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How many of you are familiar with the
Japanese-American incarceration?
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[audience raises hands]
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Oh! Thank you, and good night.
[laughter]
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You guys are wonderful.
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I was a prisoner of war,
during World War II.
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Held by my own country.
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I was six years old.
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This is my prison number: 125...
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[checks paper]
12524.
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I'm the letter D.
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My family had 12524.
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My family and I were incarcerated for
three and a half years.
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In Poston, Arizona, during World War II.
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As a teacher, I would ask my students,
sometimes on the first day of school:
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"Draw an American for me."
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"Take out a piece of paper, and
draw an American for me. Okay?"
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And then I would go around the room,
and check the drawings.
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And sometimes, the drawings would be of
a stick figure.
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Not much better than kindergarten.
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Excuse me, Marsha.
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Marsha is a kindergarten teacher, my wife.
[audience laughs]
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Draw an American for me.
You get somebody in mind?
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Hm?
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How many of you thought of drawing a
woman?
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[audience stays silent]
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Thank you.
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A majority of Americans are women.
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Who says it's a man's world?
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Men, [laughs].
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Women can do everything a man can do.
And more.
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How many of you thought of drawing a
blonde, blue-eyed, hunk of a guy?
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[a few people raise their hands]
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Hitler would have been so proud of you.
[audience laughs]
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To many Americans, WASP is the
American—White Anglo-Saxon Protestant.
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If you're not a White Anglo-Saxon
Protestant, you're not really an American.
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You know, I'm not Japanese.
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I've never been Japanese.
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I'm an American, of Japanese ancestry.
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My father was Japanese, my mother was
Japanese, but I'm not Japanese.
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When I go to Japan, and I speak,
they laugh and they go:
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"We don't talk like that anymore."
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They know I'm a 外人 (Gai-jin),
a foreigner.
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When I was in London, shopping,
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and I had a nice conversation with
the sales lady,
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and at the end she says:
"Oh, you Yanks."
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She's looking at me, and I'm a Yank.
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But in this country—parts of this country—
I'm a damned Jap.
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And I don't mean just the South.
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There are parts of Idaho,
Montana, North Dakota and such.
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It's kind of dangerous for me to travel.
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Racism still prevails in this country.
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After 9/11—the attack on the twin towers
in New York—there was talk about
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rounding up all the Arabs and Muslim
Americans in this country, and
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incarcerating them in concentration camps.
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Now to his credit, George W. Bush—the
president—he, called the Cabinet meeting.
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And he told his Cabinet members:
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"We're not going to do, to the Arab and
Muslim Americans in this country,
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what we did to Norm Mineta
and his family."
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And all talk, about rounding up the Arab
and Muslims, stopped.
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And we were grateful.
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Now, why was Norm, his family, and 120,000
Japanese and Japanese-Americans
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—two-thirds were American citizens—from
Washington, Oregon, and California,
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incarcerated after the attack on
Pearl Harbour?
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Well, Cabrillo College instructor,
Sandy Lydon—historian emeritus—
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said the Japanese strawberry farmer of
Watsonville had nothing to do with the
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attack on Pearl Harbour.
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Did you know that there were 158,000
Japanese and Japanese-Americans
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living in the territory of Hawaii—it
wasn't a state yet—
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who were not incarcerated,
with the exception of about 2,000.
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They're in the war zone.
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Well they needed the Japanese and
Japanese-Americans in Hawaii
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to run the economy of Hawaii.
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They were the plurality, they were 37% of
the population—census was taken in 1940.
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Their general Evman said it's not
necessary to do this.
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There is no plans for sabotage.
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We, who were 2,500 miles away from
the war zone, we get incarcerated.
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Why?
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I have to take you back a little bit, in
American history.
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United States Constitution legalized
slavery.
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The U.S. government condoned,
and practiced racism.
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The Naturalization act in 1790,
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Asians, could not become citizens of
the United States.
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The Cherokee Nation.
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You've heard of the trail of tears?
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They were forced, out of their homes.
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Dred Scott decision, he was a slave.
Even free territory.
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There was an anti-Irish catholic mentality
in this country.
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There were signs that were printed,
and displayed: 'No Irish Need Apply.'
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Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
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Plessy vs. Ferguson.
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Separate but equal.
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How can the separate be equal?
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A. Mitchell Palmer Raids, 1919-1920.
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The communists, and, and Jews too,
were deported without trial.
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Just placed on a ship and shipped out.
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Immigration Act of 1924.
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Japanese could not come to this country
anymore.
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Fred Korematsu case.
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Our history is a history of racism.
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Discrimination regarding immigration
as well.
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In the early 20th century, it was said in
the newspapers—Examiner, The Chronicle,
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The McClatchy papers, you know,
Sacramento Bee, Fresno Bee, and
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The Sentinel—that the Japanese race is
an alien race which can never be
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assimilated into the American way of life.
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There is nothing of value, of
Japanese culture.
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Nothing of value.
107
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How many of you have eaten sushi?
[audience laughs]
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What about bonsai?
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Ikebana flower arranging?
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Origami?
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Wax on, wax off?
[audience laughs]
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Karate?
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Ah, Japanese culture is rich.
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And so many enjoy participating in
Japanese culture.
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To make sure the Japanese did not
assimilate into this country,
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laws were passed.
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Asians could not own property,
marry whites,
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become citizens of the United States.
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The attack on Pearl Harbour,
December 7th, 1941.
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John L. DeWitt, commander of the western ___,
as his fourth army.
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At the Presidio of San Francisco.
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Had the ear of the President of
the United States.
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He said: "A Jap's a Jap."
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"It makes no difference whether that Jap
is a citizen or not."
125
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J. Edgar Hoover said: "Mr. President,
we don't need to do this."
126
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Francis Biddle who was the Attorney
General at the time said:
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"Mr. President, I don't think we
can do this."
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There were no lawsuits filed
on our behalf.
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Executive Order 9066, was past
75 years ago.
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You know, there was one group, nationally,
one group, that supported us.
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The American Quakers.
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The American friends.
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They're the only ones.
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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Nationally, not even the ACLU (American
Civil Liberties Union) supported us.
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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Locally, luckily, we had some friends.
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City attorney of Watsonville, with John
McCarthy.
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Our police chief, Matt Graves.
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School teachers, public school teachers.
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And many others supported us.
140
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You know, the reward, they were called
'Jap Lovers' for supporting us.
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They had their homes and cars vandalized.
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And they were among the very first to
welcome us back.
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We had some very dear friends.
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In 1942, our homes were searched,
without search warrants.
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The FBI came into our homes—they got
the information from the Bureau of
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the Census.
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The Bureau of the Census is not supposed
to do that.
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We were hacked.
[laughs]
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There were no trials, except for four
people.
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But for the rest of us, we had no charges,
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no attorneys, no due process of law.
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[shows paper] This, the Constitution
of the United States,
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ceased to exist for us.
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From camp—there were ten major camps—
and from camps,
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our men and women volunteered to
serve in the United States Armed Forces.