"No loyal citizen of the United States should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry. The principle on which this country was founded and by which it has always been governed is that Americanism is a matter of the mind and heart; Americanism is not, and never was, a matter of race or ancestry."
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: On February 1, 1943, when activating the 442nd Regimental Combat Team -- a unit composed mostly of American citizens of Japanese descent living in Hawaii
Sometimes you visit a museum with great reviews and are disappointed. And then there are the times when you don’t expect much and you are pleasantly surprised. That was our experience today. The museum is called the California Museum which sounds good but the door calls it the CA Museum for Women, Art and History which limits its scope a bit. What’s confusing is that there is a museum called the Sacramento History Museum next to the Railroad Museum. Inside the CA Museum they will tell you that they are a non-profit but the other one is state run. Hmmm. Well, we’re here, let’s try it. And, we really liked it. We were there about 5 hours and finally left because we got museumed out. On the other hand, we also covered what we wanted to cover - thoroughly.
The first exhibit we got lost in was the exhibit called ‘Gaman’. Doesn’t mean much to me and why do I want to see this? Well - ‘gaman’ is a Japanese term of Zen Buddhist origin which means ‘enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.’ ‘Perserverence’, ‘patience’, and’ tolerance’ can also be part of the definition. Demonstrating strength in the face of adversity. And that certainly fits since the exhibit was about the how the Japanese bore the internment during WWII in America.
Here are some facts about it (you know me, I like the historical facts).
After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were considered a security risk in the event of a Japanese invasion of America. Because of their large presence on the West Coast and despite any concrete evidence, anti-Japanese paranoia grew until President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded." I’ve got a picture from the exhibit which shows the exclusion zones and the camps that were established.
These lines were arbitrary and in one case, the zone line went right through the middle of Phoenix and those on the north side were not sent to internment camps while those on the south side were.
Close to 120,000 were sent to internment camps. First they had very little time to sell all their property which meant that they often had to sell for the lowest price. They also had to pack what they thought they might need in an internment camp for an indefinite time and it had to fit in two suitcases. (What would you pack for an indefinite time and in two suitcases?) The camps themselves were built quickly by civilian contractors to army military barracks specs and not for families. These barracks which were supposed to house several families, didn’t have walls between them and the families had to use blankets to separate them. They were cold in the winter and stifling hot in the summer. There was no furniture, the spaces were small. Were they ugly? I don’t know anyone who would describe a military barracks as ‘House Beautiful.’ These barracks met international laws but left much to be desired.
But, how did the Japanese endure this? with gaman. They did their best to furnish their sections of the barracks with furniture they made from scrap lumber.
They built schools, they established team sports.
They had competitions. Here’s the marble champ. Marbles were small and easy to carry to the camps.
They learned new hobbies. These women are learning flower arranging.
they had clubs, and they tried to live a ‘normal’ life. And they sent their sons off to fight for America. Gaman.
While we were there, two women came in, found this picture on the wall and one woman pointed to it and said that it was her father with his mother. As the lines under the picture say: he got leave from boot camp to come back and help his mother move into the internement camp. How ironic is that? His mother is being imprisoned in America and he’s off to fight for America.
This was where Gary and I spent most of our time in the museum. However, there was a second floor filled with other exhibits: one on the Native Americans who had lived in this area prior to the settlers. There was a section devoted to Ray and Charles Eames and their creations. There was a large section devoted to women and their contributions to America. The museum went on and on and we kept finding ourselves in a new exhibit.
However, finally, we had to call it quits. I can only do a museum for so long. We still had our daily walk to do and headed down towards the waterfront. Lots of tourists, lots of things to see
and a nice walk along the water. Sacramento used to have warehouses along their waterfront until some farsighted individuals realized that the waterfront was one of their best city resources. Now it has museums, shoppes, restaurants, murals on the walkway under the interstate
to get to Old Sacramento from the city, signature bridges, hotels and - lots of tourists.
But, finally it was time to head back to our car and home.
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