Capital Region Cares Capital Region Cares 2017-2018 | Page 26

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Feature
M
arielle Tsukamoto has a vivid memory of the brance Program and the traveling trunk program all fit into
day her family left for the internment camp one of the museum’s stated goals: to let people know the im-
during World War II. She remembers standing portance they have in California history.
“We want to encourage our students and visitors to think
in the backyard of her family’s farmhouse in
Florin as a little girl, where she found her grandmother sob- about how they can personally make a difference in our
state,” Meeker says.
bing in the lovingly-tended garden.
On the grounds of the museum is a dramatic art dis-
“She feared she would never see her precious garden
play called the Constitution Wall. It stands six stories tall,
again,” Tsukamoto says.
The Tsukamoto family was among the 120,000 Amer- and words like “rights,” “redress,” “assemble” and “speak”
icans relocated to camps during the war because of their — words selected from the California Constitution — are
Japanese heritage. Many of these individuals had less than highlighted, reminding visitors of the freedoms guaranteed
48-hours notice before a mandatory evacuation forced them to all Californians.
“We take the students at the museum out to view the
into an assembly center, and then into one of 10, nationwide
constitution wall,” Meeker says. “The word ‘speak’ pops out
incarceration camps.
Tsukamoto is now a volunteer docent at the California from the state Constitution. We ask the students to consid-
Museum in downtown Sacramento where she helps visitors er why that word is prominent. We ask them to think about
how any of this applies in the
understand the person-
present.”
al impact that Executive
Uprooted! features the
Order 9066 had on the
stories of local members of
lives of many Americans
the Japanese-American com-
— including her. She of-
munity, beginning after the
ten speaks about her per-
bombing of Pearl Harbor.
sonal experience at events
Photographs, art, an interac-
across Northern Califor-
tive map and a reproduction
nia.
of camp barracks help bring
“I’m obligated to share
to life the realities of incar-
our story,” Tsukamoto
ceration. The exhibit also
says, “Since most people
showcases a video series with
that were incarcerated
— Marielle Tsukamoto, volunteer docent, California Museum
oral histories from formerly
have already passed. I
interned Americans, includ-
still have a voice. I have to
speak out and help people understand what happened in ing a video from actor and activist George Takei.
“Uprooted! tells my story,” Takei says in a video intro-
1942, because history does repeat itself.”
Visitors to the museum hear personal stories of intern- duction he recorded for the museum. Takei’s mother lived in
ment at the permanent exhibit Uprooted! Japanese Amer- Sacramento prior to marrying his father and moving to Los
icans During WWII. New features of the exhibit were in- Angeles. His maternal grandparents were farmers from the
stalled in early 2017 through a grant from the National Parks Florin area. “I still remember my mother’s tears on the day
Service. The nonprofit California Museum has been open armed guards marched up our driveway and ordered us out
for nearly 20 years and is located at the corner of 10th and of our home,” he says into the camera.
In his message to museum visitors, Takei says he hopes
O streets. This is the only general-focus history museum in
the U.S. to feature a permanent exhibit on internment. The the exhibit will provoke people to think about what it means
Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles also to be fair and just, and what it means to be “American.” He
educates visitors on the topic and The Smithsonian used to says that each individual has power to stop something like
this from happening again in the future.
have an exhibit, which has since closed.
“As with all human tragedies, time erodes memory, and
According to Amanda Meeker, executive director of the
California Museum, the Uprooted! exhibit, Time of Remem- it becomes easy to minimize the significance of what hap-
“I’m obligated to share our
story, since most people
that were incarcerated
have already passed. I still
have a voice.”
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