guard tower at manzanar internment camp, california
We've been here before. It is in our story.
It was this week in 1942 an offense against Asian people began and it betrayed American principle and idealism.
Immigration is a recurrent political thorn and people suffer. There are seasons of hate and victimhood changes by ethnicity, heritage, and nationality. As violence and animosity toward AAPI peoples accelerate, we recall how the American federal government crossed a line of ignominy.
Manzanar is emblematic of the mistreatment of people of Asian ancestry, and their resilient grace in sustaining.
MANZANAR
The National Historic Site is history as a window to our national soul. It's also evidence of a test of civility and a benchmark on doing what we say we believe.
In this instance it was people of Japanese heritage. We know however, our villainy has been felt by Native citizens, Africans, Jews, Irish, Germans, Italians, Mexicans, and others despite we are a nation of immigrants. Immigration makes us better, and more culturally rich, but our history condemns us.
The Manzanar Site, ironically near Independence California, tells the history and testifies as to how fragile our civil liberties are.
They had been uprooted and forced to live in a cramped adversity with communal latrines and showers without stalls. Personal space and privacy taken from them.
Nearly 26 thousand Japanese Americans served in the US Military during WWII, many serving with distinction and decoration.
In the frame below is Teru Arikawa the mother of PFC Frank Arikawa, the first soldier from Manzanar who was killed in the line of duty.
The quote below is from President Harry Truman at a White House ceremony honoring the 442nd and 100th Infantry Battalion of the Hawaiian Territorial Guard.
With that simple order American civil liberties and justice were savaged.
Processing and reporting centers were opened and Japanese Americans were forced to depart.
Post Trump America holds new paranoias and hatreds with new generations who are the target of zealots, racists, ideologues and politicians seeking favor.
I asked once if Manzanar could happen again? Could we again suspend due process and trample civil liberties because of fear and a perceived threat? With the Trump-McConnell appointees on the federal bench, and all the believers of the big lie, it's a valid question still.
Manzanar can be explained, but not excused, by the fear stemming from war. Now it is another affliction that stalks us. Ignorance, brutality, political expediency and radicalized hate have aggregated to threaten our way of life, our beliefs and our future.
We have soul searching and soul work to do.
See you down the trail.
Eloquently stated! Thank you!!
ReplyDeletePipeTobacco
Thank you!
DeleteMy daughter Stephanie's best friend in high school dad was an internee, he was a grade school kid at the time. His family had a successful flower and greenhouse business, they lost everything. Ben never lost faith in this country, he was a remarkable guy.
ReplyDeleteThere is a history in San Luis Obispo of neighbors keeping watch and care of some homes and farms so when repatriation occurred, the interned could pick up where they left off. That was probably an exception to what occurred in most places.
DeleteThis was submitted by a frequent reader who used the poem in her classes.
ReplyDeleteIn Response to Executive Order 9066:
All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers*
by Dwight Okita
Dear Sirs:
Of course I’ll come. I’ve packed my galoshes
and three packets of tomato seeds. Denise calls them love apples. My father says where we’re going
they won’t grow.
I am a fourteen-year-old girl with bad spelling and a messy room. If it helps any, I will tell you I have always felt funny using chopsticks
and my favorite food is hot dogs.
My best friend is a white girl named Denise—
we look at boys together. She sat in front of me
all through grade school because of our names:
O’Connor, Ozawa. I know the back of Denise’s head very well.
I tell her she’s going bald. She tells me I copy on tests. We’re best friends.
I saw Denise today in Geography class.
She was sitting on the other side of the room. “You’re trying to start a war,” she said, “giving secrets away to the Enemy. Why can’t you keep your big mouth shut?”
I didn’t know what to say.
I gave her a packet of tomato seeds
and asked her to plant them for me, told her when the first tomato ripened
she’d miss me.
* “In Response to Executive Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Reloca- tion Centers” from Crossing With the Light by Dwight Okita. Copyright © 1992 by Dwight Okita. Tia Chucha Press, 1992, Chicag