Japanese Internment MEmorial

Japanese American internment refers to the forcible relocation and internment of approximately 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps", in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. The internment of Japanese Americans was effected unequally throughout the United States. Japanese Americans residing on the West Coast of the United States were all interned, whereas in Hawaii, where over 150,000 Japanese Americans comprised nearly a third of that territory's population, an additional 1,200 to 1,800 Japanese Americans were interned. Of those interned, 62 percent were United States citizens.
President Franklin Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones", from which "any or all persons may be excluded." This power was used to declare that all people of Japanese ancestry were excluded from the entire Pacific coast, including all of California and most of Oregon and Washington, except for those in internment camps. In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the exclusion orders, while noting that the provisions that singled out people of Japanese ancestry were a separate issue outside the scope of the proceedings.

Ruth Asawa is an American artist, who is nationally recognized for her wire sculpture, public commissions, and her activism in education and the arts. In San Francisco, she has been called the "fountain lady" because so many of her fountains are on public view. In this website, you can learn about her life, her work, and her development as an artist.

When Ruth was 16, she and her family were interned along with 120,000 other people of Japanese ancestry who lived along the West Coast of the United States. For many, the upheaval of losing everything, most importantly their right to freedom and a private, family life, caused irreparable harm. For Ruth, the internment was the first step on a journey to a world of art that profoundly changed who she was and what she thought was possible in life. In 1994, when she was 68 years old, she reflected on the experience: "I hold no hostilities for what happened; I blame no one. Sometimes good comes through adversity. I would not be who I am today had it not been for the Internment, and I like who I am."

In our local area during this time there was instructions that were given out to all of those with Japanese ancestory. Here is a picture of the document and a link so you can read the document for yourself.

http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt3p30207v/


What did SJSU do during these times? Well they were supportive of those in the camps one of the survivors of those camps said that "San Jose State sent us magazines, newspapers, and books while in camp," at a local speech event. The school showed that they still cared about those who were in the camps.

Earlier this week we visited the Japanese Internment Memorial in San Jose. We looked at the memorial and saw that it depicted the events that happened in theses camps back in the 1940’s. It was a great day and a fun little field trip. It made me sad that we forced people into these camps. We were so prejudice towards the Japanese just because they were of the same decent of those who attacked us at Pearl Harbor. Now do I believe this will happen again. No, and the reason I feel this way is because of the attacks that happened in 2001 I feel that we would of already had camps for those with afghan decent if these events were going to repeat themselves.

This was a sad event in our history as a nation and one that I hope we never repeat again...

Coffee??

As I take my usual stroll to a certain coffee establishment that shall remain nameless for copyright infringement (rhymes with tar sucks). I decided to sit there a little longer than usual since I needed to in order to really get the feel of what happens in a coffee establishment on a day-to-day basis. I order my very plain and boring, tall white mocha frappachino, with a floated shot of expresso, with java chips blended in, with whip and chocolate sauce on top. Like I said a plain and boring cup of coffee. Since I would be sitting there a little longer than usual I decided to order a breakfast sandwich also. After I received my drink and food item I sat down to notice that there were many people sitting and talking which is to be expected at a coffee house. But a lot of people had their laptops and where doing some sort of laptop shenanigans on them. What I found interesting was that a lot of people were not even drinking coffee. Which led me to believe that either they had been there for so long that they finished their coffee long before I got there. Or they never had coffee to begin with and they came to a coffee house to not drink coffee? Which I found very strange, I am not a coffee addict so I have no idea why people spend so much time in these strange places. I would rather be doing something else than sitting in a coffee house not drinking coffee. One other thing I noticed is how many different people come in and out of these places. Some people would come in and seem in such a hurry, while others seemed to have all the time in the world. It has been a long time since I have sat in a coffee house that long and feel that it will be a long time before I spend that much time again.

Very Very Important!!

People love sports... I am people... Therefore I love sports. Now that you know a little about me it is time to tell you a little about the sports that I love. I am a huge fan of baseball, football, hockey (yes I am growing my playoff beard, and no it is not for the Sharks) and I am absolutely in love with basketball. In the media there is a huge event that is happening in pro basketball right now. What is this huge media extravaganza you ask? Well it is a little thing known as the NBA Playoffs!
And it is something that I find very very important in the media currently. The reason this is so important now more than ever, is because I am obsessed with the LA Lakers among many other things. But this year they are the top seed in the western conference. Which for those of you who dont know what that means, it simply means that they are the best team in the western half of the NBA. This is huge for the Lakers, it has boosted their media coverage and their best player, Kobe Bryant, is finally going to get the MVP award after 11 years in the league. This has a been an amazing year for basketball. Another reason that it is so significant that the Lakers got the top seed is because this has been the most competitive the league has been in the history of the NBA. The western conference was exceptionally good this year, which really speaks to the caliber talent that the Lakers have.
Basketball means a lot to so many people. And for some it is a fun thing to watch on TV and for others it is a ritual when the playoffs roll around every year. The NBA Finals may not be as big of a deal as the super bowl or the world cup, but it is a huge media event to say the least.

Fish out of water!!!

I am aware that for this assignment I was supposed to explore a cultural event or something. but instead I decided to try out something that is very and I mean very foreign to me. That thing is cooking. The reason I tried cooking is because in our society it is understood that the kitchen is the womens place. And that they should be the ones wearing the "apron" so to speak. Well I thought what better way to be a fish out of water than try to be a women for a day, SO TO SPEAK. Well first I looked on the internet for something that sounded fun and interesting to make. And the recipe that I decided on was Banana Nut Bread from the food network's web site. I first went through the list of ingredients only to realize that my kitchen was ill equipped. So after a short trip to the store with my little helper I had all the ingredients necessary to create the greatest banana nut bread of all time. Or so I hoped...

First I had to follow the directions on the recipe which isn't as easy as it sounds. There were times when the directions would ask me to do something that I had to learn what it was first. For example what is puree? I had no idea so I learned that it means a cooked food, esp. a vegetable or fruit, that has been put through a sieve, blender, or the like. At least according to dictionary.com. So I threw the ingredients into the blender and my helper forgot to put the top all the way on. Fortunately for her I happen to put it on just in the nick of time to save us from an incredible mess in my kitchen. After blending the ingredients I had to sift the powdered stuff into the bowl with the puree. And then mix it all together. After putting it all in the bowl and mixing it thoroughly I put it in the oven only to forget to set a timer, which led to a slightly overcooked bakery treat but it was good on the inside.

One thing I found out about cooking is that it takes forever! Not to mention it makes a wicked mess out of ones kitchen. Which of course I had to clean up. Which is not nearly as fun as it sounds. SO in terms of stepping into womens shoes in the kitchen... they can keep them. It was not that fun and the end result was not worth the time and effort that went into it. I would rather find a wife that is a good cook or at least one that can try for me. Ill clean if they cook or Ill cook if they clean. But making the women do all the work in the kitchen is not fair. So for all you women out there that dont get any help in the kitchen, i'm sorry you deserve better. Here is to my first successful or semi successful step into a womens shoes in the kitchen.

Obama vs Clinton

If you have been paying attention to the news over the past few months then you would know that there is a very tight democratic nominee race going on between senator Barack Obama and senator Hillary Clinton. Last night they had a debate before the Pennsylvania primary vote happens next Tuesday. It was an interesting debate as usual, but it was a similar story also. Both candidates seemed very capable of winning the nominee. And both of the candidates seemed very confident that the other candidate was capable of beating senator McCain come November. Some say that this long race is driving the party apart, but senator Obama said

"One thing I'm absolutely certain of is, come August when we're in Denver, the Democratic Party will come together,"

Could this mean that whoever doesn't get the nomination will accept the others offer to be the vice president. That is the only way that I see the democrats winning in November is if these two come together on the same ticket. So will this be the time for the democrats to finally come together or will the be beaten for the third election in a row? Only time can tell what will happen. One thing is for sure, you need to pay attention to this stuff since it does affect us as a nation and if you don't care who will?

Weekly Blog

Recently gas prices have been climbing and climbing. The national average is slowly approaching four dollars. Right now the average gallon of gas in California is $3.72, which is terrible but where I live gas prices are already well over that. The last time I filled up my tank it was $3.95 cents a gallon! This is insane, my gas bill for my fill up was off the wall. I am very concerned for what is going to happen if the gas prices continue to rise. Right now our economy is in what some would call a recession and with gas prices getting higher people are less likely to drive places, which in turn hurts business, which then hurts our economy even more. If we are going to get out of the recession then the gas prices have to come back down. I am already to the point where I don't want to drive to school but now with the current gas prices it costs me an arm and a leg to get to and from anywhere. Why are the oil companies able to get away with charging the consumers so much money? We are so concerned about how the economy is doing so poorly, and yet gas continues to get worse. What about the truck drivers? They transport a lot of our goods and it costs them more money than anyone. If they stop driving the trucks then store stop getting goods to sell. If consumers stop driving for fun, then stores don't have customers and business goes down. The oil companies need to realize that they are hurting the economy in a very drastic way and find a solution to get the gas prices back down to a reasonable level.

word of the week 8

voluble \VOL-yuh-buhl\, adjective:
1. Characterized by a ready flow of speech.
2. Easily rolling or turning; rotating.
3. (Botany) Having the power or habit of turning or twining.

found this word when looking something up on dictionary .com

The word of the day:voluble.

My sentence...

When I go out drinking with my friends I tend to get very voluble.

two copy edit the worlds...

These are simple mistakes that were written by the greatest professor of all time!

Plurals and possessives

Posted by cmccune on March 28, 2008

Several of you are regularly running afoul of plurals and possessives. This is one of those things you need to figure out before you graduate…or you’ll end up embarrassing yourself in the real work.

correction- it should be the real world not the real work.

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Posted by cmccune on March 27, 2008

Leslie emailed me asking about this assignment…which made me I realize the only place I’d mentioned it was on the class schedule (see March 11).

correction- the word I should not be there.

Simple mistakes by a simply epic teacher...