How many of you are familiar with the Japanese-American incarceration?
[audience raises hands]
Oh! Thank you, and good night. [laughter]
You guys are wonderful.
I was a prisoner of war, during World War II.
Held by my own country.
I was six years old.
This is my prison number: 125...
[checks paper] 12524.
I'm the letter D.
My family had 12524.
My family and I were incarcerated for three and a half years.
In Poston, Arizona, during World War II.
As a teacher, I would ask my students, sometimes on the first day of school:
"Draw an American for me."
"Take out a piece of paper, and draw an American for me. Okay?"
And then I would go around the room, and check the drawings.
And sometimes, the drawings would be of a stick figure.
Not much better than kindergarten.
Excuse me, Marsha.
Marsha is a kindergarten teacher, my wife. [audience laughs]
Draw an American for me. You get somebody in mind?
Hm?
How many of you thought of drawing a woman?
[audience stays silent]
Thank you.
A majority of Americans are women.
Who says it's a man's world?
Men, [laughs].
Women can do everything a man can do. And more.
How many of you thought of drawing a blonde, blue-eyed, hunk of a guy?
[a few people raise their hands]
Hitler would have been so proud of you. [audience laughs]
To many Americans, WASP is the American—White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
If you're not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, you're not really an American.
You know, I'm not Japanese.
I've never been Japanese.
I'm an American, of Japanese ancestry.
My father was Japanese, my mother was Japanese, but I'm not Japanese.
When I go to Japan, and I speak, they laugh and they go:
"We don't talk like that anymore."
They know I'm a 外人 (Gai-jin), a foreigner.
When I was in London, shopping,
and I had a nice conversation with the sales lady,
and at the end she says: "Oh, you Yanks."
She's looking at me, and I'm a Yank.
But in this country—parts of this country— I'm a damned Jap.
And I don't mean just the South.
There are parts of Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and such.
It's kind of dangerous for me to travel.
Racism still prevails in this country.
After 9/11—the attack on the twin towers in New York—there was talk about
rounding up all the Arabs and Muslim Americans in this country, and
incarcerating them in concentration camps.
Now to his credit, George W. Bush—the president—he, called the Cabinet meeting.
And he told his Cabinet members:
"We're not going to do, to the Arab and Muslim Americans in this country,
what we did to Norm Mineta and his family."
And all talk, about rounding up the Arab and Muslims, stopped.
And we were grateful.
Now, why was Norm, his family, and 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans
—two-thirds were American citizens—from Washington, Oregon, and California,
incarcerated after the attack on Pearl Harbour?
Well, Cabrillo College instructor, Sandy Lydon—historian emeritus—
said the Japanese strawberry farmer of Watsonville had nothing to do with the
attack on Pearl Harbour.
Did you know that there were 158,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans
living in the territory of Hawaii—it wasn't a state yet—
who were not incarcerated, with the exception of about 2,000.
They're in the war zone.
Well they needed the Japanese and Japanese-Americans in Hawaii
to run the economy of Hawaii.
They were the plurality, they were 37% of the population—census was taken in 1940.
Their general Evman said it's not necessary to do this.
There is no plans for sabotage.
We, who were 2,500 miles away from the war zone, we get incarcerated.
Why?
I have to take you back a little bit, in American history.
United States Constitution legalized slavery.
The U.S. government condoned, and practiced racism.
The Naturalization act in 1790,
Asians, could not become citizens of the United States.
The Cherokee Nation.
You've heard of the trail of tears?
They were forced, out of their homes.
Dred Scott decision, he was a slave. Even free territory.
There was an anti-Irish catholic mentality in this country.
There were signs that were printed, and displayed: 'No Irish Need Apply.'
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Separate but equal.
How can the separate be equal?
A. Mitchell Palmer Raids, 1919-1920.
The communists, and, and Jews too, were deported without trial.
Just placed on a ship and shipped out.
Immigration Act of 1924.
Japanese could not come to this country anymore.
Fred Korematsu case.
Our history is a history of racism.
Discrimination regarding immigration as well.
In the early 20th century, it was said in the newspapers—Examiner, The Chronicle,
The McClatchy papers, you know, Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee, and
The Sentinel—that the Japanese race is an alien race which can never be
assimilated into the American way of life.
There is nothing of value, of Japanese culture.
Nothing of value.
How many of you have eaten sushi? [audience laughs]
What about bonsai?
Ikebana flower arranging?
Origami?
Wax on, wax off? [audience laughs]
Karate?
Ah, Japanese culture is rich.
And so many enjoy participating in Japanese culture.
To make sure the Japanese did not assimilate into this country,
laws were passed.
Asians could not own property, marry whites,
become citizens of the United States.
The attack on Pearl Harbour, December 7th, 1941.
John L. DeWitt, commander of the western ___, as his fourth army.
At the Presidio of San Francisco.
Had the ear of the President of the United States.
He said: "A Jap's a Jap."
"It makes no difference whether that Jap is a citizen or not."
J. Edgar Hoover said: "Mr. President, we don't need to do this."
Francis Biddle who was the Attorney General at the time said:
"Mr. President, I don't think we can do this."
There were no lawsuits filed on our behalf.
Executive Order 9066, was past 75 years ago.
You know, there was one group, nationally, one group, that supported us.
The American Quakers.
The American friends.
They're the only ones.
Nationally, not even the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) supported us.
Locally, luckily, we had some friends.
City attorney of Watsonville, with John McCarthy.
Our police chief, Matt Graves.
School teachers, public school teachers.
And many others supported us.
You know, the reward, they were called 'Jap Lovers' for supporting us.
They had their homes and cars vandalized.
And they were among the very first to welcome us back.
We had some very dear friends.
In 1942, our homes were searched, without search warrants.
The FBI came into our homes—they got the information from the Bureau of
the Census.
The Bureau of the Census is not supposed to do that.
We were hacked. [laughs]
There were no trials, except for four people.
But for the rest of us, we had no charges,
no attorneys, no due process of law.
[shows paper] This, the Constitution of the United States,
ceased to exist for us.
From camp—there were ten major camps— and from camps,
our men and women volunteered to serve in the United States Armed Forces.