Author: Alexa Nishimoto

Recognizing August 10, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988

Alexa Nishimoto Leave a comment

In observance of the anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, JANM will be closed Tuesday, August 10, 2021.

This legislation reflects the Museum’s commitment to empower history for social justice. The Civil Liberties Act was signed into law on that day by President Ronald Reagan, issuing a formal Presidential apology and symbolic payment of $20,000 of restitution to persons of Japanese ancestry (two-thirds were US citizens) forcibly removed from the West Coast. 

The World War II incarceration of 120,000 people at remote concentration camps by the U.S. government was without due process, or evidence of wrongdoing. For more than a century, Asians were considered “outsiders” in the U.S. The Civil Liberties Act acknowledged this dark chapter of history was driven “largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

To learn more about the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, here are a few resources:

Recipes From Camp: Homemade Noodles from Topaz

Alexa Nishimoto Leave a comment
Excerpt from Topaz Saturday Times, Vol. II No. 13, January 16, 1943.

Food Fancies, by Evelyn Kimura, was a column in the Topaz Saturday Times about all things food. In the wake of forced incarceration, Japanese Americans used what little resources they had to make some of their favorite meals. According to Kimura, the key to at-home cooking was simplicity. (And don’t use up all the coal for everyone in the barracks.)

Camp cooking is a legacy that has been passed down to many of us through the generations. Growing up, I knew that shoyu hotdogs and rice meant that Mom was tired. While we spend our current hours social-distancing and rationing food, we can call upon the lessons from those who came before us.

Homemade noodles, courtesy of Mrs. J Yanagizawa of 14-1-A

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of flour
1 egg
Fresh vegetables of your choice
1 can bouillon or broth

Instructions:

  1. Mix flour and egg (or you can substitute water). Let stand all day until hard.
  2. Roll flat and cut into strips.
  3. Then begin soup mixture by boiling fresh vegetables of your choice.
  4. Add 1 can of bouillon (broth) to vegetables and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.
  5. Boil soup and noodles for another 15 minutes.
  6. If ready made noodles are being used, boil them before adding to the soup.

We plan to share more camp recipes, so check back for more. We hope you try out this recipe. And please let us know if you do!

Thanks to Emily Anderson who came across this recipe while searching through the World War II camp newspapers on the Densho Digital Repository as part of her research for an upcoming JANM exhibition. The full issue can be found here (Densho, Courtesy of the family of Itaru and Shizuko Ina).