Trying to make this a broader human story. This one is titled floating lantern. We participate in the evening of august 6 and the floating lantern ceremony. So many of the people jumped in the river to try to escape the flames or cool their bodies that have been badly burned. Many of them died. These descriptions of the river that night, a sea of floating corpses. What people did to commemorate they hold the lantern ceremony every year. It is no longer restricted to the families of the victims. You make a paper lantern, put a candle inside and on the lantern, you write a message and you go down and take your turn and put your floating lantern into the water. It is very beautiful and night. At night. When i went, yoyo ma was playing. This is a depiction of the lanterns floating in the river. We continue now with our look back at the august 1945 atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki, japan. Recently come in American History tv was at the organization of american historians annual meeting in st. Louis, missouri. We spoke with professors and graduate students about the research. This interview is about 20 minutes. You are an assistant professor at Michigan State university. Please tell us about your research. Sure. I am doing the historical investigation of japaneseamericans and a handful of korean americans as well who were born in the states but happened to be in either hiroshima or nagasaki in 1945 when the bomb was dropped. Their numbers are not huge, but substantial. Somewhere between 2030,000 20,00030,000 asianamericans who were in japan in nagasaki hiroshima. Hiroshima as a prefecture had the largest number of japanese immigrants before world war ii. Out of those 20,00030,000 people, there were about 3000 people who survived the bomb and hiroshima and decided to come to america in 1947. Their history is very fascinating. It is littleknown. It really changes our perception of survivors of as japanese citizens or people loyal to the japanese empire at the time. They were both victors and victims at the same time. The japaneseamericans, why were they there . There are a few reasons why they were there. One thing i like tothe one thing i really like to emphasize is that that is what many immigrants do, they go back and forth because they may be born and living in america, yet their grandparent might still be back in japan. That was actually the case with most of the people i studied. So, they might have been just a visiting their grandparents because they want to see them or maybe some of them were l so they wanted to see them ill so they wanted to see them before they passed away. So there were so many reasons why they were there. And other reasons istat other reasons that i can mention is that there is some question about japaneseamerican parents first generation immigrants, who wanted to give their children the best education possible. And they realized that given the Race Relations in the 1930s, america is not the best place to give them education. So they decided to bring their children back to japan so that they could receive the best education, including education about japanese language and culture. Those things that are really important for immigrant families to maintain. So educational purposes is another reason. Another reason i would like to mention is that philadelphia, among japanese in america that there may be some violence or mass incarcerations. So, they decided to leave america to avoid such a fate. Many of them happen to be in hiroshima and nagasaki. Ms. Rios is there an aim that the japanese use for those people who did survive the bombing . Professor wake yes. It is literally people who were exposed and received radiation from the bomb. So yes, it is a commonly used term among japanese people, but also among americans. Ms. Rios and this term would also apply to the japaneseamericans who were in hiroshima and nagasaki at the time . After the bombs were dropped, what happened to the japaneseamericans . What was the situation . Professor wake immediately after the explosion, i think the situation was very comparable to many other survivors regardless of their nationality. Obviously, the devastation was overwhelming but as part of my work, i have been conducting oral history interviews with those u. S. Survivors. And one thing i am very fascinated by is how their National Belonging to both japan and america came out very strongly even as they tried to respond to the devastation in 1945. To give you an example, there are some japaneseamericans family members who left each other. They didnt know where they were. They really spent a lot of time looking for each other and one survivor, a u. S. Survivor i talked to, she was a young girl at that time and, unfortunately, her sister died of the bomb. But her family couldnt locate her body or not she was still alive for three days in hiroshima. So the family looked around and finally at the and of the third day, they were able to find her sister. But the day the way they found out the way they found out the sisters body was that first of all, she was [indiscernible] therefore, they were able to see her otherwise it would have been really difficult to identify bodies of the victims. But also, more importantly, her sisters body was still with her american underwear, which was made in america and something the family was very used to seeing. It was a common practice for japaneseamerican families to share bedrooms among the family members. Sometimes among siblings, other times between parents and children. It was the japanese style of sleeping that this wouldve transplanted in america. And because of those family contacts they were able to recognize that. And that it was because and that was because it was made in america and something that there were exposed to in america and able to identify this persons body positively. Ms. Rios in many ways, professor wake in many ways, we tend to think of the bomb attacking japanese nationals. Yet, it really destabilizes in that this person not only had a culture, and in many cases, a sense of National Belonging to america, at the same time as being from japan. Ms. Rios the japaneseamericans who spoke english, were they able to have better access to assistance, especially medical assistance, afterwards . Professor wake by the u. S. Army you mean . I think in many ways, the immediate need for medical assistance was not met by anybody. Not only american medical assistance, but also japanese medical institutions and personnel were incapable of offering any support. So i think at that level, their ability to be of the communicate in english was not in any way i can remember one survivor who was born in the u. S. And his english was good because of that. He was bombed in hiroshima, but that was looking for a job after people started to pick up uses and try to reconstruct their lives. And he he was not interested in working for u. S. Occupational focus forces at that time, but he was accompanying his japanese friend who was interested in having a job for i think it was i cannot remember exact or which branch of the u. S. Occupational forces he was looking at job in but this americanborn person was going with him and then they ran into an american officer in the hallway and the officer said something, like, how are you Something Like that just to greet the two people that he initially thought were japanese because they, of course, looked like japanese. Then just because of the cultural affinity of a japaneseamerican person responding in english, he was recruited. Hey, you look like somebody who can, you know, work for us. Unfortunately, this japanese guy who was looking for the job originally did not get the possession, but the american person did. So i did it didnt work in some cases to the benefit of some people. Ms. Rios how long did it take the japaneseamericans to make their way back to the United States . Professor wake it varies quite a bit. That is the year in which the first ship from japan back to america was operated. So beginning from that year to all the way up to the late 1950s, in some cases of the 1960s, there are people who just continue to come back. And that is the era when not only usborn japanese, u. S. Citizens, but also some family members of those american citizens whose citizenship was japanese, but because of the Family Connection and family members they already had in the states decided to migrate to america. And that is when the diversification of americans started because it started to include not only usborn survivors of the bomb, but also japan born. But now, u. S. Immigrant survivors of the bomb. And later on, they came together. But it took a large time to sort of come to america. It really varied. Ms. Rios there was a propensity of japaneseamericans who had been in the internment tabs not to talk about their caps not camps not to talk about their experiences. What about the people who had been in hiroshima and nagasaki. When they get back to the United States, did they talk about what they experienced . Professor wake i think the answer to that is largely no because one practical region reason why they remained silent about their experiences is that if they come out as survivors, then their Health Insurance may be taken away from them. The radiation was considered to be one of the preexisting conditions in u. S. Health insurance system. So there are very afraid they are very afraid that they might lose the benefit of that Health Insurance policy. And also, i think there was [indiscernible] they were considered to not be a good investment from an employer upon perspective employers perspective because they might have an illness in the future. Ms. Rios there are those professor wake there are those medical reasons, as well as political reasons, why they remained silent. But i think it is interesting that you raised the example of japaneseamerican internment camps because again, this is a big story of the bomb, but also an intimate story of the families. Oftentimes, japaneseamerican families included some members who survived the bomb, and also family members who stayed in america during wartime and replaced in the camps. So when they came back together after the war, it was very difficult for them to talk about each others experience because they were exposed to state violence, and yet, in different ways. So how do you start having conversation about the vastly different and yet traumatizing experiences when they are just trying to rebuild a family . I think, in some ways, they mutually created a silence because in some ways because of the intimate treason. Ms. Rios are the oral histories away to break that silent . Silence . Professor wake i believe so. I believe that is what oral history may be able to do for the benefit of better understanding the past, but also i should note that although i am collecting a lot of oral histories right now, there were some personal history projects. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, most of the people who wanted to conduct oral histories were the Younger Generation of americans who, its like they were not really aware of japaneseamerican internment camps by kim to relax, oh, this is definitely a part of my past, that is when Asian Americans the Asian American Civil Rights Movement started and that is when people especially on the west coast, but also on the east coast, i do sort of assert their Asian American identity. Part of the emerging identity really pushed them to find out the legacy and histories of their own racial group. And part of that discovery was about their Community Members experience of being bombed. So they started out by talking to survivors in the communities and that is really precious Historical Records because i think that is the only set of oral History Collection that we have, as far as i am aware about u. S. Survivors life experiences. So there are few oral history interviews that we have about them, but i think i am not going to say oral histories are the best way to think about the past. Of course, there are various ways. But oral histories have a power of bringing individual voices but it will always be based on the interactions between interviewer and interviewees. Interviewees. And it is not only about the survivors themselves, but also about people who had this interest in finding out there own communitys history. So it goes both ways. It is a
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