’t know much on this subject) the only internment folks were RECENT immigrants.”
I got German and Japanese (Osaka) friends I’ve known for a couple of decades. Neither one was alive during WW2. But seems the events had left an indelible mark on the psyche of many Germans and Japanese based on the views my friends expressed.
Both ethnic Germans and Italians were interned in the U.S. during WW2. But, fewer in numbers, approx. 11,000 for Germans (compared to the Japanese-Americans approx. 120,000). Around 2000 of Italian origins were interned.
As you say, they were mostly German Nationals (or recent immigrants), not U.S. citizens though living in the U.S., and they were individually assessed before determining if they were indeed a threat.
The American-Japanese, who were interned, however, were already either naturalized U.S. citizens or had at least one parent born in the U.S., were much larger in numbers, and were mostly rounded up from the West Coast of the U.S. and sent to internment camps.
So, it seems that apart from ‘potential spies and defense” issues, the regional (mostly West Coast) concentration of American-Japanese population (community) within the U.S. at the time certainly contributed to their internment on a larger scale.
My maternal grandfather was taken into custody by the FBI the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. The reason? He was a trustee for one year on the Compton (CA) school board, a position he really was not qualified for (per my mother) since he was largely illiterate in both Japanese and English.
He spent time without communication to his family at Fort Lincoln before being released to Rohwer internment camp in late 1942.
The Japanese living in Hawaii were not interned en masse--they were too large a percentage of the population. The young Japanese-Americans who joined the military fought with exceptional bravery in Europe.
James Michener's Hawaii is very interesting on the World War II period.
Actually it was not until 1959 were they allowed to become American citizens. The immigration act of 1952 ended the ban on naturalization but they still had to wait seven years.
My grandfather I mentioned in the previous post applied immediately for citizenship but had to wait seven years. I remember him learning American history even though his education and English were not that good.
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