Brief Description and Museum's Purpose

"A More Perfect Union: ..." is organized as a chronology of events centering around one basic theme: the confinement of Japanese-Americans to "concentration camps" during WWII. I believe the message being conveyed to the public is one of a major apology to these Japanese-Americans and their descendants for the great injustices forced upon them. In addition, the museum attempts to warn the overall public that since such a violation of the constitution has proven possible in the past, we cannot blindly rely on the fabric of our constitution to prevent such injustices from occurring again. We must proceed with caution in matters of civil liberties and work towards achieving a "more perfect union".

Organization

As indicated above, the exhibit is theme-based, centered around a historical period of time. Because of this, there is a large proportion of text, revealing background history, in relation to the actual artifacts. In my second, more thorough run-through, I certainly found myself reading more than looking at "things". In fact, it seems as though the exhibit only tells the true chronological history to those patient enough to read all of the text. A less thorough visit to the exhibit will undoubtedly result in a skewed view of the past. I will address this issue later in the Critical Assessment section.

The exhibit has an obvious beginning (with a mural of the Constitution and an introduction video) and then leads the visitor through a somewhat delineated path towards the exit. There is some freedom to back-track, skip around, and even to go through the entire exhibit backwards if you wish. However, during my time in the exhibit, I observed nearly everyone following the predescribed path.

Along this delineated path, the exhibit seems to be broken down into five main "subthemes": the Japanese migration to the U.S., the incarceration process, life inside the detention camps, U.S. military involvement by the Japanese-Americans, and repairing the Constitution. By traveling through the exhibit in this order, the visitor gets a feel for the basic chronology of the events and perhaps how one event led into the other.

Critical Assessment

Effectiveness and Biases: I believe the exhibition team did an excellent job of conveying their intended message although I am not in total agreement with it. Again, this message is to apologize for the Americans who acted out of hysteria in imprisoning a multitude of fellow citizens who were completely innocent.

Although the exhibit did include some information in the form of newspaper articles, statistics, etc. to contradict this message, I believe the exhibition team masked these artifacts so that the average visitor would not focus on them.

Most of the people I observed going through the exhibit, were doing so just like my initial run-though: rather quickly, focusing mostly on the unique artifacts, and only reading the supporting text when something looked particularly interesting. These eye-catching artifacts included: newspaper headlines, propaganda posters showing Japanese people with fangs, bubble-gum cards which helped shape the prejudices of younger Americans, photographs of the Japanese-American children, and video testimonies.

These objects seemed to be split into two main categories; those showing the attitudes of the American society as a whole and those depicting the Japanese-Americans of the period as innocent, loyal citizens. It seemed to me that both of these categories showed evidence of the historical fallacy, "History is Simple".

The artifacts portraying society's attitudes depict a mass of monsters who all banded together to incarcerate the Japanese-Americans without thought or reason, but were driven by mass hysteria. Michael Chembars is one student who doesn't feel that this represents a historical fallacy. In fact, in his review, he gives examples of many other times in the history of the United States when Americans seemed to be driven by mass hysteria. Although I agree that we, as a nation, made a terrible mistake by forcing all of those citizens into detention camps, I am sure that not all Americans succumbed to this hysteria, and that at least some of the public's concern must have been warranted. However, these ideas were not brought forth in the exhibit.

Indeed, the exhibition team wanted us to focus our attention on the artifacts that showed innocent Japanese-Americans or a society driven by hysteria. Therefore, these objects were large or rather eye-catching. In contrast, what happened to the historical facts regarding the other side of the story: the few Japanese people in the U.S. (illegal aliens included) that were causing problems and the malicious acts by the Japanese overseas, which were the cause of the Americans' concern? A fellow classmate who is of Chinese heritage, Vivian Lee, focuses on some of these gruesome acts in a side-shoot entitled: WHAT KIND OF UGLY BEHAVIOR!. Indeed, it is hard for Vivian to have sympathy for the Japanese-Americans in camps knowing what the Japanese people overseas did to her ancestors in China. These atrocities were hardly mentioned in the exhibit and then only through text which was never even noticed by the average visitor. Therefore, I detect a biased presentation.

Overall, "A More Perfect Union: ..." succeeded in conveying its intended message to the majority of the visitors because of this biased presentation.

Enjoyable and Confusing Parts: The most enjoyable part of the exhibit for me was the mock-up of the city street. Granted, this large eye-catching artifact screamed of "History is Simple", but I enjoyed it all the same. When walking along the "sidewalk", I was particularly moved by the sign "I AM AN AMERICAN" followed by the note on the door to the store. This store owner hoped that only illegal aliens were being confined to the camps. His sign was a plea for the government to let him stay. However, after realizing that he, too, would be locked up, he still showed loyalty to his country. He, like many other Japanese-Americans, believed that the incarceration was for the good of the country. It takes a special kind of person to respond to incarceration with a message like "God bless you all and I hope to see you back here soon." I believe my note on the door would have included quite a few more four-letter words. These Japanese-Americans had a faith in the goodness of people that just amazes me.

"I AM AN AMERICAN"

One confusing part of this exhibit was the inclusion of the military section. On my initial run-through, I had the idea that all of the people with Japanese heritage were confined to the camps. Therefore, I couldn't understand why some of them were allowed to fight for the U.S. Armed Forces. Only after reading more closely during my second run-through, did I realize that all of the Japanese people were not locked-up.

With this clarification, I could see how this section fit in with the intended message. The medals of honor belonging to these soldiers were displayed to show what loyal citizens they were. The fact that these people could fight for a country that locked-up their equally loyal family members back home is a testament to their character. These soldiers can be compared to the store owner mentioned above. They are all examples of the model citizens that the exhibition team wants us to see.

However, I am still confused as to the purpose of one particular display in the military section: the jeep with all of the weapons along with the video of the people describing the uses of these different weapons. This display really didn't seem to fit in with my hypothesized intended message.

Interpretation

Although the exhibit seemed to have a biased presentation, I learned a lot from it and thought that, overall, it was entertaining. I am normally more interested in the natural history exhibits, but "A More Perfect Union: ..." was a pleasant surprise.

One area of the exhibit did, however, bore me to tears. In the area detailing life inside the detention camps, there was a display of decorative artifacts made and used by the prisoners. Also, the exhibit included objects depicting education and religion inside the camp. Looking at these artifacts didn't interest me at all, but I can see how they reveal the ways in which the Japanese-Americans were able to preserve their culture despite the forced change in lifestyle.

By being ordered into the detention camps, the Japanese-Americans were made to adapt to a strict set of rules that were vastly different from any they had previously encountered either in the U.S. or back in Japan. The way in which these people adapted shows the same type of improvisation as pointed out by Vlach in The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts. Just as Vlach shows that Afro-American slaves, living under harsh conditions, were still able to preserve a good portion of their cultural identity through their artwork, it can be seen that these Japanese-Americans also expressed themselves "within the rules". If a slave was forced to make a quilt, she included African patterns and characters to make it her own. Likewise, when these Japanese-Americans were forced to live under strict rules, they too were able to preserve their culture through an adaptation of their religion, education, artwork, and other social customs. The exhibit shows pictures of the Japanese-American children inside the detention camps attending schools. It also shows the beautiful artifacts made by the prisoners. The exhibit's combination of these artifacts coupled with the guard tower hanging over our heads, depicts a society who used improvisation to maintain their identity despite the restrictions placed on their freedoms.

This type of improvisation can be seen again and again in history whenever a group of people is stripped of their familiar environment and thrown into a hostile or harsh one. Preserving their identity through any allowable means becomes a stabilizing force to carry them through the turmoil.

As stated previously, the exhibition team wishes to apologize to the people of Japanese heritage for this turmoil. This is clearly seen in the display of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which includes the quote: "For the fundamental violations of the basic rights of individuals of Japanese ancestry, the Congress apologizes on behalf of the nation."

Apology seems to be typical of our contemporary society. We have evolved into a society that avoids stepping on anyone's toes at all costs. It is no longer socially acceptable to express your opinions without regard for "political correctness". We even look into the past to repent for other people's mistakes. I believe this quote from the Act depicts our tiptoeing society. Likewise, the exhibition team seems to value political correctness. This was voiced through their glorifying presentation of the the prisoners (the underdogs) in contrast to the shameful portrayal of the rest of the American society.

As a cultural artifact in its own right, I believe that the exhibition would create a skewed view of the time period depicted. However, by analyzing this biased presentation in the future, a lot could be revealed about the values and characteristics of our present day society which produced the exhibition. Indeed, this display, along with many other artifacts from the 1980's and 1990's, shows a tendency towards political correctness in an attempt to smooth out any problems between different cultural groups. Mark Lewis is a fellow student who seems to agree with me on this point. In his review, he states that he doesn't feel that it should be the museum's role to ask forgiveness, but mainly to educate.

My opinion is that tiptoeing around people's feelings doesn't smooth out any of the frictions between groups anyway, it only masks them.

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