In this Extra-Credit Assignment, you will apply the concepts of Part II to the case of Japanese American internment. This case is one of great historical import, and it helps us to contextualize the violence against Asian Americans today. It is also a key focus of two interdisciplinary initiatives at QCC this academic year: the exhibition on WWII concentration camps at QCC’s Kupferberg Holocaust Center (http://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/blog/exhibit/concentration-camps/) and the campus-wide reading of George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy (https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/cetl/common-read/Common-read-2020-21.html).
It is my hope that this assignment will:
• benefit your understanding of the concepts of Part II;
• improve your ability to apply sociological concepts to real-life cases;
• connect you to two significant interdisciplinary initiatives at QCC; and
• further your understanding of Asian American history and oppression.
To complete this assignment, please do the following:
First, watch this recorded conversation between me and Dr. Gary Okihiro, Professor Emeritus of international and public affairs at Columbia University and Visiting Professor of American studies at Yale University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMYxsPsFTGI
Second, write a two-page six-paragraph essay that addresses the prompts, and follows the format, below:
• Briefly describe the contents of the recorded conversation.
• According to Dr. Okihiro, what are the macro-level structures that led to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII?
• According to Dr. Okihiro, how did race/ethnicity – and the relevant stratification systems in the U.S. – play a role in the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII?
• How do the concepts of culture and socialization relate to Dr. Okihiro’s argument about Japanese Americans’ resistance to internment?
• According to Dr. Okihiro, what are the changes that have occurred, or are required, in the field of Asian American studies?
• What did you learn about Asian American history AND sociology through this assignment?
