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Transcript

Lawson Fusao Inada

By Jared Lew

His Childhood

Healing Gila

Over Here, Over There

This poem shows how the Japanese were sectioned off into internment camps in the desert, and how they felt society forgot about them, because they were avoided and not talked about.

In this poem Inada talks about different things that happened to him as a child, and how he was being frequently relocated to different camps. You can see his themes of racism, due to what he endured in the camps.

Conditions

Works Cited

After the war

To This Day

  • He was born in 1938 in Fresno, California
  • His mom's name was Masako, and she was a teacher
  • His father's name was Fusaji, and he was a dentist
  • He is a third generation Japanese American
  • In 1942, at the age of 4 his family was sent to an internment camp at the Fresno County Fairgrounds

History.com Staff. “Japanese Internment Camps.” History.com, A&E Television Networks,

2009, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation.

“Lawson Fusao Inada.” Lawson Fusao Inada | Densho Encyclopedia,

encyclopedia.densho.org/Lawson_Fusao_Inada/.

“Lawson Fusao Inada.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/lawson-inada.

Morehouse, Lisa. “Farming Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese-Americans Remember WWII

Incarceration.” NPR, NPR, 19 Feb. 2017, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/19/515822019/farming-behind-barbed-wire-japanese-americans-remember-wwii-incarceration.

PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/.

“Primary Documents in American History.” Indian Removal Act: Primary Documents in American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress),

www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/Indian.html.

Thomas, Lorenzo. “Lawson Fusao Inada.” Ebsco Host, web.a.ebscohost.com/lrc/detail/

detail?vid=0&sid=8db947ee-8279-4501-833d-ef1ba655e7a0%40sessionmgr4010&bdata=JnNpdGU9bHJjLWxpdmU%3d#AN=103331INI11170170000116&db=lfh++++.

This poem talks about the barbed wire that surrounded the internment camps, and its journey. It also shows how even after the war the Japanese still felt the racism, and how he felt like their was a mentality that separated them just like the barbed wire had when they were in the camps.

Real Life Examples

  • People were incarcerated for up to four years
  • camps were surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards
  • many people died from inadequate medical care being provided
  • Many considered these war camps

How he became a writer

Diversity In his Poems

Beliefs of Society

Aspects of his Life in his Poems

  • "as we can imagine, in this advanced day and age, there just might be a mentality among us, between us, that, to this day, serves to keep us separated serves to keep us confined between “them” and “us,” and this mentality, this condition, invisible as it is, intangible as it is, can actually function like actual barbed wire" (To This Day)
  • This shows how that even after the war the Japanese still felt separated, because they still felt harsh racism (Healing Gila)
  • "But the desert is not deserted. It goes without saying, it stays without saying" (Healing Gila)
  • "And they avoid that massive site as they avoid contamination"
  • Here he shows how society doesn't talk about the camps, with society pretty much forgetting about them, because everyone avoided them
  • "this fence was to confine, not cattle or criminals, but residents of the American West, who, in the western tradition, were to be 'rounded up,' and 'herded' into fenced areas" (To This Day)
  • This shows how he felt like he was being treated like cattle, being rounded up into fences.
  • "Over here in parades of patrol cars looking for trouble and disturbing the peace" (Over Here, Over There)
  • Inada shows how the guards at the camps tried to instigate him, and other Japanese Americans
  • "and even should you somehow manage even join them- you could never become one" (Over Here, Over There)
  • This shows how Lawson felt racism, and didn't feel accepted by many Americans, which is why his friends were African Americans and Hispanics, because they also felt the effects of racism
  • And then, for sure, the camps is where over there and over here" (Over Here, Over There)
  • Here Inada shows how he was constantly relocated
  • "This was a lush land once, graced by a gifted people" (Healing Gila)
  • He says his people were gifted, because they were very good at farming, and nearly 2/3 of Japanese Americans were farmers, but then they were put into camps and their land was usually sold or just left alone, so the lush land turned into dead crops
  • "It was a simple enough game- So simple, in fact, that You surely know what I mean; I'd guess my grandparents played it in their language" (Over Here, Over There)
  • Inada acknowledges how they didn't have much in these camps, and they were playing simple games that even his grandparents played it in Japan, because it's all the Japanese Americans could do in the camps
  • Since Inada was a Christian unlike many other Japanese Americans, many of his friends were African American and Hispanic
  • This is when he was introduced to jazz, which he says is his biggest influence
  • He also attended school after the war
  • "And it was also an innovative undertaking, a historical precedent, because this fence was to confine, not cattle or criminals, but residents of the American West"
  • Indian Removal Act of 1830- When the US moved Native Americans from their land to the west
  • In the poem To This Day, the Japanese were taken from their houses and moved to camps, and during the Indian Removal Act Native Americans were removed from their land and sent to the west
  • During high school Inada took writing classes, because his favorite jazz artists made him want to say something
  • This led to him choosing to pursue a career as a poet, so he could spread his message
  • Philip Levine also influenced him becoming a writer, because he was a constant encouragement when Lawson attended Fresno State University
  • He eventually became a professor of English at Southern Oregon State College
  • "and it is up to everyone, in the spirit of humanity, in the name of mutuality, to reach through the strands with extended hands"
  • "These people had trashed every room Smashed in the windows and bashed in the doors Written on the walls and the floor: "Japs not welcome anymore"" (Song: Kenji by fort minor)
  • The song was written about the singers father who was at one of these camps, and returned to his home to find it trashed. Similar things happened to Lawson when he returned to his home, and the Japanese needed society to help them, because they did not have anything

Themes and characteristics

  • his common themes include reclaiming identities lost in the camps, jazz, and the long term effects of racism
  • He finds connections between other groups that were oppressed in similar ways prior, including Native Americans and African Americans
  • He writes from the perspective of the imprisoned, which made him stand out, and many people liked to see this point of view
  • His themes of racism also made him well liked, because his intended audience can relate
  • He also incorporates his love for jazz into some of his poems, acknowledging his favorite players
  • His poems are free verse
  • His poems focus is for anyone who faces racism
  • After some time in the Fresno camp, they were relocated to a camp in Jerome, Arkansas
  • Then they were relocated again to another camp in Amache, Colorado
  • His time at these different camps was complicated, because his family were Christians, and not Buddhist like many of the other Japanese Americans, so they felt isolated

Schooling

  • He attended Lincoln then Edison High Schools in Fresno and wanted to be a jazz bass player, but ended up going to college
  • He then went on to attend Fresno State University for a year, and famous poet Philip Levine was his mentor
  • After this he attended graduate school at the University of Iowa from 1960 to 1962
  • Then he got a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Oregon in 1966

Awards

  • Lawson won the American Book Award in 1994
  • He was named Oregon State Poet of the Year in 1991
  • He received the Oregon book award
  • From 2006 to 2010 he was named the fifth poet laureate of Oregon
  • He was also the first Asian American to have poems published by William Morrow, a major NY publishing house, which made him a role model to other Asian American poets
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