Faces of America

          Over the past few days in class we have been watching the series "Faces of America".  This show, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, helps prominent figures of American culture to find where their ancestors are from and when their family first came to America.  One of the major persons in the film is Kristi Yamaguchi.  She is the descendant of a Japanese family that came to America during the WWII era.  Her family faced the discrimination of the concentration camps in the West despite the fact that her father served in the American army as one of the few Japanese soldiers not in a purely Japanese company.  Her mother and father were both born in the concentration camps.  Though most of her Japanese culture, such as language, was lost over the years. Despite what was lost "Faces of America" was able to track her family lineage all the way back to a town in Japan.  Their they found her grandfather's cousin and they were able to learn a lot from him through pictures and information that had been passed down through him.  Overall, the show really depicted how America's major "faces", or people, aren't actually as American as many believe due to their history of immigration no more than 200 years ago.

          In my opinion, America being a nation of immigrants make it very unique in its background.  Due to the fact of having so many people coming in from all over the world makes America a nation of people who strive for better lives.  This attitude makes America even more of a nation of hard workers and people who are willing to make sacrifices in order to make their living conditions better and also to be to achieve their dreams.  Also people of other countries also come to the US as a place of refuge from the troubles and hardships of their maiden land.  This is a major sign of accomplishment for the Us.  This shows that people see the Us as a place of safety and a strong point in the world.  And the fact that the Us is a nation of immigrants means that these people who escape strife are trying to make the US a strong point in order to help deliver people that were in their situation to safety.  All these people of different cultural backgrounds makes America very unique in a sense of its culture.  This is due to all of these cultures mixing and blending with the others to create a culture that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.  I do not feel a very strong connection with my ancestry because of the time since my ancestors first arrived in America.  My family from both sides have been inn America for hundreds of years and over time the traditional culture has been lost.