Lost Cultures

I really liked the documentary about the Japanese internment camps we watched in class. The Japanese internment camps are a stunning reminder of the kind of intolerance and inhumanity that existed within our own borders. Americans tend to have this superiority complex about their history claiming over and over again to be the great patriots of justice and equality. It is this attitude that leaves these festering stains on American history hidden beneath the rug. As the numerous poems, novels, essays, and the limitless array of country music will tell you, there are many things to be proud of as an American. We live in a pretty great country filled with brilliant minds and endless possibilities. What we cannot forget about our country though is that it was not built and preserved upon foundations of peaceful protest and gentle war tactics. This nation was established on a foundation of spilled blood and ruined cultures. Native Americans, Japanese Americans, African Americans, the list of the displaced, mistreated, minorities goes on. They were stripped of their culture, humiliated, discriminated, and left for the history books to gloss over. What can we do about it now? So much time has passed and the perpetrators of these inhumane acts are long since rotting in their graves. The victims of the conquest of America can still be witnessed today. They are the decedents of these lost cultures-the ones left questioning their real identities wondering who their people might have been before they had become Americanized.

I don’t think that there is a simple answer as to what can be done to make up for the deeds of the past. There is no price tag one can place on what was lost while forging this country. If history had not unfolded as it had we cannot say what our country would be like now. All we can say is ‘sacrifices had to be made’ and shuffle our collective feet until the subject is changed. Maybe documentaries like the one we watched in class could be a starting point. They keep the memory of what happened alive -- keep people talking about these lost people. Literature and the arts in general are probably the best asset towards keeping the spirit of these lost cultures alive. The more stories, documentaries, and pieces of art dedicated to this subject, the longer we can keep the memory alive. 100 years from now the memory of these events will be even further distorted and buried in the dusty pages of the history books, but if a piece of literature remains to stir the imagination and rekindle the memories of the past these lost cultures can survive.