A large cover photo fills the screen: it is a still image of various students in the school hallway, with two students dancing together center-screen. The whole image has been artistically tinted in a crimson-red tone.
Instructions:
Join Mary at her locker in between classes. Ask her questions about her classmates and hobbies. Look around the hallway and discover hidden objects that illuminate themes related to her experience.
(The cover image falls away from you in 3D, revealing an animated film reel, spinning upward like it's running through a movie projector. Suddenly the screen scrolls down to a new region of the page which has just appeared.)
The same black and white scene of the school hallway appears again, but the scene is animated: you can see the two students dancing as a pair, and Mary moves ever so slightly as she stands at her locker. Four glowing buttons hover above specific parts of the scene. If you want to avoid tabbing repeatedly to each button, use the first button to activate keyboard shortcuts. You can explore the details in any order you wish.
Hotspot, hovering over Mary on the left, hovering over the American flag, hovering over two students dancing in the middle of the hallway, hovering over two teenage girls leaning against the lockers#1#2#3#4
You walk up to Mary...
“Hey there, I’m Mary. I’m a sophomore and spend most of my free time helping my mom with her dry cleaning business and practicing for the school dance contest.”
(Press Escape to close the conversation.)
What do you want to ask Mary about?
Expanded Hotspot
(Press Escape to close.)
The American flag hangs on the wall at Mary’s high school. When you see the flag, what does it make you think about? What do you think people in your community associate with the American flag?
You walk over to the students who are practicing their dance moves. (Press Escape to walk away.)
In Mary's school, social groups are often divided around lines of race and heritage. Do you see any similar boundaries – or bridges – at your school? How do you know?
You walk over to the girls in the bomber jackets. (Press Escape to walk away.)
Two of Mary’s classmates wear jackets affiliated with their Japanese American social club. What kinds of clubs or social groups exist at your school? How do students physically show they’re part of them?
For users of JAWS, you may need to temporarily turn off your "Virtual PC Cursor" to use these keyboard shortcut commands.
If you want to ask Mary a question, press Q (for Question). To examine the American flag more closely, press F (for Flag). To walk up to the students dancing in the hallway, press D (for Dancing). To walk up to the two girls in bomber jackets, press G (for Girls).
(NOTE: to turn off these shortcuts, please reload the page in your browser.)
Bottom of your screen
A toolbar hovers over the bottom of the screen, but if you are done exploring the scene, the webpage continues below.
Besides working at the cleaners, what do you like to do outside of school?
Transcript
[Mary turns around to face you.]
The Flag: Negotiating American Identity
A modal dialog covers the entire screen. There are four tabs to explore,
and you are on Tab 1 which introduces the topic. Tab 2 is labelled "Look" with a symbol for photos. Tab 3 is labelled "Reed". Tab 4 is labelled "Watch" with a symbol of a video player.
But you don't have to explore them in order. To jump around easily, you can press #2, #3, or #4 on your keyboard, to switch to that tab. Press #1 to come back to this first tab.
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;Button to define the term;Here is the definition ofU.S. naturalization lawsOzawa v. U.SXenophobia"Perpetual foreigners"concentration campAssimilationWar Relocation Authorityloyalty questionnaire
As Japanese people immigrated to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, U.S. naturalization laws
In 1922, the Supreme Court deemed Japanese migrants “aliens ineligible for citizenship,” putting them in the same category as other migrant groups prohibited from becoming citizens. It was not until 1952 that racial restrictions on naturalization were fully eliminated. Read more on Densho.org (opens in a new Tab). Or press Escape to close.
prevented them from becoming U.S. citizens. The xenophobic policy
during World War II. During and after the war, the United States government coerced Japanese Americans to abandon Japanese language, culture, and community. Because of this, many Japanese Americans like Mary felt pressured to assimilate
The WRA pushed Japanese Americans to prove their patriotism and loyalty to the U.S. by requiring them to pledge allegiance to the American flag, participate in Americanization classes, and answer a controversial form known as the
“loyalty questionnaire.”
Definition:
In 1943, the War Department and War Relocation Authority (WRA) created and disseminated a questionnaire to all adult incarcerees that asked Japanese Americans to disavow any loyalty to Japan and pledge their complete loyalty to the United States. Read more on Densho.org (opens in a new Tab). Or press Escape to close.
Japanese Americans were torn over how to respond to demands that they demonstrate their allegiance to a country that had wrongfully incarcerated them.
CITATIONS: Find the source for each of these photo on the Citations page.
The American flag stands on prominent display at the center of a row of barracks at Manzanar, a concentration camp in central California.
Japanese American students recite the Pledge of Allegiance during a school ceremony at Poston concentration camp in Arizona. Americanization classes were mandatory in all levels of schooling in camp, and most school days started and ended with flag ceremonies.
At Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho, a Japanese American Girl Scout troop salutes the American flag. Boy and Girl Scout Troops had a large presence in all of the camps.
Japanese American women at Topaz concentration camp in Utah sew a service flag. The stars on the flag indicate the number of Japanese Americans from that camp serving in a segregated U.S. military unit.
Incarceree James Numata answered “no” to the final two questions of the “loyalty questionnaire,” which asked incarcerees if they were willing to serve in the U.S. military and if they were willing to swear loyalty to the U.S. and forswear any allegiance to the Emperor of Japan. Learn more about Numata’s life and work at the Virtual Asian American Art Museum.
More than 400 incarcerees at Heart Mountain concentration camp in Wyoming await transfer to Tule Lake, a higher-security concentration camp in California. They were sent to Tule Lake because they refused to profess their loyalty to the U.S. in the mandated “loyalty questionnaire.”
Japanese American women dance in kimonos in front of an American flag at Tule Lake, a higher-security concentration camp in Northern California.
Boy Scouts at the Granada concentration camp salute the American flag during a memorial service for Japanese American soldiers killed while serving in a segregated U.S. military unit.
When the War Department drafted Japanese American men to serve in segregated U.S. Army combat units, hundreds resisted in protest and were required to undergo trials like the one pictured above. Eventually 85 men were sent to federal prisons, but were granted a full pardon after the war.
At Poston concentration camp in Arizona, the Hirano family poses with the American flag and a photo of eldest son Shigera, who left camp to serve as sergeant in a segregated Japanese American Army combat unit.
demonstrating loyalty through assimilation
Camp authorities required most Japanese Americans to undergo leave clearance interviews before leaving the concentration camps.
CITATION: Files of the Assistant Secretary of War, reproduced in Years of Infamy by Michi Weglyn (1943)
Leave Clearance: Interview Questions
The purpose of these interview questions is to provide the WRA with the assurance that in permitting your leave from this center, it is doing the best thing for the United States as a whole and for you as an individual. Before questioning you any further, we would like to ask if you have any objection to signing a Pledge of Allegiance to the United States.
What is your plan for mixing into the community to which you will resettle?
Will you assist in the general resettlement program by staying away from large groups of Japanese?
Will you avoid the use of the Japanese language except when necessary?
Will you conform to the customs and dress of your new home?
Will you try to develop such American habits which will cause you to be accepted readily into American social groups?
Will you for the duration of the war, avoid the organization of any typically Japanese clubs, associations, etc.?
Will you make every effort to represent all that is good, reliable, and honest in the Japanese Americans?
"i kind of turned my back on my culture"
In this video, Kazuo Ideno talks about how the shame of being wrongfully incarcerated during World War II caused him to reject Japanese language and culture during his youth while growing up in Chicago. Ideno resettled to Chicago in 1947 at the age of eight after being incarcerated at Crystal City, a concentration camp
Other classmates: Navigating a racially segregated city
A modal dialog covers the entire screen. There are four tabs to explore,
and you are on Tab 1 which introduces the topic. Tab 2 is labelled "Explore" with a symbol of a map. Tab 3 is labelled "Listen plus Look". Tab 4 is labelled "Watch", with a symbol of a video player.
But you don't have to explore them in order. To jump around easily, you can press #2, #3, or #4 on your keyboard, to switch to that tab. Press #1 to come back to this first tab.
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;Button to define the term;Here is the definition ofwhite flightHyde Park and KenwoodBlack BeltRacially restrictive covenants
In the 1940s, Chicago was highly racially segregated along Black and white lines. Japanese Americans who resettled in Chicago often found themselves somewhere “in-between” these lines. They occupied this sense of being “in-between” as they navigated school, jobs, and personal relationships and oftentimes were only able to find housing in areas between Black and white neighborhoods. By the 1960s and ’70s, many Japanese Americans moved to predominantly white neighborhoods in Chicago or to the suburbs, following a pattern of white flight
You can pan/zoom to explore the historical map document on the right. On the left is a diagram with a zoomed in view, adapted from this document.
CITATION: Courtesy of the City of Chicago Dept. of Planning and Development (1950)
growing up in a changing neighborhood
There are 2 activities to do on this tab: listen to the audio clip, and navigate through a slideshow of five family photos.
Audio interview
In this audio clip, Ross Harano talks about segregation on the South Side of Chicago and how the racial demographics of his neighborhood changed dramatically when he was in elementary and middle school.
When Ross Harano was in kindergarten at Oakenwald Elementary School in 1948, his classmates were a mix of Black, Jewish, and white students. “Racism was mostly a Black-white issue in those days,” Ross says, “so we sort of squeezed into this whole thing.” Courtesy of Ross Harano (1948)
In 1953, when Ross Harano was in the 5th grade, Black families started moving east of Cottage Grove, the street that had previously served as a racial dividing line between Black and white communities on Chicago’s South Side. “My friends changed from white to Black overnight.” Courtesy of Ross Harano (1953)
Outside of school, Ross Harano spent a lot of his free time at Kenwood-Ellis Community Church, which had an integrated Black and Japanese American congregation. He was an active member of the church youth group and would attend church sleepaway camps during the summer. Courtesy of Ross Harano (1955)
When Ross Harano was a senior at Hyde Park High School in 1959, he and Barbara Hill, a Black classmate, were crowned Prom King and Queen. Harano’s date to the prom was a white woman named Susan Downer. “She was a great dancer. We were probably the only integrated couple.” Courtesy of Ross Harano (1959)
Ross Harano says he dated and danced with classmates of different backgrounds, even though it wasn’t common at the time. “That’s just who I am. I never really thought about race until years later.” Courtesy of Ross Harano (1959)
"it wasn't bronzeville then"
In this video, Patricia Glenn and Betty Magness talk about their experiences as African Americans living alongside Japanese Americans on Chicago’s South Side. Glenn describes how, in the 1950s, her family broke the restrictive covenants
that for years barred African Americans from living in certain parts of the city. Magness reflects on her relationships with Jewish peers that lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
A modal dialog covers the entire screen. There are four tabs to explore,
and you are on Tab 1 which introduces the topic. Tab 2 is labelled "Listen". Tab 3 is labelled "Look" with a symbol of some photos. Tab 4 is labelled "Watch", with a symbol of a video player.
But you don't have to explore them in order. To jump around easily, you can press #2, #3, or #4 on your keyboard, to switch to that tab. Press #1 to come back to this first tab.
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in their teens and early twenties who were excluded from white social groups in Chicago. More than a hundred clubs eventually formed across the city, some through school friendships and others affiliated with local churches, Buddhist temples, and community centers. Despite the War Relocation Authority’s
(WRA) efforts to prevent Japanese Americans from building community in Chicago, social clubs thrived in the city, with sponsored activities ranging from dances to fundraisers to sports tournaments. What groups or activities help you feel connected to important parts of your identity?
Two of Mary’s classmates wear jackets affiliated with their Japanese American social club.
talk about what it was like to participate in girls and boys teen clubs in Chicago in the 1950s. They discuss how the clubs formed, what social dances were like, and which establishments they would visit afterward to hang out with friends. Speakers include Helen Kimura, Betty Morita, Alice Murata Shizuo Nakanishi, Ruby Tsuji, and Masao Yamaji.
From left to right: Katherine Nagasawa, Masao Yamaji, Helen Kimura, Shizuo Nakanishi, Betty Morita, Ruby Tsuji, Alice Murata, Patti Nakai, Mary Doi, and Jason Matsumoto.
CITATION: Produced by Katherine Nagasawa, Courtesy of Full Spectrum Features (2021)
from beach volleyball to ballroom dancing
These photos and ephemera capture the experience of being a member of a Japanese American teen social club in Chicago in the 1940s and ’50s. The infrastructure for these social groups was developed by a social worker named Abe Hagiwara, who worked at a community center in Chicago called the Olivet Institute.
Hagiwara felt that Japanese American youth needed support as they adjusted to post-incarceration life in Chicago, so he helped create around 100 boys and girls clubs along with an Inter-Club Council that oversaw their activities.
CITATION: Find the source for each of these photos on the Citations page.
During the summer, Japanese American teens often went to Lake Michigan to picnic and play games like volleyball. “We’d go to North Avenue beach and have weenie bakes,” said Pat Aiko Amino in an interview for the oral history project, REgenerations.
Japanese American teens play the game “Pass the Lifesaver” at a lakefront picnic for Shinyu, a Nisei social club, circa 1950. “We’d stay out there all night, but nobody said anything or thought anything of it because we were so innocent,” recalled Pat Aiko Amino.
Japanese American girls clubs hosted social dances with romantic titles like this 1947 dance, “Street of Dreams,” hosted by a group called The Silhouettes.
Pat Aiko Amino remembers many Japanese American teen boys being painfully shy at social dances. Some girls clubs ended up designating certain dances as “Girl’s Choice” so girls could ask boys to dance or arrange dances and dates for the shy boys.
On the left is an invitation to a winter formal dance hosted at the YMCA on Chicago’s Near North Side. On the right is a booklet, commonly called a “dance card,” that girls would use to reserve dances for certain partners.
Japanese American boys clubs like the Zephyrs (pictured above) would often play baseball in Chicago’s Grant Park.
A Japanese American girls club called the Sorelle’s hosted a co-ed hayride event. Clubs provided teens with ample parent-approved opportunities to socialize with each other, and many met future spouses through club activities.
Japanese American club members often wore matching club jackets, blouses, and patches. These two patches signified membership in a bowling club and a girls club called the Philos.
Boys and girls clubs often had events at places like the Olivet Institute, Lawson YMCA, and Japanese American churches and temples. This Welcome Dance and beauty pageant was held at Lawson YMCA on Chicago’s Near North Side.
The Serenes and Ting-a-Ling girls clubs compete in the basketball league championships of the Chicago Nisei Athletic Association (CNAA). At its height, the CNAA had 1,200 participants in baseball, softball, golf, and tennis.
While most social clubs disbanded in the 1950s, members remained friends for the rest of their lives. They regularly held reunions in Las Vegas for weekends filled with dances, games, and other festivities.
"[we] didn't feel part of the white community"
In this video, Toshiko “Tonko” Doi describes the Japanese American social clubs of the 1950s, and discusses how Japanese American teens formed segregated groups because they did not feel accepted in white social groups.
Click through the tabs to examine three sources that portray examples of Japanese Americans both complying with – and resisting – the government's orders.
You can pin Any prompt to the bottom of your screen:
Where do you see evidence of them complying?
Where do you see evidence of them resisting?
How does their compliance and resistance relate to different types of power?
Zooming In
The middle of your screen dims to shows you the following educational prompt:
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Click through the tabs to examine how many younger Japanese Americans grew up in racially mixed Chicago neighborhoods, and how the demographics of those neighborhoods changed over the course of the 1950s.
You can pin Any prompt to the bottom of your screen:
What social and political systems were working to divide and separate young people of color from one another?
In what ways do these sources suggest young people ignored or worked against those systems?
Zooming In
The middle of your screen dims to shows you the following educational prompt:
Your screen is too small to show this activity! Please make your browser window taller.
Switch to the Listen tab for the audio recording of the group interview.
Interviewees are often able to remember or better recall memories and details through their conversation with one another. We can think of this as communal or collective memory.
You can pin Any prompt to the bottom of your screen:
Who do you share memories with? What are some of those memories?
Why are these kinds of collective memories important?
