History and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Historical Storytelling

History and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Historical Storytelling

My essay compares the short story collection We Should Never Meet by Aimee Phan and the film History and Memory by Rea Tajiri. History can be twisted to tell a different narrative but a person's memory is only theirs to tell. Historic events like Operation Babylift during the Vietnam War and the Japanese internment camps during World War Two are parts of history that have been twisted. Phan’s book uses eight short stories that are all intertwined by simple everyday interactions. In this essay I will be focusing on Mai’s story, one of the main characters. Mai’s story is one of great personal growth and development of a child who was a product of Operation Babylift in the American foster care system. Phan’s stories demonstrate how individuals can be different but have a role in the same story. This way of storytelling demonstrates how history isn’t linear and memory can have many different details that do make a difference. Tajiri’s film tells the story of one family’s personal history in the era of Japanese and Japanese American incarceration, exposing truths about the internment camps that were hidden by the government. Compared to Phan’s stories, the film History & Memory uses a more avant garde approach with a montage of video clips and pictures with voice overs done by family members who lived in the camps.The montage is able to give first person insight into how the memory of an event doesn’t always align with what history is told to us. By analyzing both Tajiri’s film and Phan’s short stories alongside each, my presentation shows that history can be easily manipulated and memory is a more reliable way to get well rounded information about historic events.