home again, home again, jiggity jig.

I'm home again. as you know, yesterday was definitely an eventful day. it was awesome to have friends again! haha

random side note: i just opened pandora and i think it has again read my mind. Jack Johnson soothes my soul like it's nobodys business.

today wasn't nearly as eventful. but still fun. i thought of a few places i wanted to go (get food) before i left town. so i headed to Great Harvest. had a DELISH slice of pumpkin chocolate chip bread. still warm. and i bought a loaf of cinnamon burst bread to bring home. then i went straight to Cocoa Bean where I got a cupcake and i finally got to use my full punch card for a free drink. yessssss. Irish Carmelato or something like that. it wad amazing. and i drank that heaven in a cup, while i walked around a heaven on earth: Porters craft store! i thought i'd go in a walk around real quick. i ended up being there over an hour! and i spent $40!! hahahaha i blame it all on pintrest and it's wonderful ideas. but i'm excited about all the things i can do now!

then i finally hit the road. but on my way up to rexburg tuesday night i saw a billboard for a WWII exhibit at the Museum of Idaho in IF. so i stopped by just to see if it was still there. i saw an awesome glance at the IF temple, with the falls. temples are so beautiful. and guess what?! the exhibit was totally open! for $7 i got to spend an hour and a half walking around WWII things. i learned so much about WWII, just by reading plaques. I saw lots of weapons. all of that doesn't really interest me. but i saw all these maps, and they had plaques with information about all these major leaders, and idk. it was just neat. I think part of the reason i love learning about WWII is i feel like it somehow brings me closer to Grandpa Jefferson. I dont know very much about what he did in the war, except that he was a paratrooper. i dont know where he was, or what he did or who he served with. But i know that all of the stuff i hear/see somehow related to him. and i love thinking i'm somehow getting to know grandpa a little bit better.

when i got upstairs they had this little area for the concentration camps. it's so sad! but they had another area for the Japanese-American Internment camps. that also has a very real impact on me. i read a plaque about it and was nearly in tears by the end. i did a research project in my English 111 class about FDRs Executive Order 9066 which announced the relocation and internment of Japanese and Korean Americans (mostly those living in the west). i know this was an unfair, unjust, terrifying, and wrenching time for those that were forced to leave everything they had and be moved someplace they didn't know. Just because of their heritage. I'm so thankful that my grandpa didn't have to be forced into those camps, but i know it was a terrible time for them as well. My great grandpa had a thriving green house in southern colorado (the biggest one in the town they lived in) and after Pearl Harbor they were forced to shut it down and move away. But i learned something new today!  If i had been living where i am now, in 1942... i probably would've been forced into one of those camps. If you were even one EIGHTH Japanese, you were put in these camps. that was pretty major to me.

Years later, that whole ordeal was explained as being based on "racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." they rescinded the order in '76, started researching the whole ordeal in '80, and concluded the incarceration of the Japanese Americans had not been justified by military necessity in '82. they set up a public education fund so it wouldn't happen again (and i sure hope it doesnt!.. for ANYbody) and eventually the first Bush signed a bill to authorize payment and apologies be sent to all surviving victims.

I also love the history about the 442nd Infantry Regiment. in 1944 an ALL Japanese American unit started fighting in Europe. They were fighting for their country (America), while many of their family members were being held in camps by that same country. This unit became the most highly decorated regiment in the history of the United States armed forces. they coined the motto: "go for broke"

okay, sorry... i'm sure that was more history than you really wanted to know. but i think it's easy to forget some things ever happened. There was hatred for the Japanese in '42 (i saw a sign for a "Jap hunting license" that was hanging in some bar in Montana). there is hatred for 'muslims' now. thank goodness people haven't lost their minds enough to say we need to put all of 'them' in camps and keep everyone from contacting anyone they know. But you still hear 'send them back to where they came from' and things like that. sigh. it bothers me. a lot. everyone has a right to be here. I was teaching freedom to my 5th grader last week, cuz we were reading a story about the Bostom Tea Party. and i'm so thankful for everything the founding fathers and the soldiers in the Revolutionary War did for us. they are martyrs for the cause of freedom. I wish everyone had that right.

alas, my rant is over. moral of the story: WWII was very intense and terrible. lots has happened and changed since then. but i'm glad we can still learn about it all, so we can learn from our mistakes.