Did you know that the PNE once used to be a holding place for Japanese Canadians before being sent to internment camps?

This is just one of the many facts learned in our most recent humanities project, Ology of Apology. The driving question for this project is how can we keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and not repeated today? To answer this question we dove deeper into asiatic exclusion in Canada, focusing specifically on the Chinese Head Tax, Komagata maru, and the topic I focused on for my final product, Japanese internment camps.

To launch the project, we chose an significant historical event to quickly research and then build a memorial for. My group chose the Chinese Head Tax. This was a good way to start the project, because it was a shortened version of our final project and helped set the vision of what we were working towards.

During this project I also learned about the The National September 11 Monument and Museum. Learning about different memorials helped me think about different symbols and metaphors that are commonly used. 

Throughout the project, we took notes on several presentations to further our knowledge about historical topics, as well as learn about different types of apologies. Here is my note about apology.

https://s.craft.me/cEyLGEBSeNhRv0

Another part of our project was reading the book Obasan by Joy Kogawa. I found this book more interesting and easier to understand than a lot of previous books read in Humanities, but there were several parts that were disturbing and hard to read. Besides that, it also helped deepen my understanding of the Japanese Canadian experiences for my final project. As well, we did little quizzes to check on our reading, which I think went pretty well. For the next book, I think remembering to add little notes and highlights will help my comprehension and memory of everything.

The final part of this project was to create a memorial for one of the 3 topics mentioned at the start. My group was given the Japanese internment camps. First, we individually researched and created smart brevity notes. 

https://s.craft.me/yVlzmRpqNksuG4

Then we worked together to brainstorm and pitch our idea for a memorial to commemorate the internment camps. We had to revise several times to create a plan that was ok and had enough symbolism. Here was our document:

https://s.craft.me/ZCheYCGoZQO37x

Then we began building. For the first rock, we covered an actual rock in clay and for the second we used cardboard on the inside. If I was to redo it, I would find a way to make it look more like they were split in half and make the outsides smoother and less cracked. As well, I could have improved on my barbed wire. We did include all the concepts and symbols from our design, however the aesthetics needed work. This is a prototype we created before making our actual memorial:

To go along side our memorial, we each wrote a memorial explainer and combined it into one main document:

https://s.craft.me/W6EednKRfmeyeo

Here is our final memorial and display.

How can we keep an apology alive so the wrongs of the past are remembered and not repeated today?

To keep an apology alive and prevent past wrongs from repeating, it starts with offering a sincere apology and acknowledging the wrongs done. This sets the foundation for reconciliation and healing. As well, education plays a crucial role in ensuring history is not forgotten—by teaching the lessons of past injustices, such as through school, books, and memorials, we raise awareness across generations. Through apologies, society can honour past wrongs while learning to create a better future.