The Past is Important
People often simplify the difficulties and the successes of life. We tell ourselves that if we deal a deck of cards correctly or open up a box of chocolates, we get to determine how our life are. We do not account for the things that stop us because of how others define us. Our first impressions may not always be correct. Before I graduated from high school, I had an opportunity to cover the historical impacts of individuals who were once interned in a Japanese-American camp. I met this lovely old grandmother named Toshi Ito. She was born in Los Angeles, California as an American citizen, but was also interned during World War Two inside a US concentration camp.
Back then, I was a journalist for a local newspaper and also a contributor for our local heritage museum. At this point in time, I had experience with interviewing local leaders, students, friends, city council members, and a lot more. I had a tradition that I would arrive 20 minutes early to my interview and sit outside reviewing the notes I have on the interviewee. On that day, when I arrived at Mrs. Ito’ apartment, I remember looking through a memoir that she had written about her life. As I reviewed her notes, I noticed that her leave her apartment and walk away. I thought to myself that maybe she forgot about the interview or someone who looked very similar to her had just left. After a couple of minutes wondering, I noticed that she came back to her apartment with a bag full of sodas and H√§agen-Dazs ice cream. When I knocked on her door, the first thing she asked was what type of soda I would like. This is different from normal interviews. Normally, in an interview I would go to learn about something. But this interview was not only for me, but even more important for Mrs. Ito.
Mrs. Ito treated me like her own grandson. She spoke perfect English, although she was once labeled as a Japanese. She was an American in all ways, but her coloring, features, and her surname. On her living room wall, stood a picture of her husband and his medals from the war. Hanging near the lamp was an American flag. As a child, she was incarcerated without a due process of law, but she still believes in the American Dream. She still believes that she is an American. Her main message during the interviews was not one where United States does not treat minorities well, but the hope that we, the future generations will not repeat the past.
After 9/11, the Bush Administration toyed with the idea of placing Muslim-Americans in internment camps. Lucky, Norman Mineta, the former Secretary of Transportation and a former Japanese-American Internee himself, told the administration that it was not a good idea. In our current political climate, officials have begun to say that the internment of Japanese-Americans is a precedent to incarceration Muslim-Americans. If our generation allows this to happen, not only have we forgotten the past, but we are doomed to repeat many times more in the future.
It is true that people often get to deal their own deck of cards and to open up a box of chocolate to check out their lives. But for many people, including Mrs. Ito, her husband, her family, her friends, and the many other groups of minorities that suffer from injustice, it is rigged against them. Our future is defined by how we understand the past and how we use the past to more forward.