Digital Story Continued

Arthur Ellermann: A Changed Life <-------------  a link to my digital story.



What does it mean to be American? Over the course of this blog post I will be talking about what I think being American means to my grandfather, and what it means to me.

The story of my grandfather, Pop what the grandchildren call him, I feel that at the core is very American.

My grandfather's story does not start off like the stories that we have read in class, with people immigrating to this land trying to live the American dream. My grandfather's family has been in this country for many generations. I do not know when my ancestors came to this country, but that does not make my grandfathers, or even my own story  any less American than the ones that we have read in class.

There is always a beginning to this story and here is my grandfathers. My grandfather was the child of two teenagers who were forced to get married because his mother was pregnant. They were only married a few short months before my grandfather was born. In his early life my grandfather struggled. He saw everyday what his parents went through to support their family. I feel that this part of my grandfather's story relates to the ideal of America, because he overcame such a hardship at the beginning of his life.

Pop wanted a better life for himself and his future family. He decided that he wanted to go to college and better himself. But it was not possible for my great-grandparents to pay for college for my grandfather. Pop decided to enlist in the army to help him pay for college. My grandfather knew that he wanted a better life, and to obtain a better life and future for himself he knew he had to go to college. Joining the Army was the only way my grandfather could send himself to college.

I see my grandfather joining the army to pay for college, almost equal to immigrants coming to America for a chance at a better life. Isn't that what America is supposed to be, a chance to have a better life. My grandfather saw opportunity in joining the army, just like many immigrants see opportunity in coming to America.

When Pop had his stroke in 2012, he was very lucky to have been able to go to hospital within the first twenty-four hours of it occurring. his life, and everyone in the family lives have changed, but we are all thankful that it was not worse. My grandfather is still alive, yes his life is not what it used to be, but he is still living.

The stroke has changed all of our lives. There is no question about it. Everyone has a different routine now, but in relation to the American dream, I feel that everyone is still living it. I see my family everyday. Everyone gets to see Pop, we do not have to go visit him in a nursing home, or worse the cemetery. My family gets to still live the American dream, and the patriarch of this family is still around.

My family has always identified as Americans first.  We come from all different parts of Western Europe, like Ireland, England, Netherlands, and France to name a few. The dream that many people have of America, is one that my family lives everyday. My family is living the quintessential American dream.

But to know my own American Identity, is very hard. I feel very lucky to be a young white middle class woman. But at the same time I feel as if I do not know who I am. I feel lost on the scope that is my American Identity.

This question is very hard for me because I was born here, my family has been here for generations. I have not faced the hardships that my class mates and their families have faced. I am very fortunate for that.

I feel very lucky to have been born into something that people want so badly to achieve. I'll never know the struggle or hardships that come with immigrating into this country. But that is one of the reasons that my ancestors came to this country. They came here to provide a better life their families and the furutre family members. I'll never have to know the struggle and hardships of immigrating to this country, because my family has been here for generations.

"The Cats of Mirikitani"

The film "The Cats of Mirikitani" shows that there is always history that is being swept under the rug. In this case it was the history of Japanese Internment. There is always history that is not being taught or talked about as much as it should be. Japanese Internment is one of those histories.

Jimmy Mirikitani was born an American Citizen, but his family moved back to Japan when he was just a baby. He eventually moved back to America to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. It was in his early twenties that he was interned at a camp in the California desert. Jimmy's citizenship in the U.S. was revoked, but eventually given back to him without his knowledge. Jimmy lead an interesting life after the camps. He moved to New York and worked as a personal chef to a rich man on fifth avenue. After his employer passed away, Jimmy just started drifting around New York trying to sell his art.

Jimmy's story is special to American history because like so many other people he was taken out of his home and forced to live in these camps. These people were put into these camps because of their ethnicity. It was a dark time in American history. People were outraged and disgusted by what Hitler was doing to the Jews and other people he did not deem Aryan, but something similar was happening right here in America. There was not a mass extermination of the Japanese people, but the living conditions in the camps were atrocious. There was little food and water, and disease was rampant.

Japanese Internment happened because people were afraid. People are allowed to be afraid, but the extent of the fear of the people in America after Pearl Harbor, imprisoned thousands of innocent people.

Something very similar happened after 9/11. People of Arab descent in America were discriminated against because of their ethnicity or skin color. It was another dark time in America, but thankfully innocent people were not imprisoned to make people feel safe. There were talks of doing something similar like Japanese Internment to Arab Americans, but it never got there. After 9/11 Arab Americans were discriminated against and treated like Japanese people in America after Pearl Harbor. It looked like history was going to repeat itself, but it never got that far thankfully. But the discrimination that Arab Americans faced was terrible, and there were some cases of Arab Americas being beaten up or killed because of what they looked like.

What I took away from the film "The Cats of Mirikitani" was that America was a place of dreams, but those dreams can be crushed in two seconds flat. Jimmy Mirkitani was born an American citizen, but during a time of crisis in America, his American identity was taken from him.

Children are taught in history classes about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They are taught about World War II, Hitler and Pearl Harbor. What they are not taught is what happened after Pearl Harbor to Japanese people living in America. Japanese Internment is glossed over in the history books. There is normally one paragraph or page depicting the pain and suffering that Japanese people living in America post Pearl Harbor experienced. American history books only teach the "good" things that happened in America, and gloss over the things that happened that are not so pleasant.

I think that American history is told through the eyes of white men, because this country was founded by them. The funny thing is that white men are becoming the minority, but  what is not so funny is that they still hold most of the power. There is a vast history of American that is not told because people find it uncomfortable or unpleasant, but those stories, like Jimmy's need to be told so that people can know what not to do when they are afraid.