Courage & Compassion: Our Shared Story of the Japanese American World War II Experience
Oberlin, Ohio
Alice Imamoto Takemoto, 92, spoke to students about her experiences coming to Oberlin College in 1942 after being taken from her home in California to an incarceration camp for Japanese Americans.
We brought together students, alumni, faculty, and the community and college stakeholders to turn an exhibit on Japanese American internment during World War II into a space for community reflection, learning, and relationship-building. Expanding on a touring exhibit created by the Go For Broke National Education Center, we uncovered hidden histories of Oberlin’s response to Japanese interment and of the experiences of the nearly 40 Japanese American students who studied at the college during the war. Our work included expanding the core exhibit with additional panels and artifacts that related to Oberlin’s wartime history; developing and facilitating field trips for nearly 600 local K-12 students; and organizing a month-long series of public programs that included concerts, film screenings, public talks, and community gatherings.
Attracting over 1200 current students, alumni, faculty, and local residents during its four-week run, the exhibit and accompanying programming encouraged visitors to explore the history of wartime incarceration in light of contemporary debates about immigration, government power, and sanctuary cities. Our work deepened the impact and widened the audience for the nationally touring exhibition and led to a new sense of the importance of this wartime history for the identity of the college and the city.
“When Oberlin Opened Its Arms to Japanese American Students,” Ideastream, National Public Radio, Feb. 22, 2018
“The exhibit and programming are definitely high points of my time at Oberlin. I know that many people engaged with the exhibit and programming in many ways that have been highly meaningful and provocative.”
Ann Sherif, Professor of East Asian Studies, Oberlin College
“Learning facts and seeing photos of this history is one thing, but hearing the personal stories made me realize how far of an impact the incarceration camps had beyond the camps themselves. It made the information I had previously known seem so much more real and present.”
Oberlin undergraduate student
