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Family History Guide

YOUR AMERICAN STORY

Sharing Nisei History Between Generations

By Tom Graves
Your American Story (download MS Word Doc)

Read “Sharing Nisei History Between Generations” below:


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Grandparents and Veterans: Share your history!

“My history? Who cares? Who will read it? I want to forget about the war – it was so long ago. What does it matter?”

There may be excuses to avoid telling your story:

“I’m not a writer. I’m busy with meetings and doctor appointments. My kids and grandkids are busy, too.”

But there are good reasons to share your own history with your family:

  • I’ve lived a long life and I have things I want to share: wisdom, memories or advice.
  • My life’s meaning, and our family’s history, should not vanish so easily. Our family worked hard to succeed.
    We sacrificed… If we don’t leave a record of those times they will be forgotten.
  • The history books I’ve read don’t tell the whole story. I lived through history and people should know what I witnessed.
  • I can tell my grandchildren things no one else can. Why their faces remind me of their mother and father, and my mother and father.
  • Of course I’ve spent time with my grandchildren: babysitting, and at recitals and holiday dinners. But since they’ve been old enough to understand, how often have I talked to them about things that really matter? (I had better begin.)

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Times Change

Popular music, cars and fashion may change with the times, but what about people? Might not your grandchildren face the same challenges you had growing up? A bad grade; the disappointment of not making the team; a broken heart; even getting into trouble after school…

  • Wouldn’t they appreciate learning about your challenges and how you (and your parents) dealt with them?
  • What about your travels, hobbies and secret talents? Would they inspire a young person?
  • Many people have a friend, relative or teacher that made a big impact on their lives. What would your grandchild learn by learning of them?
  • What do you remember about your grandparents? Do you wish you spent more time talking with them? Don’t you think your grandchildren feel the same way?
  • Kids may not have changed, but their lives have new influences – video games, facebook, the Internet. What has been lost? Traditions, family time and the art of conversation.
  • It has never been more important to share your experiences with young people. Today’s grandparents have seen more changes than any other generation. Many remember Amelia Earhart’s last flight in 1939 as well as the day when man landed on the moon. We remember automobiles as heavy and round, without air conditioning, seat belts or automatic transmissions.
  • As great as technology advances, are the advances of civil rights, especially in California, where Indians, Asians, Latinos and African Americans all took turns as second-class citizens. Our flag once had 48 stars, and most of the world was ruled by kings and queens and emperors. Will your grandchildren learn these things in school? Yes, but they probably won’t learn or remember as clearly as if you told them your of own experiences.
  • Our lives have their share of sadness and pain, and we hold onto our nicest memories better than we do the unpleasant ones. Many of us would rather forget December 7, 1941 and the Relocation, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, JFK’s assassination and September 11th. But there are lessons to be learned from those events and how we dealt with them.
  • As the years go by, the significance of events will fade, and they fade faster for those who didn’t personally experience them. A few sentences in a text book cannot tell children the whole story, or begin to explain the meaning and the human side of history. But a few minutes talking with a child or grandchild can make an impression that will last a lifetime.

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It’s never been easier to share your stories!

  • You can sit and talk with your children and grandchildren, or talk over the phone. Write letters or email. Collect photos, captions and other materials into a family history album.
  • Keep a journal. A journal can be your record of personal events, but also your thoughts on the issues and news of the day. How did you pick a president? Even if you don’t disclose your choice, your grandchildren will learn much from your decision making process.
  • You can also record your history on audio, or better, on video. Densho and The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress (see resources) can give you advice on how to do a quality job.
  • With a computer and the appropriate software, you can even speak your memories into a microphone, and the computer will record and print them out for you. It’s not perfect; you will still need to do some editing.
  • Write your autobiography! Many community colleges, libraries and senior centers have classes to get you started and help you along the way.
  • Legacy projects (see resources) offer advice on oral histories, and if you wish, can include your story in their collections.
  • Get interviewed! It’s likely your grandchildren will ask to interview you for a class assignment. Say, yes. This as an opportunity to begin an ongoing conversation.

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Grandkids: Today’s events become tomorrow’s history.

We may not think about it, but every day, we are all living through history. A photo taken today of your street, home or family will have a different significance 20 years from now. Cars, clothes, hairstyles, even houses and landscapes will have changed.

Many of these changes evolve slowly, so they are only obvious after a significant passage of time. That explains why otherwise commonplace events and documents can take on historical meaning, and why History is about everyone and it affects everyone. Imagine the changes your grandparents have witnessed and experienced over their lifetimes!

History books consolidate a few years (or a few centuries) into a limited number of pages. They must be summaries, listing just a few events in each period of time. They generalize and many things must be left out. The authors who write them decide which individuals, events and themes to call attention to – and which to ignore.

  • Would you likely find the answers to these questions in your textbook: What did a restaurant meal cost in 1960? What about a movie? How many people lived in your grandparents’ hometowns when they were growing up? What pets did your parents have when they were kids?
  • One day, ask your teacher if history books are the only way, or the best way, to learn history. Your teacher may suggest other methods of appreciating history:
  • Reading newspapers, periodicals or letters from a particular period of time; visiting historic sites, and viewing art and historic objects in museums; reading memoirs and literature of an era, and the writings and biographies of historical figures. Also meeting and interviewing people who lived through other times.

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Oral Histories

Interviewing someone about their life and times is called collecting their Oral History, and is an effective way to learn the history of recent events. Many historians prefer oral history, because as a Primary Source, it allows them to learn directly from a person who was there, rather than from a book which incorporates an author’s interpretation of historical material (a Secondary Source). Oral histories often include details and personal experiences that would be left out of a typical history book. These details can provide fuller and richer descriptions of historical and everyday events.

  • History emphasizes events, but history happens every day, even the days that don’t make it into the history books. Politics, economies and societies evolve slowly. The attack on Pearl Harbor took only hours, but the conditions that lead up to it, and the events in its aftermath, lasted decades. The same can be said for other events: the Vietnam War, the Great Depression and September 11th.
  • Oral histories can “fill in the blanks” between the events that make headlines. If history books teach the “When,” oral histories can supply the “Why.”
  • You may be asked to interview a grandparent for a class assignment. But you don’t have to wait for an assignment to learn about your own family and its place in history.

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Getting started with your family’s history.

Collecting oral histories should be a straight forward project. You can use skills you already have: listening, taking notes, and maybe making a video.

Think about whose history you would like to collect – and why. Sometimes the typical tension between generations may make it hard to interview your own parents. Instead, try aunts, uncles and your grandparents. Your grandparents will be happy to be your oral history subjects, especially if it is for a school assignment.

  1. You are the interviewer; the person speaking to you is the subject. Unlike the “question and answer” format of other kinds of interviews, oral histories are primarily the subject speaking about his or her own experiences, observations and opinions. Your role as interviewer is to put the subject at ease, and to ask appropriate questions to prompt the subject into talking about the years or events that most interest you.
  2. Do a little preparation in order to ask appropriate questions. Look up U.S. and world history for the years your grand-parents were growing up. If your grandfather is a veteran, did he serve during peacetime or during a war?
  3. Visit the Densho and Veterans History Project websites for tips on collecting oral histories. If you are going to video the interview (ask permission first), assemble the equipment, learn how to use it and try a practice interview before you do the real one. A missing cable or disc, a bad microphone or a wrong setting is all it takes to ruin your recording.
  4. Make a list of family members or events you want to learn about. Don’t try to embarrass anyone; ask questions a historian might ask. When did your family move to this country? What do your grandparents remember about their grandparents? Think about events and activities in your own life that you and your grandparents might have in common – the first day of school, joining Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, favorite classes, teachers and sports teams.
  5. Good sound quality is essential to achieving a good result. If you are taping or shooting video, any sounds besides your subject’s voice will be a problem on the sound track. Remove anything that may create extraneous sounds during the interview – a squeaky chair, dangling jewelry, pens or other objects that could be nervously tapped. Turn off or unplug everything that might make a noise or buzz: phones, cell phones, computers, fans, etc.
  6. By agreeing to be interviewed, your subject is doing you a favor. Be courteous, organized and on time. Make your subject comfortable. Let them know they don’t have to discuss any subjects they find painful or embarrassing. Find a private spot. Your subject will speak more freely without an audience, and you will appreciate the lack of distractions. The oral history may take an hour or longer, so ask about any schedule restrictions. If the session goes longer than an hour, be prepared to take a break.
  7. The interview subject, not the interviewer, should do at least 90 percent of the talking. For this reason, it’s best to ask questions that lead into a subject or require an explanation, instead just a yes or no answer: “Tell me about your first job?” “Who were your favorite ballplayers?” “What do you remember most about your parents?” “What was it like the first time you voted for President?”
  8. When your subject is talking, don’t interrupt. This is essential to a successful oral history. Your role is listener, prompter and recorder. Don’t “talk over” your subject: when two people are talking it is difficult for the listener to understand what is being said. An oral history can resemble an old country road – it gets to the destination only after a lot of twists and turns. Only when your subject wanders way off track should you interrupt with a question to return the discussion to your area of interest.
  9. Ask for explanations and spellings of technical, military or foreign words you don’t understand. Those who read or hear the oral history may need the same help.

When you interview your grandparent, you not only share a clear history with your subject, you may find you have more in common than you first thought. Think about a follow-up interview and schedule regular phone calls to keep in touch. Have fun!

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Resources

These organizations specialize in veterans’ histories. Contact them directly to donate, learn more or volunteer.

Densho: Japanese American Legacy Project
Conducts video interviews of Japanese Americans and the Internment experience,
and provides information on oral histories.
1416 S. Jackson St., Seattle, WA 98144 206-320-0095 www.densho.org

Go For Broke National Education Center
The Hanashi Project
Collects video interviews of Japanese American Veterans. Also has an office in Hawaii.
P.O. Box 2590, Gardena, CA 90247 310-328-0907 www.goforbroke.org

Heroes All
www.heroesall.com
Honors Veterans of WWII and the Korean War.
Professional portraits by Tom Graves with accompanying interviews.

Japanese American Living Legacy
Omoide Project
Documents the history of all Japanese Americans. Also has an office in Japan.
800 N. State College Blvd., RGC 8, Fullerton, CA 92831
714-278-4483 (area code changes to 657 in June 2009) www.jalivinglegacy.org

National Japanese American Historical Society
Operates Nisei oral history program with San Francisco State University.
1684 Post St., San Francisco, CA 94115 415-921-5007 www.njahs.org

Nisei Posts Project
www.niseiposts.org

Go online to learn the history of California’s Nisei Veterans. View the video, find links to Nisei veterans’ sites in the menu to the left.
Download this guide to sharing family histories. Your American Story Family Guide (download word doc)

Veterans History Project/American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress
Collects histories of U.S. Veterans and U.S. civilians who participated in the war effort.
Provides forms and advice on collecting oral histories. 888-371-5848 www.loc.gov/vets

About Your American Story: Tom Graves has interviewed hundreds of veterans of World War II and the Korean War. In addition to writing Your American Story, he wrote and produced An American Story, a video on the history of Nisei Veterans. Heroes All!, a collection of veterans portraits and interviews, has been exhibited all over America, in venues as diverse as Fort Knox, the National Steinbeck Center, American Legion National Convention, the National Japanese American Historical Society and San Francisco City Hall.

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Your American Story was written specifically for Nisei grandparents and Veterans, but the information and suggestions apply to all veterans. And all veterans should share their histories and their wisdom with their grandchildren.

Your American Story is available as a beautifully printed 6×9 inch brochure. To order 1 to 1,000 copies, please email your request to the contact address at the heroesall.com website, or call 415-550-7241.

Permission is given to download and reproduce this guide for educational and private (not commercial) purposes only when the following credit it given: “Copyright 2009 Tom Graves “

Your American Story was made possible by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

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Copyright 2009 Tom Graves www.heroesall.com

Your American Story Family Guide (download word doc)