Date: November 18, 2019
Event: Internment: Now and Then (Non-IA/Campus Event)
Internment: Now and then was an event sponsored through the Center for Ethnic Studies. The discussion began by giving a brief history of internment and what exactly internment is, as well as connections into today’s current state of affairs. Describing internment using the words “exclusionary and marginalizing,” I learned a lot about Japanese internment between the years of 1942-1945 that to be quite honest, I had not previously known about. One thing that was pointed out was the constant changing of descriptors referring to internment camps back in the day. By not explicitly calling these camps internment camps and shifting between calling it an “assembly center,” a “relocation center,” “isolation center,” “temporary camp,” or “Department of Justice camps” instead of what it really was, a concentration camp kept liability off Americans by making these camps seem like less of an injustice than they really were. I think this is important as it relates to international affairs today because the United States is a nation built on exclusionary policies and then blatantly “forgetting,” as if a loss of historical memory means you haven’t committed certain acts. The “family detention centers” that we have today are very much related to Japanese internment camps of World War 2. Even recently, the United States’ has planned to house migrant children at Fort Sill, which was formerly the site of a Japanese internment camp. This repetition of history that we see in global affairs is not new, nor is it refined only to migrants. Learning more about such a significant event that occurred in the US’ past further allowed me to make connections between what’s happened before and what’s happening now. Being able to make these connections is wildly important to be aware of in our current political climate.