Not for Sale: How WWII Artifacts Mobilized Japanese-Americans Online

Takaragawa, Stephanie

doi:10.1080/19428200.2015.1103620

Cited by 1 publication

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“…The announcements sparked shock and outrage in the Japanese American community. Stephanie Takaragawa (2015) chronicled the reaction of community activists who created online forums via Facebook and change.org petitions titled “Japanese American History: NOT for Sale.” Takaragawa notes that over 7,000 people signed the petitions and joined the Facebook group, with many thousands leaving personal comments about their familial connections to the incarceration camps. Social media became a powerful forum for people to discuss this history and bring the story to national attention (Takaragawa, 2015).…”

Section: The Politics Of Object Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such rights were not necessarily dependent on individual association, either, although claims of association certainly emerged. For instance, Janice Mirikitani was shocked to see a photograph of her cousin among the items for sale and decried the auction house for trying to “‘pimp’ the suffering of my family” (Takaragawa, 2015, 98). Crucially, however, such statements were not mobilized for individual restitution; rather, they advocated for a transfer to communal holding.…”

Section: The Politics Of Object Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stephanie Takaragawa (2015) chronicled the reaction of community activists who created online forums via Facebook and change.org petitions titled “Japanese American History: NOT for Sale.” Takaragawa notes that over 7,000 people signed the petitions and joined the Facebook group, with many thousands leaving personal comments about their familial connections to the incarceration camps. Social media became a powerful forum for people to discuss this history and bring the story to national attention (Takaragawa, 2015). An ad hoc committee of various Japanese American and Asian American organizations formed to protest the auction, including representatives from the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, the Wing Like Museum, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, and the National Park Service.…”

Section: The Politics Of Object Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Origami activism, inalienable collections, and crumbling concrete: Material engagements with Histories of violence

Lau-Ozawa

2023

American Anthropologist

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The World War II mass incarceration of Japanese Americans was a traumatic event that had lasting repercussions on multiple communities. Archaeologists have sought to productively pursue community-based methodologies in studying this period, employing object-based oral histories, outreach events, and community participation in fieldwork. However, less scholarly attention has looked to the ways in which materials have become central to understanding and mobilizing around the incarceration camp history. Acts of pilgrimage, memorialization, scholarly study, and activism constitute key arenas through which this heritage is participated with, each interacting with materials in different ways. This article discusses three cases of material engagements, from the politics of object ownership to origami activism and their importance in reckoning with this violent past. Materials in these cases are not passive objects but rather spur actions and create new publics. Furthermore, the physical qualities of materials shape both the ways in which they are engaged and the politics that surround their rhetorical deployment.

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Section: The Politics Of Object Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Politics Of Object Ownershipmentioning

confidence: 99%