A visit to the Japanese Internment Memorial, San Jose CA

The Japanese Internment Memorial is a remorseful reminder of the sad events that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, when approximately 110,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were relocated to seclusion camps/areas or confinement.

Ruth Asawa, sculptor and designer of the Japanese Internment Memorial in San Jose CA was one of those who were detained and relocated to one of these confinements in 1942.

One can feel her pain and anguish which is very evident in her detailed and elaborate vignettes that adorn the place.

Each vignette cries out loud of suffering, a unique story, a cry, a sulk that went unheard and unanswered.

The barbed wires, inhuman living conditions, people flocked like herds - all are sad tales of fear and suppression that prevailed, and the atrocity is that innocent people lived through it day in and day out.

Everyone, including innocent kids became part of this ordeal – confined, rather imprisoned in despair and indefinitely.

A seemingly never-ending torture for reasons best known to the ones who were far from this painful reality.

As I moved from one vignette to the next, a strange sadness gripped me and I felt like touching them but was scared as if touching might overpower me and that it may actually suck me.

When just looking at it can stir such deep emotions then I really wonder what it must have been to live through a life of fear and animosity.

Each vignette compelled me to ponder upon the question as to how can one human do this to another human.

What can actually transpose us and overcome the compassion and basic instincts of inherent intelligence.

And these questions still resonates in my mind when I sit down in silence to think about what I say at the Memorial.

Can an apology ease the pain or erase the memories and bring back normalcy in the minds and hearts of the people or generations that lived through the horror.

Human history has already been tarnished by this event and events like these but we must learn from our mistakes and let our actions demonstrate our apology.

I guess the Japanese Internment Memorial should be set as a reminder of what we have learnt from this experience and a promise in our heart that such a thing shall never be repeated – not here and not anywhere.