Never Forget
Today marks the 77th anniversary of Executive Order 6066 which put in place the evacuation and in most cases the incarceration of all Japanese and Japanese Americans from the western states of California, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Arizona. Most people today agree, it was a dark day in U.S. history. Despite that in 2019, nearly 18 years after 9-11, our country is more divided than ever on the matters of immigration and whether Muslims have a place in our country.
A few days after 9/11 I wrote the following letter to the editor published in the Kwajalein Hourglass on September 18, 2001. Sadly, I believe the message is still an important one 18 years on.
On Dec. 7, 1941, a 16-year-old American girl named Kay sat transfixed by the radio. She listened over and over to the accounts of the attack. Kay wasn’t her given name. She was born Kazuko, too hard to say for most, too Japanese for her. Kay peppered her father with questions that day, “Why did they do this? Will there be a war? “What will happen to us? “Do I have to go to school? He assured her she’d be safe. After all, she was an American, born in the best country in the world. She’ d go to school and mourn with her classmates. If she did, no one would doubt her loyalty or devotion to their country.
The next morning she went to school, but her loyalty wasn’t enough to protect her from prejudice and hate. Many Americans turned their anger and fear against the Japanese Americans.
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 and evacuated Kay and 110,000 other Japanese Americans to relocation camps in isolated rural outposts throughout the U.S. For the duration of the war the government suspended Kay’s civil rights. She was a citizen of the United States by birth, her parents were here by choice. They came to the land of the free and the home of the brave to cast their lot with those who value liberty above all else.
That girl is my mother and I’m proud of her patriotism. She harbors no ill will, and values everyday she’s lived in a free country where her daughters and grandchildren can grow up to be whatever they aspire to be. So before we rush to judge or restrict the civil liberties of a whole class of Americans, for the actions of a few extreme madmen, remember why your ancestors came to the shores of the United States. They came for economic opportunity, religious freedom or to escape political persecution. Whatever the reason, as Americans, we cannot deny others the same opportunities we have been so blessed to have.
Post script, since the time I wrote this commentary, I heard a wonderful story. In the situation room following the 9/11 attacks members of the cabinet wanted to round up Muslims and imprison them as the Franklin administration did with the Japanese. But President George H. W. Bush, looked the proponents straight in the eye and said, “we will not to do these people what was done to Norm [Mineta] and his family.” Norman Mineta was the Secretary of Transportation and in the situation room. He and his family were part of the Japanese relocated and incarcerated to Heart Mountain. I did not support George H. W. Bush but knowing that, I respect him.
In 2019, with racism and hate hiding behind the slogan “Make America Great Again”, we cannot forget what truly makes our country great is the individual protections of the Constitution to due process. Freedom is messy and tragic things happen, but I’ll take messy over totalitarian any day.