Upper School had the privilege of listening to a survivor of Japanese Internment camps, during WWII, tell his story. Mr. Sam Mihara presented a high paced slide-show which he accompanied with a personal narrative. His storytelling was brisk and fairly happy, causing dissonance with the severity of the content of the history itself. His childhood in San Francisco in the 1940’s and then in the Heart Mountain Internment camp demonstrated how deeply rooted racism, against the Japanese, in the US was at the time.

Besides being educational, Mr. Mihara’s speech was very enjoyable. The audience of students and faculty was thoroughly engaged for the entirety of his presentation.

One of his most eye-opening statements was near the end of his slideshow, where he displayed the statistics for each genocide in recent history. Mr. Mihara warned of the danger of forgetting to remember what lessons history has to teach. Specifically, he pointed out that any form of “id” or “registration” has been a direct precursor to genocides like the Holocaust and Rwanda. He warned to keep an eye on the “registration” of illegal Muslim immigrants into the US.

Candidly and gravely, he warned of the consequences of giving a blind eye to a situation that may not necessarily affect us.

Image courtesy of The Talon Times Staff.