We've been here before.....

  

                  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 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, followed days later by submarine attacks on central California marine targets unleashed a public mania that empowered a low in American history, the internment of nearly 120 thousand Japanese Americans during WWII.

      The Manzanar Site, ironically near Independence California, tells the history and testifies as to how fragile our civil liberties are.

      Operated by the National Parks Service, the Manzanar Historic Site, 200 miles north of LA, provides an intelligent  account of the life that began there in March of 1942. It conveys emotion.

     10 thousand people lived in 504 barracks the internees built. Tar paper shacks, windy, cold and snowy in winter, blown by sand and sweltering in the 110 degree summers.

   Surrounded by barbed wire, armed guards, and watch towers, entire families tried to make the best of life in a kind of prison camp. 
   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.

    They worked, digging irrigation canals, raising fruit, vegetables and livestock. They made clothing and furniture, camouflage netting and rubber products for the military. They were paid between $12 and $19 a month. With their limited funds they published a newspaper, operated a general store, bank and barbershop. 

   Without due process, the Federal government gave Japanese Americans only days to decide what to do with homes, farms, businesses, cars and all property. Most sold their possessions at a significant loss. They took only what they could carry.

      Not one Japanese American was ever charged with espionage. 
    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.

        Most of the Japanese American soldiers served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in North Africa, France and Italy. The unit had the highest casualty rate and was the most highly decorated Army unit of its size and length of service.
    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.

         President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 on February 19,1942 authorized relocation and/or internment of "anyone who might threaten the US war effort."  
       With that simple order American civil liberties and justice were savaged.  
        Processing and reporting centers were opened and Japanese Americans were forced to depart.

     Ten relocation camps were built. Without the rights due them, American citizens were forced into internment, with no idea of how long they would be held. No charges were brought against them.

    21st century Americans can visit Manzanar and see the vestige of a time when emotion, paranoia, awful political judgment and prejudice combined to create a despicable shadow on the life of this nation. It was a time that revealed our promise of freedom, liberty, and justice to be hollow and hypocritical. 

    It is both moving and frightening to see the names of those American citizens, who, because of heritage, were, without any legal recourse, treated like criminals and put into internment camps. Their freedoms were denied by an executive order, as a nation stood by.

    A driving and walking tour also covers the memorial ground, where those who died are remembered and where ashes were spread. 

 

       

     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. 

THE BIG MOMENTS AND FRESH AS FRESH CAN BE

OSCAR SHINES

    Everyone sees it their own way. I liked the politics of it. The big stage saw big moments of poignancy.

     Patricia Arquette's rally plea for equality for women and ecological sanitation in the developing nations scored points. It's something to see Meryl Streep standing, pointing and seemingly saying "You go girl!" 

     The overwhelming standing ovation for the emotionally staged Glory was topped only by John Legend and Common's powerful acceptance that repudiated racism and the over incarceration of blacks.

      Powerful were the tears of Selma's Martin Luther King,  David Oyelowo, as Glory filled the Dolby Theatre.

     Moving were the comments of Graham Moore telling how unfair it was that Alan Turing could not stand on a stage as he did. Moore won for adapting the Turing story into The Imitation Game. The brilliant Turing, an inventor of an early computer that broke the Nazi code in WWII, died of an apparent suicide after the war when he was exposed as being a homosexual.  Moore said he too considered suicide when he was 16 because he felt he was weird and different.

     There were plenty of candid and emotional moments at the microphone.

     It was stunning to see Julie Andrews emerge from the wings after Lady Gaga performed an incredible 50th anniversary tribute to Sound of Music.

      It was probably surprising to some to see the vocal skill and range of Gaga, who is better known as a costumed rocker. I've been a Gaga fan for a few years and have taken a few barbs from friends. The worst criticism of her are those who say she's a Madonna knock off. There is no way Madonna could have nailed the Sound of Music like Gaga. Nor could she perform as brilliantly with Tony Bennett as Gaga, who is a skilled musician, composer and artist. But I digress.

     All in all some major political and sociological planks got a good showing at Hollywood's big party. 
    For the record I think Neil Patrick Harris performed well, but some of the writing was shallow, self indulgent and weak. I'm sorry Richard Linklater didn't win for his epic production Boyhood. And while I raved about Birdman, I don't consider it film of the year. But hey, it's show biz!

FRESH

     One afternoon the next door neighbor where we were staying on Oahu asked if I could help him with a fruit tree.

   He had tied rope around a bundle of bananas and asked If I'd hold the end as he cut. The effort would prevent the fruit from crashing through other limbs and onto the ground.  It worked as they were undamaged.

  Within minutes, we were enjoying fruit as fresh as it could be.

COOKING LARGE

   Delivering the Paella at Tolosa's pick up party. Yum!

   See you down the trail