In the Japanese-American community, today, February 19th, is known as the "Day of
Remembrance." It is the anniversary (this year is the 75th) of the signing of Executive Order
9066, which authorized the incarceration, without due process, of nearly 120,000 JapaneseAmericans, both immigrant and citizen, including my parents and grandparents.
This year, with what is happening in the nation, many in the Japanese community have been
trying to call attention to that period in history. However, some aren't understanding the
connection because today, we're not putting people into camps - yet; or they think that the
incarceration was justified because of the war.
What these folks are missing is that this was not a standalone event, but was instead the
culmination of decades of discriminatory acts, both by ordinary citizens, AND by the
government. Some of these were ostensibly economic (because the Japanese were competing
in agriculture and other spheres), but were, at their core, race-based. A few of the government
actions were:
- The 1907 Gentlemen's Agreement, which restricted immigration from Japan,
- The declaration of Asian immigrants (but not European immigrants) as "aliens ineligible to
citizenship,"
- The California Alien Land Laws, which prohibited those immigrants from owning land,
- And then, the 1924 Immigration Act, which ended immigration by those "aliens ineligible to
citizenship."
So, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, the Japanese who were in the US were either citizens
because they had been born here, or had been in the country for at least 17 years. Even so,
the discriminatory attitudes and fear amongst the public, press, government and the military
led to:
- The FBI rounding up and incarcerating, without charges, about 2000 leaders of the Japanese
community. (Apparently, the FBI had been keeping a registry.)
- Inflammatory newspaper “reports” of sabotage, which were actually unfounded rumor. (Can
you say “fake news?”)
- Lobbying by the Native Sons of the Golden West (a California group) for the removal of the
Japanese, which is ironic, because there were many California-born Japanese who would have
been eligible for membership
- And, the contention of California attorney general Earl Warren, that the absence of any
sabotage by Japanese Americans was an indication that "the blow is well-organized and that it
is held back until it can be struck with maximum effect." (Ultimately, no act of sabotage was
EVER attributed to the Japanese in America.)
And in that time of fear and hysteria and inflammatory reporting and pressure from antiJapanese groups, came the executive order, resulting in the wholesale removal of Japanese
from the coast to the interior.
The reason this day touches me so is not just that this happened to my relatives, but also that
my faith tells me to love my neighbor, to embrace the "other," and, from our baptismal
covenant, we are called to "respect the dignity of the every human being." Today, we are
seeing increased discrimination against people because of who they are rather than what they
have done. Immigrants, refugees, Muslims, the LGBTQ community, minorities of all kinds,
women, the poor of every color, and those who simply disagree.
We are also seeing the government claiming threats from without and within, discrediting the
press, casting criticism as "espionage" and dissent as “treason," surveilling ordinary citizens,
and attempting to subvert the rule of law. These are steps toward creating an authoritarian
regime.
We could have a repeat of what happened to the Japanese, to other groups in other places,
and in the most extreme case, the Holocaust.
This is our warning - we must be vigilant and we must not remain silent.
-----When I spoke, KING5 television had just finished broadcasting a series titled, “Prisoners in
Their Own Land” by Lori Matsukawa. Episodes can be viewed online at
http://www.king5.com/news/local/prisoners-in-their-own-land-japanese-internment-camps75-years-later/407233471.
Also, that afternoon, the Seattle Public Library, in conjunction with Densho (www.densho.org),
the Council of American-Islamic Relations, and the ACLU, held an event titled, "Never Again:
Japanese American WWII History and American Muslim Rights Today, a presentation and
conversation examining Japanese American incarceration during World War II and how it
relates to racism today.” The recorded livestream of this event may be found at
http://www.densho.org/never-again-livestream/