accompanying thoughts to the documentary

The moving Children of the Camps documentary left me with many thoughts and I will include a couple here:

Firstly, the various perspectives of each person made me realize that while this was a group of people who had experienced a similar form of oppression, there were many problems that they faced as individuals that greatly differed from one another. This brought me back to Pelton’s essay on the significance of looking at people as individuals rather than groups. While the people in the documentary were there based on their membership in a group of people who had been in the internment camps, the therapist skillfully talked with each person based on their individual experiences. The differing views about American identity between the two Japanese men especially highlighted the importance of valuing the individual within a group because individual perception can be so different.

Many of the participants in the session mentioned how healing it was for them to actually talk about all that had happened. The discussion about what they went through validated their own experiences, since before it seemed like an experienced buried in history, families, and found no validation in textbooks. This makes me think about other peoples’ histories and experiences that find no validation in textbooks or in our general knowledge of American history. How many people in our country who rightly identify themselves as American find themselves in a similar situation to these Japanese Americans: having no validation of their own histories within their own country? If one perspective were taught over the other, as say the “right” history then the other perspectives would be considered wrong. Of course we would never say this, and I’m sure the general public disagrees with this sentiment, but our general knowledge and our textbooks reflect it. It is these small subtle things and failure to acknowledge the realities of other groups of people that contribute to oppression in a very heavy way. Perhaps this sheds light on the participant’s statements about finding ways to make his family wrong because he “felt wrong”. It always amazes me when I think of how a lack of awareness or even a simple acknowledge can contribute so strongly to oppression. Thankfully, the discussions and spreading of awareness can also play a huge role in bringing healing.