February 28, 1999
Instead of having a lecture last week, we headed on over to Wheeler Auditorium to enjoy the show commemorating Day of Remembrance. It was concert held on by the Asian American Jazz Orchestra and the San Jose Taiko.
The show featured music from the time when Japanese people were interned. The music was used as a backdrop to the stories told by a man and a woman. They even used a slide show to backdrop the music so I thought that the show was very clever and original. It was also very educational because the stories told us about the Japanese Americans from the beginning of the war, when they were interned, all the way up until the end of the war. I was very surprised at how they complied with orders and how harsh their lives were during that time. The signs that were posted stating for Japs to go away were very sad to see. The frightening thing is that this occurred a little over 50 years ago so it was not that long ago. If I lived during that time, I would be the one in the camps. So, with that in mind, I was proud of the courage that those people showed and how they passed the time away through music.
The music during the show was pretty intense. All the different instruments did many solos that just blew me away. The instrument that I like the most was the taiko. The intensity that the beats created were nothing that could be matched. I think that the beats really symbolized the cruelty that they went through.
All and all, I felt that it was a very worthwhile program and I enjoyed it very much.