On Saturday morning I had the pleasure of visiting the Japanese Cultural Center in Honolulu Hawaii with my "Hawaii During WWII" history class. This is a great place to check out if you are in the area. I would suggest using one of your "rainy days in paradise" to visit here, especially if you have no idea about Japanese Culture. I found it a great learning experience.
By the way, I have to comment on this because parking is horrible in Hawaii, but the Japanese Cultural Center has their own parking garage facility and they even validate your parking so it's free. Try finding that at any other building in Hawaii.
As soon as I walked out of the elevator from the parking structure I was overwhelmed by activity. The first thing I saw as I exited the elevator was a bunch of teenagers and children practicing Kenshikan Dojo. Honestly, I don't know anything about it but any activity that keeps these kids off the streets of Honolulu gets an A+ in my book.
Also, there was a group of lively Zumba dancers by the entrance which I thought was pretty random but made the space really "come alive".
The video above really shows the part of the Japanese Cultural Center our class focused on, the history of the Japanese in Hawaii. This part of the Center can be emotional. Just thinking about what all these immigrants had to go through with the discrimination during the war is really heartbreaking; and yet, the Japanese don't complain because they want to honor their families.
The Japanese Cultural Center is a great learning experience no matter what ethnic background you come from.
What the Japanese went through during WWII is so heartbreaking. I actually wrote my senior thesis on Japanese-American internment, and how the memories of that are passed down to younger generations. The sad thing is that the information that does get passed down is VERY limited, because like you said, they're a very stoic culture - they don't want to complain, even when their treatment was incredibly unjust.
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