Prisoners by Race Mary Holmes Word Count: 2309 1 Mama has been insisting that I write down the events that happened to me when I was young, ever since my family got out of the camps. Now that she’s passed, I feel as if I should respect her wishes. I had never seen the point of recording my past. I have been so scarred from the American Government imprisoning me. How horrifying it was to be feared by my country’s fellowmen. Thus, I’m sitting at my work desk, recounting every detail from 1942 to 1945, writing how the United States Government cast away my family’s rights. Eventually, they did take a small amount of responsibility, to try to fix some of the damage they inflicted upon us. It wasn’t enough, not for me anyway. This is my story of being impounded in Tule Lake’s Internment center, because I am a Japanese American. **** December 7, 1941 was the day that changed my life. Glued to the radio, my family and I listened, horrified, as the events in Hawaii unfolded. No one had expected the attack. Who could have known hundreds of Japanese planes, carrying torpedoes and bombs, would manage to get to the Naval Base and blow it to pieces? (Turning Points of World War II) I was only ten when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred and even though I didn’t understand the significance of the event, I knew I should be frightened. Mama and Papa kept hard faces, trying to be brave for my younger brother, Keiko, and me. They didn’t fool me; their terror hung heavy in our small living room. Deep down, we felt something bad would happen; we just didn’t want to believe it would come true. My people’s nightmares materialized on February 19, 1942 when President Franklin Roosevelt authorized that “all of the Japanese from the West Coast be 2 confined in relocation camps” (Stanley 4). Non-Japanese Americans wished us gone long before. For example, General Henry McLemore, a racist man, had said, “I am for immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast… Herd ‘em up, pack ‘em up. Let ‘em be pinched, hurt, and hungry. “(Stanley 16.) How hurt and betrayed we felt when the President said he’d remove us, just like McLemore suggested. How could President Roosevelt take our rights away? His responsibility, as President, was to uphold an America with equal rights for all. Clearly, he failed us. President Roosevelt said the internment secured our safety from those who strongly disliked us. My question - why blame us for that which we didn’t do? We are American citizens! Why weren’t American Germans and American Italians imprisoned in World War II? Was this decision due to our physical and cultural differences? There were American Germans and American Italians in the war. Why didn’t the government imprison them? “I am American yet I don’t look like one, I am Japanese but ashamed I am” (Mary Gruenewald). Sadly, army officials swamped our neighborhoods in the following months. They yelled orders for us to pack what we could carry and head to a Civil Control Center in town to obtain our identification number and further directions. Everywhere, publicly posted signs made sure we understood the orders. Our family’s number was 7765; we were forced to leave in one week (Stanley 28). With our number, our rights vanished. To keep us from running away, the government enforced house arrest-like rules. We could not walk or drive more than fifteen miles from our home. I didn’t see the point of containing us since we couldn’t leave our house without something horrible happening. News of gangs and riots 3 killing Japanese Americans filled the radio airwaves. Even if we wanted to go out, there wasn’t much we could do. We couldn’t go to movie theatres or cafes. We couldn’t even go to some parks and restaurants! (Stanley 26.) We weren’t welcome there. My parents left the house only when we needed groceries; even then, people swore, spit, and tried to hurt them. Keiko, my little brother, and I never left our house. We remained glued to the radio, listening to the petrifying events that were unfolding in the world around us. **** What bothered me immensely was that people used our advancing departure to their advantage. People knew we couldn’t bring our whole life to our new “home.” They’d come to our door and ask what we had. We were forced to give up our home, farm, my parent’s business, our personal property, and our freedom (Tule Lake Segregation Center). Just about everything was snatched by people a day before we had to leave. They bought everything cheap (Stanley 30). When we said goodbye to my childhood house, I lost my fight for freedom. It wasn’t my freedom anymore; it belonged to someone else. My distrust of all non-Japanese Americans grew day by day. The morning before evacuation day, I remember my best friend coming to my door asking, “Were you a part of the Pearl Harbor attack? ” (Uchida 53). “What did you just say?” I had asked confused. “You heard me, Jap.” I slammed the door in her face so she wouldn’t see me break into tears. I had known her since I was three. We had grown up together, yet she judged me, just like 4 everyone else. She saw me as a monster. Fear and hatred burned in her eyes. Was this really how people looked at me? My friends and teachers at school, church, and my neighborhood, did they think I was a monster too? On Evacuation Day, officials shoved us into buses and transported us to Assembly Centers. We clutched what little we had left. We were forced to stay there until the Internment camps were ready. Santa Anita racetrack and stables was our Assembly Center. “I don’t know what I expected, but as a kid… I was really excited about” being there “and thinking that maybe that this was gong to be an adventure. It was an adventure, but certainly not the kind I had anticipated” (~ Sato Hashizume). It should have been obvious that our living space would be terrible. Yet, my little mind had allowed its imagination to fly. Why would they give us nice housing if they had been treating us like criminals thus far? Our housing ended up being a horse stall that was quickly refurnished into a temporary room. This was evident due to the stench of horse manure that hung in the air. Our beds were straw-filled bags. It became apparent to everyone that they considered us to be animals. (Tule Lake Segregation Center) The days dragged slowly. Mostly, our lives consisted of sleeping, eating, and fearing the guards who kept constant watch. An observer, sent by the government to explore the centers wrote that, “The guards, had been instructed to shoot anyone who attempted to leave the Center without a permit, as well as those who refused to halt when ordered to do so. The guards were armed with guns that were effective at a range of up to 500 yards” (Unidentified observer). The government had said they 5 evacuated us from the West Coast because they were “protecting” us. If that were true, please tell me why they were pointing the guns at us? It was a dull life. I found myself constantly looking for anything to keep me entertained. Many times, I tried counting how many pieces of hair were on my head. Or, I stared at the clouds and imagined I could lie on them or fly away. If only I could escape from this world and start anew. I would go to a place where wars would never happen. Where everyone was treated equally. Where my rights, that had once been mine, would be granted to me once more. After months and months, we moved to the Internment Camp. We packed our few possessions from our little horse stall and loaded onto a bus, now headed to Tule Lake. **** Audible gasps were heard upon arriving at the internment camp. The camp was a prison. Barbed wire fences circled our camp, ensuring no escape enclosed (Typical Block). We were treated like criminals. Upon checking in, we received a room – ward 6, block 4, barrack 3. We shared a barrack with three other families. Our room consisted of a single light bulb that hung from the ceiling, a coal burning pot-bellied stove, and a couple of cots. In our block, there were men’s and women’s bathrooms, showers, laundry and ironing rooms, a recreation building, and a mess hall. I think they were trying to make the blocks seem like little communities. They wanted to make us feel as if this could actually be our home. My home was in Southern California, not in that jail (Typical Block). 6 Many families seemed to make the best of the situation we were forced into, including ours. Mama started to plant a little garden, something to keep her occupied. Papa made furniture for our little house so we could have chairs and a table. Keiko found some kids around his age to play with; I helped with whatever I could. I liked to go to the recreation building with Mama. It always seemed to be something different. At times it was a store or a canteen, a beauty parlor, judo hall, or a church (Typical Block). The Harvest festivals, dances, and baseball games were highlights of our time in the camps as well. We could forget about where we were and why we where there and just focus on having a good time. During our stay, our parents demanded that we go to school. They knew it might be a long time before the war ended. They didn’t want their children’s rights of education to be gone as well. Before long “schools at the centers opened in unpartitioned barracks meant for other purposes and were generally bare of furniture. Sometimes the teacher had a desk and chair; more often she had only a chair. In the first few weeks many of the children had no desks or chairs and for the most part were obligated to sit on the floor – or stand up all day” (Sandler 84). School was not what I expected. “I recall sitting in classrooms without books and listening to the instructor talking about technical matters that we could not study in depth… There… [were] no experiments, demonstrations or laboratory work” (Kaji). As much as we tried to believe we led a normal life, in reality, we didn’t. Troubles surrounded us daily. The unpaved side streets were awful; the dust and dirt from the roads got in our houses, laundry, and food (Tule Lake Segregation Center). The dirt followed us like a shadow. Diseases including typhoid, dysentery, 7 and tuberculosis, riddled all ten camps and sometimes resulted in death. Younger camp women quickly became trained nurses. One of the girls, Sachi Kajiwara testified, “I took three weeks of instruction from one of the five Registered Nurses assigned… and went on duty as a Nurse’s Aide. I didn’t even know the names of the instruments – I felt terribly inadequate to take care of some very sick people” (Sachi Kajiwara). The US Army also created internal conflict between them and us. This resulted in harassment, beatings, riots, massive demonstrations, and military interventions (Tule Lake Internment Camp). Wasn’t it bad enough that they had us locked up? Now, they had to create trouble too. Why couldn’t they let us be? **** At one point, everyone over 18 had to take a poorly worded two-question questionnaire named the “Application for Leave Clearance.” This decided if we were going to be part of a military recruitment process as well as reintegration into the community. I was too young to take this test. The survey that seemed harmless made people give up their citizenship and become nationless people (Tule Lake Segregation Center). Many times, people had to choose between their country and their family. The test was a manipulative way to get men to leave their families and risk their lives for a country who took their rights away. What did we do? Look at me in the eyes and tell me why I was locked me up. Why were my rights taken away along with my home and my freedom. Why was I, a ten year old, punished for something I wasn’t a part of? Why did I have to watch my mother, father, and younger brother struggle? Why? 8 **** Eventually, I came across an old newspaper that stated why we had to take the questionnaire. Usually Japanese Americans had abandoned their homes easily, without resistance. Occasionally people had refused to leave. Fred Korematsu was one of those people. He had refused to vacate his home and was convicted because his action violated the Executive order 9066. He quickly appealed. His court case reached the Supreme Court in 1944. It was there that the Court decided that nation’s security concerns outweighed the Constitution’s promise of equal rights. (The Supreme Court) Surprisingly, many Justices agreed that putting Japanese Americans away was unconstitutional. Justice Murphy stated that, “This exclusion of ‘all persons of Japanese ancestry, both alien and non-alien,’ (non-citizen and citizen) from the Pacific Coast area on a plea of military necessity in the absence of martial law ought not to be approved. Such exclusion goes over ‘the very brink of constitutional power’ and falls into the ugly abyss of racism.” (~Justice Murphy) Justice Jackson brought up a valid argument in this trial as well. “Korematsu was born on our soil, of parents born in Japan. The Constitution makes him a citizen of the United States by nativity and a citizen of California by residence. No claim is made that he is not loyal to this country. There is no suggestion that apart from the matter involved here he is not law-abiding and well disposed. Korematsu, however, has been convicted of an act not commonly a crime. It consists merely of being present in the state whereof he is a citizen, near the place where he was born, and where all his life he has lived.” (~Justice Jackson) 9 Justice Black, the man who delivered the opinion of the court, voiced that, “It should be noted, to begin with, that all legal restrictions which curtail the civil rights of a single racial group are immediately suspect. That is not to say that all such restrictions are unconstitutional. It is to say that courts must subject them to the most rigid scrutiny. Pressing public necessity may sometimes justify the existence of such restrictions; racial antagonism never can.” Racism led to our internment and the required questionnaire. How dare they. I didn’t know the Japanese language. I didn’t know any of my homeland relatives. I had no links that tied me to Japan, so why did they blame me? Following the questionnaire, the government separated the “loyal” from the “disloyal” and placed all of the people that were “disloyal” in Tule Lake. Those labeled “loyal” were placed in one of the other nine camps. However, many people considered “loyal” decided to stay at Tule Lake. (Tule Lake Segregation Center) My family was one of those families. This place had become home because our parents made it that as well as a community for us to grow up in. **** Slowly, months passed. In 1945 my family was released and relocated to a new home; a small cottage in Wisconsin. At first, the government did nothing. No justice was brought to us. It wasn’t until I had grown up, gotten a job, and settled down that the government told people the internment camps were caused by “racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” As an apology, the government gave us each $20,000. This seemed like a lot, but if one adds up the amount of money we lost due to not working and the cost of 10 everything we lost, $20,000 was a poor apology. The American Government finally took some responsibility for failing to protect us and for taking our rights away, but not much. In my point of view, I don’t think they did enough. I want them to live through what we had to; to see what they made thousands of innocent people go through. Then they could understand why my feelings toward them are so negative. Is it wrong of me to want them to suffer because of what they did to my family and me? Is it wrong of me to want society to feel the pain we felt as Japanese Americans, ashamed of who we are? This is an emotional debt America will never be able to repay. My sadness runs deep and it’ll always be a part of my life. I can’t forget that kind of pain. I was only ten, but it overshadowed my life. I should have been allowed to be a child, yet I experienced more than some adults. I might look like the Japanese enemy who once unexpectedly dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor. That, however, does not mean I should be treated like an enemy. I am now 55, I’m proud of who I am. 11 Primary Sources Burgan, Michael. The Japanese American Internment; Civil Liberties Denied. Minneapolis: White-Thomas, 2007. Print. This was the first book, and primary resource, I used for my project. It talked about all aspects of my project, from life before the internment camps to how everyone recovered afterwards. This source helped me to get a better understanding of what I was going to learn as I progressed with my research for my topic. Exploring Constitutional Law. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2014. This source contains many quotes from the Supreme Court of the United States trial between Korematsu and the United States. I used this source to gather quotes for my paper. This decision that was made in court was very important because it was the reason people were given the two question questionnaire that decided if they were "loyal" or "disloyal." I find it very fascinating to look at people's thoughts on the case and how it influenced the outcome. Gruenewald, Mary Matsuda. Looking like the Enemy; My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese-American Internment Campt. Troutdale: New Sage Press, n.d. Print. 12 This book had some great details about what happened before and during a girl's experience in the Internment Camps. It contained great information on Tule Lake as well what people often did to pass he time. One fact I found interesting was that the people collected sea shells every morning since the beauty reminded them of hope and survival. I also learned that inside the Tule Lake internment camp, they had a newspaper called the Tulean Dispatch. It was written and produced by the internees. The paper was something stable in their life. I used this information to develop some ideas for my internment portion of my paper. Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. N.p.: Lib. of Cong., n.d. Print. Farewell to Manzanar is a book that reads like a diary (the format). This is the story of a Japanese girl whose life was turned upside down by the internment camps. Many people recommended this read for it's touching (true) story of a JapaneseAmerican family's strive to survive the detention camps and a young girl who is forced to grow up behind a fence in the United States. I used this book as one of my primary resources in my bibliography as well as to get an idea for how I want to format my own paper. "Jap Camp Staff Held at Mercy of Mob, He Says." Chicago Daily Tribune [Chicago] 24 Nov. 1943: 13. Print. 13 This newspaper article is about a Mob that broke out at Tule Lake, November 23rd. This mob, consisting of thousands of Japanese americans, made it that US army troops had to control the camp from then on. This primary resource helped me understand more of what happened within the camps and the disputes, riots, and gangs that there were. Lange, Dorothea, illus. Impounded. Ed. Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro. N.p.: Lib. of Cong., n.d. Print. This is a book of pictures taken within the internment camps. This was a wonderful book for me since its hard to visualize what these people went through. When I look at pictures, it's a new depth of understanding. I can see what these people had to go through and I can start to imagine the pain and tragedy these people experienced. Stanley, Jerry. I Am an American; A True Story of Japanese Internment. N.p.: Lib. of Cong, n.d. Print. This book has some great information on what happened before the Internment Camps World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor. There are many stories about different families who went through the camps and their experiences. A child, Shiro, and his parent, Hachizo and Tsuru Nomura tell parts of their experience in the camps and all of the difficulties they had to face.The book goes into detail on what happened before, during, and after the Japanese Internment Camps. I used 14 this book for context since it is an easy read and there are many details. I could easily pick out key terms. Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile; The Upcoming of a Japanese-American Family. N.p.: Lib. of Cong., n.d. Print. This book was the story of a Japanese-American family and their life story. They talked about how they got to America, the struggles they faced, and how they delt with it. I was very surprised to learn that there had always been a lot of racial judgement towards the Japanese Americans. For most of them, they would ask questions stating if they could do this because they were Japanese or if it would bother people. They did this to save themselves the embarrassment of people talking behind their back. That fact struck me as heart breaking. I used this book to look for specific details on their experience in the internment camps Secondary Sources Camp Layout. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. I used this pamphlet/brochure to help me better understand what living conditions were like for the Japanese Americans in the Internment Camps. From here, I could picture what each person had to live in while being contained. Written by people who were in the internment camps, this primary resource was very useful in writing my paper. 15 Fremon, David K. Japanese-American Internment in American History. N.p.: Lib. of Cong., 1996. Print. I used this resource to understand the problems and controversy that surrounded the decision concerning the internment of the Japanese Americans during World War II. It also described, in wonderful imagery, the details of what happened for people while in the camps. I used this to get some context for my project. Glossary. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. As I was reading books and websites, I found that some of the terms they used were unclear to me. This is where this secondary resource helped me. This brochure was a glossary that defined many of the common words that were used in the time and how they sometimes affected the people. They talked about different topics from the names people called the Japanese Americans to the places they went to Orders and Laws. Kent, Deborah. The Tragic History of the Japanese-American Internment Camps. N.p.: Lib. of Cong, 2008. Print. This book is about the catastrophic history of what the Japanese-Americans went through in the internment camps. Deborah Kent does an amazing job at capturing all of 16 the details of what happened in the camps. I used this to help me develop my character for my paper and to understand what most people went through at the time. Sandler, Martin W. Imprisoned. N.p.: Bloomsburry, 2013. Print. I mainly used this book to get quotes for my paper. Even though this book was written by someone not in the internment camps, Sandler captures the true essence of what happened within the centers. There are many quotes by Japanese Americans who were in the camps and I mainly used those for my paper, since they don't count in my word count, to get across multiple perspectives and more details to make my creative writing piece as interesting as possible. Sharpiro, William E. Turning Points of World War II - Pearl Harbor. N.p.: Lib. of Cong., n.d. Print. Turning Points of World War II. This book didn't deal much with the internment camps but I used this to get some information on why the internments happened, what caused them. This book "talked" about why the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. This deals with the Japanese Internment camps because if the attack on Pearl Harbor had never happened, the Japanese Americans would never have been put in relocation and internment camps. 17 The Supreme Court. Toni Konkoly, Dec. 2006. Web. 22 Dec. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/landmark_korematsu.html>. I used this website to learn more about the Korematsu vs. United States Supreme Court trial of 1944. Fred Korematsu (Japanese) refused to leave his house and was convicted. He appealed and in 1944 his case reached the supreme court. There it was determined that "the nations security concerns outweighed the Constitution's promise of equal rights." I used this resource to understand why the government made Japanese Americans who were over 18 years of age, take a two question to determine if they were "loyal" or "disloyal." Timeline: Japanese Americans during World War II. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. Looking back at all my notes, all of the events and dates tended to get confusing on which happened first. I found a timeline that started in the October of 1940, where it talks about the US Nationality Act, and ended in the July of 1946, where it talks about the 100th Battalion. This secondary resource helped me organize all of my research I had gathered so I could write my paper easily. Tule Lake Segregation Center. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. This primary resource talked about about many aspects of live the Japanese Americans went through including War and Injustice, Executive Order 9066, Ten War 18 Relocation Centers, Loyalty and Segregation, and many others. I used this resource to understand life inside the camps from the perspectives of some of the people. This helped me understand some of the many challenges these people had to go through in an already stressful time. War Relocation Centers. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print. This was a brief overview of all ten of the internment camps. This primary resource had the location, environmental conditions, its opening and closing dates, and it's maximum population. I focused on Tule Lake, since that is the setting where my paper takes place in. This helped me get an idea of what the camps were like. 19