Below is a transcript of a conversation with Hanako Wakatsuki-Chong, Director of the Japanese American Museum in Oregon:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at the research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Last time we spoke with Hanako Wakatsuki-Chong, Director of the Japanese American Museum in Oregon. She came to CMU as part of the Dr. Harold Abel Endowed Lecture Series in the Study of Dictatorship, Democracy and Genocide. Her community, including many in her own family, were held in concentration camps during World War Two as a retaliation to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. She offered more in reflection on the legacy of that time and the purpose she serves through the museum today…
Hanako Wakatsuki-Chong:
One aspect we could focus on is, like, economic opportunities, where because of a lot of lands and properties were lost during that time. We lost so much generational wealth. We lost opportunities for people to finish their education and pursue the careers that they wanted. People struggled. We lost people after the camps, they felt hopeless, and they died by suicide.
DN:
Your museum is not only to tell this story, but it also advocates for the protection of civil rights for all Americans. And the museum is located on the homeland of three Native American tribes. You've already spoken about the connection that you have made and (and) the shared stories and experiences with Holocaust survivors. What connection has been developed then overtime to the history of Native Americans, when we look at their story through this type of lens in this country.
HW-C:
Yeah. So, there's so much overlap within the Japanese American community and the Native American communities. Whether if we're just looking at the incarceration experience, where there were two sites in Arizona that was actually on reservation lands or how the individual who was running the war relocation authority that managed those ten camps that incarcerated folks, you know, the government was like, wow, you're really good at managing people. Have you ever thought about a career in the Bureau of Indian Affairs? And so, you see a lot of these programs that still kind of exist in a different iteration within the Bureau of Indian Affairs and just the displacement story is where we connect. Because in Portland specifically, North Portland, there is a what we call the Expo Center was actually an exhibition livestock center at the time during World War Two that was used as a so-called temporary assembly center to put people there before the ten more permanent so-called permanent camps were created. And so on that land, Native Americans were displaced, and we're actually trying to work with Metro, which is the government entity that is overseeing the Expo Center, because they're trying to do like a re envisioning expansion plan. And we're trying to figure out how can we work to tell these multiple stories on it, understanding the displacement of folks, but then also, you know, how people don't have access to these sites?
DN:
How do you look at this past, if we put it in the frame reference of the present?
HW-C:
Well, the best analogy I could say is my community's history is the Ghost of Christmas Past. And we are living with the Ghost of Christmas Present and we need to figure out what the Ghost of Christmas Future is going to be. And we need to be able to reflect and understand in context what was happening during World War Two with my community and seeing the realities of how things are playing out as we're looking at things unfolding. It is kind of following a very similar path that happened to my community. So, and this is why it's important for history to and the humanities to still exist, because we need to be able to have these anchor points where we, and organizations to talk about these things, whether it's museums or other institutions. So, we could learn from our past. So, we could create that better future for all of us because it isn't that the Japanese American community is going to get targeted again. It's like we've seen this history rhyme with different communities being affected and we weren't the first community that was affected and there's going to be more communities that are going to be impacted, but how do we prevent this from happening in the future when we know what happened in the past?
DN:
Hanako Wakatsuki-Chong, Executive Director of the Japanese American Museum of Oregon. It has been an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to talk with you. Thank you very much for joining us.
HW-C:
Thank you.
