Notes: 1 October – 7 October
Tuesday Morning – Tacoma Art/History Museum
Though I acknowledge the museums hold more than APIA related content, that’s all I want to discuss. The history museum’s art rooms featured art by Takuichi Fujii, moved by Order 9066 to be relocated at an American concentration camp. Utilizing the little art supplies he had, he created watercolors and sketches of the scenery and the people. The colors were usually dark and monotonous as neither the subjects or tools had vibrant colors.
Other parts of the museum acknowledged Washington state’s history with API. Exhibits acknowledged the crimes against humanity conducted by the state and federal government such as the xenophobia (namely the Chinese) and the shady motives behind the creation of the atomic bomb. Homes and possessions were unlawfully seized, people forcibly relocated, and any other tactic used to disenfranchise immigrants and their progeny.
Tuesday Afternoon – Chinese Reconciliation Park
The park was… modest. Not even minimalist modest. For one of the plaques to say no one can imagine what it would be like, how much better Tacoma would be, had they not ran the Chinese out of town, the park was small. It was off to the side and though the view had potential, it doesn’t do much to really show the gravity of the violent history. It’s a start, but it’s no means to an end.
Wednesday – Writing Intro
Culture and nature have changing definitions through schools of study. The nature of people and the nature of chemicals have two different implications. America has a culture but so does bacteria. That is to say, diction is decisive.
In a creative essay, there is an interaction with the reader, writer, and the subject as opposed to the five part paragraph structure and academic texts. Not only does is the research incorporated, it is used not to show but to tell through scene, character, voice, dialogue, setting, and transitions. It’s personal.
Friday Morning – Blog expansion.
Friday Afternoon Movie – A memory can be created and crafted. The history and it’s present form are connected and that connection may be you.
Friday Afternoon Seminar – Anti-blackness is rampant through out APIA culture. It’s biggest allies are non-black poc who have subscribed to color blindness and the denial of racism and systematic oppression.
In Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine, the narrator tells the story of a Japanese family during Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The boy, girl, mother, and father were nameless due to their story not being especially unique. It was a shared experience of the generation.
However, one can infer from the text that this family in particular was financially well off compared to other families with their silk articles of clothing and their original priorities. Their dialogue also shows their subscription to the American Dream of working hard and living a wonderful life. By the end of the story, it is implied they have internalized the xenophobia and anti-blackness of America, living the true American Dream of what the government considers, “The American People.”