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Stephany Bai of NBC News writes that this fall is the 70th anniversary of the U.S.
Stephany Bai of NBC News writes that this fall is the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Government beginning to close WWII internment camps which were used to mass incarcerate tens of thousands innocent, Japanese Americans. The first of these “camps” to close on October 15, 1945 was the Granada War Relocation Center in Granada, Colorado (Camp Amache).
A little over fifty years later, Densho, a nonprofit organization, began to record and preserve the oral histories of Japanese Americans who were imprisoned in these camps during the war. Densho, a Japanese term that means “to leave a legacy,” aims to provide an American story about people who were wrongfully incarcerated because of their ancestry.
The Densho Digital Archive and Repository include hundreds of video recorded oral histories (with transcriptions), photographs, documents, newspapers, letters, and other primary sources that address the Japanese American experience from immigration to mass incarceration to the 1980s. A thousand-article encyclopedia and teacher resources are also included in Densho.
If you look at American history, there is a history of targeting communities of color, especially during times of distress. Rather than us staying siloed in our communities, it's better to connect the dots and unite. It's really so we can better articulate that some of the things we see happening in our country today when they start talking about the native birthright issue or immigration issues. These are patterns that happen over and over again. - Tom Ikeda, Executive Director, Densho
Bai, Stephany. "Digital Project Aims to Preserve Stories of Incarcerated Japanese Americans." NBC News. NBC, 15 October 2015. Web. 22 October 2015.
With its rich, robust, unique collection of primary source materials, Densho is a must to add to your list of online resources for research.