Ten percent of the Japanese Americans were in mixed-race camps. These were either run by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) or the United States Army. Many different people were interned in INS and Army camps. These people were included:
WRA camps were surrounded by barbed wire. They were also guarded by soldiers who waited in watchtowers holding guns.
Some people were shot. For example, James Wakasa, who stepped outside the barbed wire fence, was shot and killed. The guard who shot him said that Wakasa was trying to escape, but the Japanese Americans in the camp did not believe the guard. Most of the camps were many miles away from the coast, and often in rural areas. Many of the camps were in the desert, which was uncomfortable for many of the Japanese Americans who were not used to that type of climate. This also meant that even if somebody escaped, there would be nowhere for them to go.
In the camps, people had to stand in line to eat or to go to the bathroom.
One famous camp was Manzanar, which was in California. Many Japanese from Los Angeles and San Francisco were sent there. Other camps included Poston in Arizona and Minidoka in Idaho. There were a few camps outside of the western U.S., such as Jerome in Arkansas. Japanese Americans were often crowded into small spaces, such as race tracks, before being sent to the camps.
The camps tried to provide medical care. Many of the people who worked in the camp hospitals were Japanese American doctors and nurses who lived in the internment camps. However, there were not enough doctors and nurses, and not enough medical supplies. Also, conditions at the camps helped cause some diseases. For example:
A total of 1,862 people died from medical problems while in the internment camps. About one out of every 10 of these people died from tuberculosis.
By 1943, the government allowed some Japanese Americans to leave the camps to work or go to school. However, the government would not let them return to the West Coast. Some Japanese Americans were even allowed to serve as soldiers in the U.S. Army, and many served with honor in Europe.
In 1944, the United States government said that it would stop putting Japanese Americans in internment camps. The people who were placed in the camps were given $25 and a bus ticket home. However, it would take more than 40 years for the government to apologize to Japanese Americans for what had happened. In 1988, the government apologized and paid a check $20,000 to people who had been sent to internment camps.(most checks did not reach the recipients due to logistical issues.) Canada paid $21,000.
Feldkircher Lyrikpreis
The "Feldkirch Poetry Prize", in German Feldkircher Lyrikpreis, started by Erika Kronabitter, an Austrian artist and writer, is given every year by the theater "Theater am Saumarkt" in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg/Austria. Among the sponsors, there are the Austrian government, the local administration of Vorarlberg and private banks. In 2003, the poetry prize was organized for the first time.
Poets from all countries may send in their poems. German philologists and poets are the jury. The winners are presented to the public during Fall. The winning poems are archived in the Library of Vorarlberg.
Inferno Metal Festival
Inferno Metal Festival is an annual extreme metal festival in Oslo, Norway. The festival take place at Rockefeller Music Hall.
Sailing ship
A sailing ship is a big boat with sails which catch the wind. The wind pushes the boat along. A sailing ship had a rig of at least three masts, square rigged on all of them. The great days of sailing ships was from around the 15th century to the middle of the 19th century. They were very important for trade as well as for war. All large boats became known as "ships", so when steam power was invented people talked about "steam ships" to distinguish them from "sailing ships".
Small boats with sails are called "yachts" or sailboats. They are used today for leisure activities.
Weather radar
A weather radar is a type of radar used to show where precipitation is. Weather radar can tell the movement of precipitation, what type it is (rain, snow, hail, etc.), and forecast its future.
Modern weather radars are mostly Doppler radars, which can find the movement of rain drops and the intensity of the precipitation. Both types of information can be used to find the structure of storms and tell if they will cause any severe weather.
Hominid (novel)
Hominid is a novel by Austrian writer Klaus Ebner. The story takes place millions of years ago and tells some days in the life of a group of hominids who live in Central Africa. The book was published by the Viennese publisher FZA Verlag in October 2008.
"Hominid" takes place several million years ago in the Central African region between rainforest and savanna. The main characters are australopithecus afarenses, a hominid mostly living on trees that existed before the use of tools and fire. The story is told in the first person by the main character, Pitar. In thinking about his social and natural environment, Pitar decides to lead his family to civilization: "Hence I decided to shed some light on the darkness, to light a candle following the motto Let there be light and so on". His linguistic knowledge, thoughts and sayings are those of modern man, including a big knowledge about history, politics, philosophy and literature. Several comments made by Pitar about a particular object that has not been invented or developed yet, add to the funniness of the scenario. Pitar's close friends are Carpediem, who says Latin phrases and quotes the writers of Classical Antiquity, and Lao, who often refers to Chinese philosophy.
Although it is difficult to convince the other characters to follow him, Pitar manages to persuade the patriarchal leader of the clan, Costello, who has taken over leadership from Thorn, who had died shortly before. The group builds windbreaks so that they may descend more often from the trees, which has a higher risk of being attacked by wild animals on the ground. Costello and Re are rivals. Re not only questions the leading abilities of Costello, but also wants to possess Costello's females. To calm down the arising quarrel, Pitar tries to found a parliament in order to settle conflicts peacefully. Whereas Costello thinks the parliament would be a forum in which he can strengthen his power, quoting from famous speeches by Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln, the other members ruin the idea because they have no discipline and feel indifferent.
One of the subplots of the novel shows the love between Pitar and Maluma, a female member of the group. Costello pretends the group of females would be his personal harem, but when Maluma falls in love with Pitar, she breaks off her relationship with the leader. On each day, the characters discover new things. On the seventh day, everyone is exhausted from their work and needs rest. However, the calm is broken by the attack of a saber-toothed cat. Several members of the family are killed, including Costello, which allows Re to come to power. Pitar and Maluma decide to leave the group, saying: “We should leave in time, leave Re and his new Reich, which, when I'm taking into account Thorn's previous reign, would be the Third over here.” Pitar and Maluma leave toward the savanna in a move that remembers both the expulsion from paradise and the Out of Africa theory.
The novel has seven chapters, "Day 1" to "Day 7", with the action of each chapter taking place on consecutive days. The chapter titles refer to the seven days of the biblical Creation. Only odd-numbered chapters tell the love story. Writer Karin Gayer mentions in her review that the love story of Pitar and Maluma, and its positioning within the text, offers "a second interpretation of the beginning and the end".
In conversation with the Viennese regional leader of publisher Arovell, Ebner talked about the hidden meanings of his characters' names.