Racism and America’s concentration camps | Mas Hashimoto | TEDxMeritAcademy

How many of you are familiar with the
Japanese-American incarceration?

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: 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. Okay?"

"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?

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 an 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,
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 the ship and shipped out.

Immigration Act of 1924.

Japanese could not come to this country
anymore.

Fred Korematsu case.

Our history is a history or 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.