JOURNEY TO DEMOCRACY
Learning from the Japanese American
Experience
Civil Liberties
Curriculum Development Workshop
February 12, 2002
Instructor Aids
&
Background Information
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Civil Liberties Curriculum Development Workshop Committee* gratefully acknowledges the
following organizations for their assistance in the publication of this booklet. They not only gave us
permission to use their materials but also advised us on other sources. Special thanks to Flora Ito, Jessica
Silver, and Allyson Nakamoto of the Japanese American Museum; Judy Hamaguchi of the National
Japanese American Historical Society; and Charlene Mano of the Wing Luke Asian Museum.
Japanese American National Museum
369 East First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 625-0414
1-800-461-5266
www.janm.org
National Japanese American Historical Society
1684 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
(415) 921-5007
www.nikkeiheritage.org
Wing Luke Asian Museum
407 7th Avenue South
Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 623-5124
www.wingluke.org
* The Civil Liberties Curriculum Development Workshop Committee consists of the following members:
Seattle Community College District
Yilin Sun
North Seattle Community College
Mark Mitsui
Seattle Central Community College
Cynthia Chan Imanaka
Bea Kiyohara
Tracy Lai
Karen Michaelsen
Tina Young
South Seattle Community College
Robert Dela-Cruz
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
A. Introduction……………………………….…......4
B. Overview………………….………..…………....5
C. Chronology………………………………………7
D. Frequently Asked Questions…….………..……14
E. Concentration Camps Map…………….….……16
F. Permanent Concentration Camps……………....17
G. Evacuation Poster………….….………..………18
H. Executive Order 9066…………….…...….……19
I. Loyalty Statement…………………….………..20
J. Bill of Rights…………………………………....21
K. Rights and Violations….……………...………...22
L. Testimony Statements…………………….……27
M. “Out in the Desert”….……………….……...….29
N. “Silence No More”…..………………..……...…30
O. Glossary……………..…………….…..….….…31
P. Resources…………...…………………..….…..33
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INTRODUCTION
In Germany they first came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a
Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then
they came for me - and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Pastor Martin Niemoller
Dear High School/College Instructors:
Many of us are familiar with this famous quotation. It is a powerful and poignant testimony to the
imperative that we take personal responsibility to speak out against injustice.
During World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned in specially made camps enclosed
by barbed wire for the duration of the war. Bob Nakamura - only 5 years old at the time - was one of
them. He had just learned the “Pledge of Allegiance” and remembers asking his mother why they had to
be in camp, why they couldn’t “go home to America.” She could only answer, “Because we’re
Japanese.”
Like Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and others in Europe, Bob and his family - as were Karen’s parents,
grandparents, aunts and uncle - had done nothing wrong yet were rounded up en masse and sent to camps.
Unlike Jews and others in Europe, they did not suffer the same fate. Yet unlike these victims of Hitler’s
despotism, Bob and other Japanese Americans were residents and citizens of the United States of America
and supposedly protected from such autocratic abuses by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Despite
our country’s democratic principles, they were incarcerated even though no formal charges were brought
against them. They were not provided due process of law nor were they given benefit of trial, judge, or
jury.
A few courageous souls did speak out. However, our society as a whole either did not know that such a
travesty of justice was taking place and/or did not understand that when one group’s rights are denied, the
rights of all Americans are jeopardized. Education is needed before one can act responsibly. That is why
we and what we do are so important.
As instructors, we know how challenging our job is. Teaching history is hard enough and teaching the
darker chapters of history is even harder. In 1988, our government determined that America’s
concentration camps was a mistake and issued a formal apology. As we teach our students to learn from
their mistakes, we must also teach them as citizens of the world to learn from the mistakes of history and
there have been many: the Middle Passage, the Trail of Tears, the Shoah or Holocaust, the Bataan Death
March, America’s concentration camps to name a few. None are comparable to the other; each are
reprehensible and not to be repeated.
Excerpted and revised to address the Seattle Community College District and Seattle Public and Private
High School instructors. From the Preface to Dear Miss Breed: Teacher’s Guide by Karen L. Ishizuka
and Robert A. Nakamura, Executive Producers, Once Upon a Camp. Once Upon a Camp is a classroom
video series with teacher’s guides designed to help educate students about what has come to be known as
America’s concentration camps. To meet the needs of multilingual students, each video is available in
Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese as well as English. The teacher’s guides were written by
veteran teachers who have had extensive hands-on experience teaching the material in the classroom.
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OVERVIEW
I have made a lot of mistakes in my life. . . . One is my part in the evacuation of Japanese in
1942. . . . We picked them up and put them in concentration camps. That‘s the truth of the matter.
Tom Clark, former Attorney General of the United States, July 10, 1966
While the United States fought for freedom and liberty abroad, at home it quietly rounded up 120,000
men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry--two thirds of whom were American citizens by birth-and put them in what historians, social commentators and even the U.S. government called America’s
concentration camps. This little known chapter is one of the darkest in the history of a country conceived
in the principles of democracy and whose citizens are supposedly protected by the United States
Constitution. While the U.S. was also at war with Italy and Germany, only American-born citizens of
Japanese descent and their parents--who were denied naturalization until 1952--were incarcerated en
masse. Although the given reason was that they were a threat to military security, there was no evidence
to that effect. This unconstitutional act was carried out without due process of law in what the
Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in 1982 determined was the result of
“racism, economic greed, and political deceit at the highest levels of government.”
Before The War
Japanese began immigrating to Hawaii and the West Coast in the late 1800s at the same time Europeans
immigrated to the East Coast. Unlike their European counterparts, however, Japanese and other Asians
were prohibited from becoming naturalized citizens because of their race. Even as Japanese pioneers
lived as Americans and indeed contributed to the making of America, anti-Japanese laws and activities
were rampant. Like African Americans, Japanese American children were subjected to segregated
schools. Like the Chinese, Japanese could not own land. Like Chicanos, Japanese Americans farmed the
land, but were excluded from labor unions. With such a legacy of racism and discrimination, Japan’s
attack on Pearl Harbor led to the pick up and subsequent imprisonment of Americans with Japanese
ancestry into a series of camps located in some of the most desolate areas of the country.
The Process Of Incarceration
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which provided the
authority for the mass exclusion and incarceration. Soon the Army issued 109 Exclusion Orders forcing
120,000 Japanese Americans living throughout designated areas in Washington, Oregon, California and
Arizona into American concentration camps. Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, hundreds
of Issei (first-generation Japanese in America), who were primarily community leaders, were arrested.
These Japanese nationals, along with selected German and Italian nationals, were detained in internment
camps run by the U.S. Justice Department. Those who remained, many of them mothers whose husbands
had already been taken and their young children, were forced to dispose of their homes, businesses, and
belongings and report to so-called “assembly centers.” These centers were hastily converted facilities
such as fairgrounds and racetracks, where families were held for one to seven months.
American Concentration Camps
Life in the camps varied by camp, administration, time period, inmates’ age, gender, personality and
political convictions. Through an ironic blend of the inmates’ own efforts and the autocratic paternalism
of the administration, each camp became a self-contained colony. In time each had its own school,
religious institutions, newspapers and hospitals albeit behind barbed wire and guard towers. Their
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duration lasted from a few months to four and a half years.
The Struggle for Redress
The roots of the redress movement began in the camps with the inmates who held demonstrations,
conducted strikes, wrote letters, and otherwise challenged the incarceration. The massive effort by the
Japanese American community to seek an official apology and monetary damages for the incarcerations
began in the 1970s. Finally, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 provided an apology from the U.S.
government and token monetary compensation to the survivors of America’s concentration camps.
Excerpted from Dear Miss Breed: Teacher’s Guide by the Japanese American National Museum,
pp. vii - viii.
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CHRONOLOGY OF WORLD WAR II INCARCERATION
March 26, 1790: The U.S. Congress, through the act of 1790, decrees that “any alien, being a free white
person who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for a term
of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof.” The phrase “free white person” remained
intact until 1873 when “persons of African nativity or descent” was added. This act would be used to
deny citizenship to Japanese and other Asian immigrants until the mid-20th Century.
May 6, 1882: Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act over the veto of President Garfield. Chinese
immigration would essentially be shut off for the next sixty years.
February 8, 1885: The ship City of Tokio arrives in Honolulu carrying the first 944 official immigrants
from Japan to Hawaii.
September 2, 1885: Rioters attack and set fire to Chinatown in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28
Chinese miners and wounding 15. Several hundred others are driven out of town and an estimated
$148,000 worth of goods are destroyed. The “Rock Springs Massacre” resulted from mounting antiChinese sentiment over their role as cheap labor and as strikebreakers. Although sixteen white suspects
were arrested and tried, all were acquitted.
February 23, 1905: The San Francisco Chronicle front page headline reads: “The Japanese Invasion:
The Problem of the Hour.” This launches an unrelenting string of editorials against the Japanese which
serve to kick the anti-Japanese movement into high gear.
May 14, 1905: The Asiatic Exclusion League is formed in San Francisco, marking the official beginning
of the anti-Japanese movement. Among those attending the first meeting are labor leaders (and European
immigrants) Patrick Henry McCarthy and Olaf Tveitmoe of the Building Trades Council of San Francisco
and Andrew Fufuseth and Walter McCarthy of the Sailor’s Union. Tveitmoe is named the first president
of the organization.
May 19, 1913: California Governor Hiram Johnson signs the 1913 Alien Land Law to become effective
on August 10. This law prohibited “aliens ineligible to citizenship” from owning land.
November 1920: The new 1920 Alien Land Law, a more stringent measure intended to close loopholes
in the 1913 Alien Land Law, passes as a ballot initiative. It is to become effective on December 9.
July 19, 1921: Armed white raiders deport 58 Japanese laborers from Turlock, California, by truck and
warn them not to return. Similar events occur elsewhere in California and in parts of Oregon and
Arizona.
November 13, 1922: The United States Supreme Court rules on the Ozawa case, definitively prohibiting
Issei from becoming naturalized citizens on the basis of race. This ban would last until 1952.
May 26, 1924: Calvin Coolidge signs the 1924 immigration bill into law, effectively ending Japanese
immigration to the U.S.
August 18, 1941; In a letter to President Roosevelt, Representative John Dingell of Michigan suggests
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incarcerating 10,000 Hawaiian Japanese Americans as hostages to ensure “good behavior” on the part of
Japan.
November 12, 1941: Fifteen Japanese American businessmen and community leaders in Los Angeles’
Little Tokyo are picked up in an F.B.I. raid. Records and membership lists for such organizations as the
Japanese Chamber of Commerce and the Central Japanese Association are seized. The fifteen would
cooperate with authorities, while a spokesman for the Central Japanese Association states: “We teach the
fundamental principles of America and the high ideals of American democracy. We want to live here in
peace and harmony. Our people are 100% loyal to America.”
December 7, 1941; The attack on Pearl Harbor. Local authorities and the F.B.I. begin to round up the
Issei leadership of the Japanese American communities in Hawaii and on the mainland. By 6:30 a.m. the
following morning 736 Issei are in custody; within 48 hours, the number would be 1,291. Caught by
surprise for the most part, these men are held under no formal charges and family members are forbidden
from seeing them. Most would spend the war years in enemy alien internment camps run by the Justice
Department.
December 11, 1941: The Western Defense Command is established with Lieutenant General John L.
DeWitt as commander. The West Coast is declared a theater of war.
December 15, 1941: After a brief visit to Hawaii, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox tells the press, “I
think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the possible
exception of Norway”--this despite the complete lack of evidence of such sabotage.
February 19, 1942: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 which allows military authorities to
exclude anyone from anywhere without trial or hearings. Though the subject of only limited interest at
the time, this order in effect set the stage for the entire forced removal and incarceration of Japanese
Americans.
February 25, 1942: The Navy informs Japanese American residents of Terminal Island near Los
Angeles Harbor that they must leave in 48 hours. They are the first group to be removed en masse and
suffer especially heavy losses as a result.
February 27, 1942: Idaho Governor Chase Clark tells a congressional committee in Seattle that
Japanese would be welcome in Idaho only if they were in “concentration camps under military guard.”
Some credit Clark with the conception of what was to become a true scenario.
March 2, 1942: John L. DeWitt issues Public Proclamation No. 1 which creates Military Areas Nos. 1
and 2. Military Area No. 1 included the western portion of California, Oregon and Washington, and part
of Arizona while Military Area No. 2 included the rest of these states. The proclamation also hinted that
people might be excluded from Military Area No. 1.
March 18, 1942: The President signs Executive Order 9102 establishing the War Relocation Authority
with Milton Eisenhower as director. It is allocated $5.5 million.
March 21, 1942; The first advance groups of Japanese American “volunteers” arrive at Manzanar. The
W.R.A. would take over on June 1 and transform it into a “relocation center.”
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March 24, 1942: The first Civilian Exclusion Order issued by the Army is issued for the Bainbridge
Island area near Seattle. The forty-five families there are given one week to prepare. By the end of
October, 108 exclusion orders would be issued, and all Japanese Americans in Military Area No. 1 and
the California portion of No. 2 would be incarcerated.
March 27, 1942: The Army issues Public Proclamation No. 4 prohibiting the changing of residence for
all in Military Area No. 1, effectively ending the “voluntary evacuation.”
March 28, 1942; Minoru Yasui walks into a Portland police station at 11:20 p.m. to present himself for
arrest in order to test the curfew regulations in court.
May 1, 1942: Having “voluntarily resettled” in Denver, Nisei journalist James Omura writes a letter to a
Washington law firm inquiring about retaining their services to seek legal action against the government
for violations of civil and constitutional rights and seeking restitution for economic losses. He was unable
to afford the $3,500 fee required to begin proceedings.
May 8, 1942: The first “volunteers” (from Imperial Valley, California) arrive at the Colorado River and
Poston camps. In the next three weeks, 7,450 inmates would arrive.
May 13, 1942: Forty-five year old Ichiro Shimoda, a Los Angeles gardener, is shot to death by guards
while trying to escape from Fort Still, Oklahoma, enemy alien concentration camp. The victim was
seriously mentally ill, having tried suicide twice since being picked up on December 7. He is shot despite
the guards’ knowledge of his mental state.
May 16, 1942: Hikoji Takeuchi, a Nisei, is shot by a guard at Manzanar. The guard claims that he
shouted at Takeuchi and that Takeuchi began to run away from him. Takeuchi claims he was collecting
scrap lumber and didn’t hear the guard shout. His wounds indicated that he was shot in the front.
Though seriously injured, he eventually recovered.
May 29, 1942: Largely organized by Quaker leader Clarence E. Pickett, the National Japanese American
Student Relocation Council is formed in Philadelphia with University of Washington Dean Robert W.
O’Brien as director. By war’s end, 4,300 Nisei would be in college.
June 1942: The movie Little Tokyo, U.S.A. is released by Twentieth Century Fox. In it, the Japanese
American community is portrayed as a “vast army of volunteer spies” and “blind worshippers of their
Emperor,” as described in the film’s voice-over prologue.
June 1942: The first official W.R.A. resettlers from the camps arrive in Chicago, though others are said
to have arrived as early as March.
June 3-6, 1942: The Battle of Midway results in a tremendous victory for the Allies, turning the tide of
the war.
June 17, 1942: Milton Eisenhower resigns as W.R.A. director. Dillon Myer is appointed to replace him.
July 20, 1942: The first advance groups arrive at the Gila River camp.
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July 27, 1942: Two Issei--Brawley, California farmer Toshiro Kobata and San Pedro, California
fisherman Hirota Isomura--are shot to death by camp guards at Lourdsburg, New Mexico, enemy alien
concentration camp. The men had allegedly been trying to escape. It would later be reported, however,
that upon their arrival to the camp, the men had been too ill to walk from the train station to the camp
gate.
August 4, 1942: A routine search for contraband at the Santa Anita “Assembly Center” turns into a
“riot.” Eager military personnel had become overzealous and abusive which, along with the failure of
several attempts to reach the camp’s internal security chief, triggers mass unrest, crowd formation, and
the harassing of the searchers. Military police with tanks and machine guns quickly end the incident. The
“overzealous” military personnel are later replaced.
August 10, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Minidoka, Idaho.
August 12, 1942: The first 292 inmates arrive at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.
August 27, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Granada, or Amache, Colorado.
September 11, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Central Utah, or Topaz.
September 18, 1942: The first inmates arrive at Rohwer, Arkansas.
October 20, 1942: President Roosevelt calls the “relocation centers” “concentration camps” at a press
conference. The W.R.A. had consistently denied that the term “concentration camps” accurately
described the camps.
November 14, 1942: An attack on a man widely perceived as an informer results in the arrest of two
popular inmates at Poston. This incident soon mushrooms into a mass strike.
December 5, 1942: Fred Tayama is attacked and seriously injured by a group of inmates at Manzanar.
The arrest of the popular Harry Ueno for the crime triggers a mass uprising.
December 10, 1942: The W.R.A. establishes a prison at Moab, Utah, for recalcitrant inmates.
January 29, 1943: A War Department press release announces the registration program for both
recruitment and leave clearance.
February 1, 1943: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team is activated.
April 11, 1943: James Hatsuki Wakasa, a sixty-three-year-old chef, is shot to death by a sentry at Topaz
Concentration Camp while allegedly trying to escape through a fence. It is later determined that Wakasa
had been inside the fence and facing the sentry when shot. The sentry would stand a general court martial
on April 28 at Fort Douglas, Utah, and be found “not guilty.”
April 13, 1943: “A Jap’s a Jap. There is no way to determine their loyalty.... This coast is too vulnerable.
No Jap should come back to this coast except on a permit from my office.” General John L. DeWitt, head
of Western Defense Command, before the House Naval Affairs Subcommittee.
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April 27, 1943: The W.R.A. prison is moved from Moab, Utah, to Leupp, Arizona.
June 21, 1943: The United States Supreme Court rules on the Hirabayashi and Yasui cases, upholding
the constitutionality of the curfew order.
September 13, 1943: The realignment of Tule Lake begins. After the loyalty questionnaire episode,
“loyal” inmates begin to depart to other camps. Five days later, “disloyal” inmates from other camps
begin to arrive at Tule Lake.
November 4, 1943: The Tule Lake uprising caps a month of strife. Tension had been high since the
administration had fired 43 coal workers involved in a labor dispute on October 7.
January 14, 1944: Nisei eligibility for the draft is restored. The reaction to this announcement in the
camps would be mixed.
January 26, 1944: Spurred by the announcement of the draft a few days before, 300 people attend a
public meeting at Heart Mountain. Here, the Fair Play Committee is formally organized. Kiyoshi
Okamoto is chosen chairman and Paul T. Nakadate vice-president.
March 20, 1944: Forty-three Japanese American soldiers are arrested for refusing to participate in
combat training at Fort McClellan, Alabama. Eventually, 106 are arrested for their refusal, undertaken to
protest the treatment of their families in United States concentration camps. Twenty-one are convicted
and serve prison time before being paroled in 1946. The records of 11 are cleared by the Army Board of
Corrections of Military Records in 1983. (The other 10 did not apply for clearance.)
May 10, 1944: A Federal Grand Jury issues indictments against 63 Heart Mountain draft resistors. The
63 are found guilty and sentenced to jail terms on June 26. They would be granted a pardon on
December 24, 1947.
May 24, 1944: Shoichi James Okamoto is shot to death at Tule Lake by a guard after stopping a
construction truck at the main gate for permission to pass. Private Bernard Goe, the guard, would be
acquitted after being fined a dollar for “unauthorized use of government property” --a bullet.
June 30, 1944: Jerome becomes the first camp to close when the last inmates are transferred to Rohwer.
July 21, 1944: Seven members of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee are arrested, along with
journalist James Omura. Their trial for “unlawful conspiracy to counsel, aid and abet violators of the
draft” begins on October 23. All but Omura would eventually be found guilty.
October 27-30, 1944: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team rescues an American battalion which had
been cut off and surrounded by the enemy. Eight hundred casualties are suffered to rescue 211 men.
After this rescue, the 442nd is ordered to keep advancing in the forest; they would push ahead without
relief or rest until November 9.
December 18, 1944: The Supreme Court decides that Fred Toyosaburo Korematsu was indeed guilty of
remaining in a military area contrary to the exclusion order. This case challenged the constitutionality of
the entire exclusion process.
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January 2, 1945: Restrictions preventing resettlement on the West Coast are removed, although many
exceptions continue to exist. A few carefully screened Japanese Americans had returned to the coast in
late 1944.
January 8, 1945: The packing shed of the Doi family is burned and dynamited and shots are fired into
their home. The family had been the first to return to California from Amache and the first to return to
Placer County, having arrived three days earlier. Although several men are arrested and confess to the
acts, all would be acquitted. Some thirty similar incidents would greet other Japanese Americans
returning to the West Coast between January and June.
May 7, 1945: The surrender of Germany ends the war in Europe.
August 6, 1945: The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, a second bomb is dropped
on Nagasaki. The war would end on August 14.
March 20, 1946: Tule Lake closes, culminating “an incredible mass evacuation in reverse.” In the
month prior to the closing, some 5,000 inmates had had to be moved, many of whom were elderly,
impoverished, or mentally ill and with no place to go. Of the 554 persons left there at the beginning of
the day, 450 are moved to Crystal City, 60 are released, and the rest are “relocated.”
July 15, 1946: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team is received on the White House lawn by President
Truman. “You fought not only the enemy but you fought prejudice--and you have won,” remarks the
president.
June 30, 1947: U.S. District Judge Louis E. Goodman orders that the petitioners in Wayne Collins’ suit
of December 13, 1945 be released; native-born American citizens could not be converted to enemy aliens
and could not be imprisoned or sent to Japan on the basis of renunciation. Three hundred and two persons
are finally released from Crystal City, Texas, and Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, on September 6, 1947.
July 2, 1948: President Truman signs the Japanese American Evacuation Claims Act, a measure to
compensate Japanese Americans for certain economic losses attributable to their forced evacuation.
Although some $28 million was to be paid out through provision of the act, it would be largely ineffective
even on the limited scope in which it operated.
June 27, 1952: The Senate (57-26) follows the House (278-113) to successfully override President
Truman’s veto to vote the McCarran Bill into law. It will, among other things, grant Japan a token
immigration quota and allow Issei naturalization. It will go into effect on December 24. Congress had
initially passed it June 11 and it had been vetoed on June 25.
January 9, 1966: An article titled “Success Story: Japanese American Style” appears in the New York
Times. “By any criterion of good citizenship that we choose, the Japanese-Americans are better than any
group in our society, including native-born whites,” writes author William Peterson.
July 10, 1970: A resolution by the Japanese American Citizens League’s (J.A.C.L.) Northern CaliforniaWestern Nevada District Council calling for reparations for the World War II incarceration of Japanese
Americans is announced. Titled “A Requital Supplication” and championed by Edison Uno, this
resolution would have the J.A.C.L. seek a bill in Congress awarding individual compensation on a per
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diem basis, tax-free.
November 28, 1979: Representative Mike Lowry (D-WA) introduces the World War II Japanese
American Human Rights Violations Act (H.R. 5977) into Congress. This National Council for Japanese
American Redress (N.C.J.A.R.) sponsored bill is largely based on research done by ex-members of the
Seattle J.A.C.L. chapter. It proposes direct payments of $15,000 per victim plus an additional $15 per
day of incarceration. Given the choice between this bill and the J.A.C.L. supported study commission bill
introduced two months earlier, Congress opts for the latter.
July 14, 1981: The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (C.W.R.I.C.) holds
a public hearing in Washington, D.C. as part of its investigation into the incarceration of
Japanese Americans during World War Il. Similar hearings would be held in many other cities
throughout the rest of 1981. The emotional testimony by Japanese American witnesses about
their wartime experiences would prove cathartic for the community and might be considered a
turning point in the redress movement. In all, some 750 witnesses testify. The last hearing takes
place at Harvard University on December 9, 1981.
June 16, 1983: The C.W.R.I.C. issues its formal recommendations to Congress concerning redress for
Japanese Americans interned during World War II. They include the call for $20,000 individual
payments for those who spent time in the concentration camps and are still alive.
August 10, 1988: H.R. 442 is signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. It provides for individual
payments of $20,000 to each surviving inmate and a $1.25 billion education fund among other provisions.
October 9, 1990: The first nine redress payments are made at a Washington, D.C. ceremony. One
hundred seven year old Reverend Mamoru Eto of Los Angeles is the first to receive his check.
Excerpted from the Japanese American National Museum Quarterly, vol. 9 no. 3,
October-December 1994, pp. 11-16.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT
AMERICA’S CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Why were Japanese Americans put into camps?
The alleged reason was because they were thought to be a threat to military security. However, there
were no acts of espionage or sabotage ever uncovered then or since. In 1982 a committee appointed by
the U.S. Congress concluded that the incarceration was motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime
hysteria and a failure of political leadership.
Since the U.S. was also at war with Germany and Italy, weren’t Americans of German and Italian
descent put into camps?
There were Germans and Italians who were interned for short periods of time but not en masse. Racial
prejudice against Asians, specifically Japanese Americans, had been widespread since the turn of the
century. For example, unlike their European counterparts, Japanese immigrants could not become
naturalized citizens until 1952.
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Weren’t the camps justified because Japan bombed Pearl Harbor?
Americans of Japanese descent had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor. Two thirds of those incarcerated
were American citizens by birth. Their parents, not allowed to become citizens, had lived as permanent
U.S. residents for the previous 20-40 years.
But in a time of war, doesn’t everyone suffer?
The incarceration of innocent citizens was a gross violation of civil rights guaranteed to every American
under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Those laws must be constant for all people at all times. If the
Constitution and Bill of Rights are conditional and subject to those in power and the mood of the times,
all Americans are imperiled.
What happened to their homes and possessions?
When they were forced from their homes, Japanese Americans were told that they could bring only what
they could carry. Some abandoned their property, many hurriedly sold possessions at great losses, a few
were able to find non-Japanese American friends to care for their houses and businesses during the war.
The financial losses were incalculable.
Did the U.S. Government ever admit the camps were wrong?
Yes, The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 signed into law by President Ronald Reagan acknowledged that the
incarceration was a fundamental and grave injustice. For these fundamental violations of the basic civil
liberties and constitutional rights of these individuals of Japanese ancestry, the Congress apologized on
behalf of the nation.
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Why call them “concentration camps”?
While the term may sound negative, that was the term used by U.S. officials at the time. Congressman
John Rankin said on December 15, 1941, “I’m for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and
Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps.” Attorney General Francis Biddle said on
December 30, 1943, “The present procedure of keeping loyal American citizens in concentration camps
on the basis of race for longer than is absolutely necessary is dangerous and repugnant to the principles of
our Government.” It is also critical not to use the governmental euphemisms in order to understand the
magnitude of the occurrence.
But didn’t the government call them “relocation centers”?
The U.S. government quickly shrouded the incarceration in euphemistic terminology to make the
incarceration more acceptable. Even Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts declared in December 18,
1944, “An ‘assembly center’ was a euphemism for a prison ... so-called ‘relocation centers,’ a euphemism
for concentration camps.” The detention orders were called “civilian exclusion orders,” and American
citizens were even referred to as “non-aliens.” This extensive and persistent use of euphemisms not only
worked to sidetrack legal and constitutional challenges but, more insidiously, functioned to gain the
cooperation of its victims as well as deceive the American and worldwide public.
Why not let bygones be bygones? Why can’t you just forgive and forget?
We are at a critical point in the history of the world. In the coming years there will be fewer and fewer
eyewitnesses to the mistakes of the past. And it will not be left to us but to our children and their children
and their children to remember--or to forget; to speak out--or remain silent. If truth is allowed to be
shrouded by terminology, there will be no one left to speak out.
Excerpted from Dear Miss Breed: Teacher’s Guide by the Japanese American National Museum,
pp. 29 - 30.
15
Excerpted from Dear Miss Breed: Teacher’s Guide by the Japanese American National Museum, pg. vi.
16
PERMANENT CONCENTRATION CAMPS
(called “Relocation Centers” by the government)
CAMP
TOTAL NUMBER
OF INTERNEES*
ORIGIN
Gila River (Arizona)
16,655
Sacramento River Delta, Fresno County,
Southern Calif. Coast, Los Angeles
Granada (Colorado)
10,295
Northern Calif. Coast, Western
Sacramento Valley, Northern San
Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles
Heart Mountain (Wyoming)
14,025
Santa Clara Valley, Los Angeles
Central Washington
Jerome (Arkansas)
10,241
Central San Joaquin Valley, San Pedro
Bay Area
Manzanar (California)
11,062
Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley,
San Joaquin County, Bainbridge
Island (WA)
Minidoka (Idaho)
13,078
Seattle, Pierce County (WA), Portland,
Northwestern Oregon
Poston (Arizona)
19,534
Southern California, Monterey, Bay
Area, Sacramento County,
Southern Arizona
Rohwer (Arkansas)
11,928
Los Angeles, Stockton
Topaz (Utah)
11,212
San Francisco Bay Area
Tule Lake (California)
29,490
Initially: Sacramento, East Sacramento
Valley, Southwestern Oregon, Western
Washington. After segregation: from all
West Coast states and Hawaii
*Total figures include transfers among camps. Compiled from War Relocation Authority reports.
Americans and Japanese Ancestry and the U.S. Constitution, National Japanese Historical Society, 1987.
17
Excerpted from Educator’s Resource Guide for teaching the Japanese American experience
1999 by the Wing Luke Asian Museum, pg. 14.
18
EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066
NOW, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of
the United States, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby
authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders
whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated
Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military
areas in such place and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military
Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded,
and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or
leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the
appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion . . . .
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The White House
February 19, 1942
The justification for the issuance of Executive Order 9066 was to protect the nation against
espionage and sabotage. The order, however, was applied to “all persons” of Japanese ancestry,
regardless of age, sex, or citizenship. The only thing that mattered was ancestry.
Newborn babies, young children, the infirm or bedridden, children from orphanages, blind or
paralyzed, and the very elderly were included in that mass roundup. All those possessing 1/16th or more
Japanese blood were ordered imprisoned. This was twice as harsh as the Nazi’s definition of 1/8th to
determine the Jewish people.
Some 2,000 children under 5 years of age, 15,500 children under 10 years of age, 2,000 persons
over 65 years of age, and 1,000 seriously handicapped or bedridden persons were all shipped off to
detention camps.
Executive Order 9066 included individuals for whom the commission of espionage and sabotage
was totally impossible. Thus, the stated purpose of the Executive Order is highly suspect, and the real
purpose--the removal and confinement of an ethnic group, regardless of citizenship--was constitutionally
indefensible as part of the presidential power.
Excerpted from Due Process: Americans of Japanese Ancestry and the United States Constitution by the
National Japanese American Historical Society
19
STATEMENT OF UNITED STATES CITIZEN OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY
Question #27: Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on
combat duty, wherever ordered? ___
___
Yes
No
Question #28: Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and
faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign forces,
and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor,
or any other foreign government, power, or organization?
___
Yes
___
No
The concept of loyalty or disloyalty is a matter of mind, and as such, beyond the reach of
government. The legitimate concern of government is, however, the expression of belief in overt
acts which are defined as crimes.
Treason is the ultimate crime of disloyalty. Espionage, sabotage, and sedition are other crimes of
disloyalty. Acts which constitute these crimes are delineated in the Constitution and statutes.
Not one person of Japanese ancestry, citizen or not, living in the United States or its territories
was ever charged with espionage or sabotage. Despite this fact, and after keeping Japanese Americans
imprisoned for nearly a year, the camp administration imposed a loyalty oath on all inmates 17 years of
age and older.
The government’s attempt in February 1943 to determine loyalty by means of a questionnaire was
insensitive. Native-born Americans were asked to incriminate themselves by “forswearing” an allegiance
to Japan--an allegiance they never had. Women and elderly persons were asked, as a proof of loyalty to
serve on “combat duty wherever ordered.” Japanese nationals denied the rights of naturalization were
asked to render themselves stateless by renouncing the only citizenship they could possess.
By declaring their loyalty to the United States, all respondents--men, women, the elderly, citizens
and non-citizens--were forced to incriminate themselves.
The majority of inmates affirmatively signed the oath. This did not mean that the minority who
refused to cooperate were any less loyal or less patriotic. Highly principled individuals felt that the oath
was unfair and their constitutional rights should be restored before signing.
The loyalty oath created a huge controversy and in many cases split families apart. As long as
people argued about loyalty/disloyalty, the real issue--the government’s unjust imprisonment of Japanese
Americans--was obscured.
Excerpted from Due Process: Americans of Japanese Ancestry and the United States Constitution by
the National Japanese American Historical Society, pg. 67.
20
THE BILL OF RIGHTS
Article I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceable to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Article II
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Article Ill
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor in
time of war but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Article IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause,
supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized.
Article V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless on presentment or
indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in
actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be
twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against
himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor shall private property
be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Article VI
In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an
impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall
have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to
be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his
favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Article VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial
by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the
United States than according to the rules of the common law.
Article VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments
inflicted.
Article IX
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people.
Article X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
21
Summary of Constitutional Rights That Were Violated
While the Supreme Court never ruled that the removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans
was unconstitutional, historians and political analysts have described the violations which they
believe occurred.
Rights and Freedoms
Bill of Rights Amendments
I. Restrictions on Powers of
Congress:
* Freedom of religion
* Freedom of speech
* Freedom of press
Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the
press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.
* Right to assemble
Violations
* Japanese Americans’ freedoms
were violated with respect to the
practice of Eastern religious
beliefs. The practice of the Shinto
religion was prohibited in the
camps. Christianity was officially
encouraged by camp
administrators. At the same time,
Buddhism was severely restricted
by the ban on written materials in
Japanese and the placement of
Buddhist clergy in separate
Department of Justice internment
camps.
* Japanese Americans were denied
the guarantee of freedom of speech
and press with the prohibition of
using the Japanese language in
public meetings and the censorship
of camp newspapers. The right to
assemble was abridged when mass
meetings were prohibited, and
English was required to be the
primary language used at all public
gatherings.
* The guarantee of freedom to
petition for redress was violated
when a few Japanese Americans
exercised their citizen rights and
demanded redress of grievances
from the government. The War
Relocation Authority
administration labeled them as
“trouble-makers” and sent them to
isolation camps.
22
Rights and Freedoms
* Freedom from unreasonable
searches and seizures
* Right to an indictment or to
be informed of the charges
* Right to life, liberty, and
property
* Right to be confronted with
accusatory witnesses
* Right to call favorable
witnesses
* Right to legal counsel
Bill of Rights
Amendments
IV. Seizures, Searches, and
Warrants:
The right of the people to be
secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches
and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no warrants shall
issue, but upon probable
cause, supported by oath or
affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be
searched, and persons or
things to be seized.
V. Criminal Proceedings and
Condemnation of Property
No person shall be held to
answer for a capital, or
otherwise infamous crime,
unless on a presentment or
indictment of a grand jury,
except in cases arising in the
land or naval forces, or in the
militia, when in actual service
in time of war or public
danger; nor shall any person
be subject for the same offense
to be twice put in jeopardy of
life or limb; nor shall be
compelled in any criminal
case to be a witness against
himself, nor be deprived of
life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law;
nor private property be taken
for public use, without just
compensation.
23
Violations
* The FBI searched homes of
Japanese Americans often
without search warrants,
seeking any items identified as
being Japanese. Items which
appeared as contraband such
as shortwave radios were
confiscated.
* The forced removal and
subsequent detention of
Japanese Americans resulted
in the denial of witnesses in
their favor, and the denial of
assistance of counsel for their
defense.
* Japanese Americans who
were picked up in the FBI
sweep were denied a speedy
trial or access to any legal
representative. They could
not call upon witnesses nor
confront accusatory witnesses.
* Japanese Americans were
not told of their crime or the
charges against them.
Rights and Freedoms
*Right to a speedy and
public trial
Bill of Rights Amendments
VI. Mode of Trial in Criminal
Proceedings
In all criminal prosecutions, the
accused shall enjoy the right to
a speedy and public trial, by an
impartial jury of the State and
district, wherein the crime shall
have been committed, which
district shall have been
previously ascertained by law,
and to be informed of the nature
and cause of the accusation. To
be confronted with the witnesses
against him; to have
compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the assistance of
counsel for his defense.
VIII. Bails, Fines, Punishments
* Right to reasonable bail
* Freedom from cruel and
unusual punishment
Excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishments
inflicted.
24
Violations
* These rights could not be
taken away except upon
evidence of a criminal act and
conviction in a court of law.
Yet, Japanese Americans were
deprived of their liberty and
property by being forcibly
removed from their homes and
locked up in detention camps
without the required statement
of charges and trial by jury.
How could this happen? The
government adopted semantics
to justify the act of
imprisonment. Even though
Japanese Americans were held
against their will in barbed
wire compounds under armed
guard, the government called
the event an “evacuation” or
“relocation.” Imprisonment
was clearly unconstitutional,
but an “evacuation” or
“relocation” could be
interpreted otherwise.
* The treatment of the
Japanese Americans in the
“assembly centers” and
detention camps was a form of
cruel and unusual punishment
on the basis that conditions
were “grossly inadequate.”
Hospitals were understaffed,
medical care poor and food
was nutritionally inadequate.
Rights and Freedoms
Bill of Rights Amendments
Violations
XIII. Slavery
* Right against
involuntary servitude
Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their
jurisdiction.
XIV. Citizenship, Representation,
and Payment of Public Debt
* Right to equal protection
under the laws
All persons born or naturalized
in the United States, and
subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens of the
United States and of the State
wherein they reside. No State
shall make or enforce any law
which shall derive any person
of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law, nor
deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection
of the laws.
* Payment for work was way
below the monthly average
outside the camps. Inmates in
the highest professions
received only $19 a month
* The equal protection of
Japanese Americans was
violated because the
government acted “solely on
the basis of race and
national ancestry” when
identifying persons to be
excluded from designated
“military areas” along the
West Coast states.
* In addition, the
government failed to
compensate or provided
grossly inadequate
compensation to the
internees for losses or
property rights when they
were forced to leave within
48 hours to a couple of
weeks.
* Japanese Americans were
deprived of their liberty and
property by the State when
forced from their jobs,
homes, and communities
into barbed wire, guarded
centers and camps.
25
Rights and
Freedoms
Amendments
Violations
XV. Elective Franchise
* Right to vote
Rights and
Freedoms
The right of citizens of the
United States to vote shall not
be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on
account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
Constitutional Articles
Section 9.
Limitations on Powers Granted
to the United States.
* Right to equal
protection under the
laws
2. Habeas Corpus
The privilege of the writ of
habeas corpus shall not be
suspended, unless when in
cases of rebellion or invasion
the public safety may require it.
3. Ex Post Facto and Bill of
Attainder
No bills of attainder, or ex
post facto laws (legislative
acts that inflict punishment
without trial) shall be passed
* The right to vote in public elections
was essentially denied from Japanese
Americans since they were prohibited
from returning home to vote at their
place of residence. No provisions were
made to enable them to vote absentee.
Although elections were held in the
camps, the internee “self-government”
had no power to regulate their own
welfare or direct their own destiny.
Violations
* Japanese Americans were denied the
right as detainees to be brought before
a court at a stated time and place to
challenge the legality of their
imprisonment. Not only was this right
violated, but the government attempted
to suspend habeas corpus through
legislation in response to Mitsuye
Endo’s petition for freedom under
habeas corpus. U.S. intelligence
reports showed no indication that
Japanese Americans posed a threat to
the U.S. defense or public safety.
Presidential proclamations and orders,
such as Executive Order 9066 together
with the enforcement bill, Public Law
503, made it a crime with penalties to
violate curfew and not to comply with
the removal orders. Together, the
orders and public laws constituted a
Bill of Attainder which was
unconstitutional enactments against
Japanese Americans pronouncing them
guilty without a trial.
Excerpted from Teacher’s Guide: The Bill of Rights and the Japanese American World War II Experience by
the National Japanese American Historical Society, pp. 77-81.
26
TESTIMONY STATEMENTS
Taken from “Hearing of U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians”
September 10, 1981
Seattle, Washington
On the very day of my eldest daughter’s eleventh birthday, February 21, 1942, I was roused from my
sleep very early in the morning. The FBI, along with four Seattle policemen, searched my house,
ransacking closets. I was allowed to dress, but under observation, even in my morning toiletry. I was
placed in the Immigration Detention Center. Apparently, I was part of the second group of men to be
taken by the authorities.
I am a perennial optimist and the anxiety of my fellow inmates had little effect on me. I recall feeling
confident that I would be released in time to eat birthday cake with my family that evening. However,
when we were stripped naked and thoroughly inspected, my optimism was shaken by the very humiliation
of the process. I assumed that cooperation would lead to an early release and resolved to accept the
inevitable. But that was not meant to be.
The days were added on to days. Tense boredom, terrible food, and wild rumors were our daily
preoccupation. I remember breakfast consisting of coffee, toast and jam. From the window of the
Detention Center, I could see our house. Many thoughts would enter my mind as I looked out the
window. My family came to visit with regularity. I remember a friendly guard teased my visiting fiveyear-old daughter by slamming the barred gates closed and telling her she was now a captive. She flew
into my arms joyfully, saying, “Oh boy, now I can stay with Papa.” Mama had tears in her eyes and I
wished I could cry, too.
Masao Takahashi
In the latter part of August, my husband left with the children for a camp in the desert of Idaho. Mrs.
Chiseko Nagaishi and I remained behind in Puyallup to deliver our babies. To deliver the baby fast,
according to army orders, I was given two little white tablets and castor oil every morning. I tried for
three days, but there was no sign of the baby coming so the doctor decided to stop the medicine and
allowed me to go to Idaho to have the baby.
However, the next morning, which was the day before serious patients and we were to move to Idaho, a
nurse came with three pills and castor oil. So I told her the doctor told me to stop taking the medicine,
but the nurse said, “This is a military order, so you should take it.” I explained to the doctor what had
happened when he came. He said, “What shall we do?”
I was very much worried. I did not want the baby to be born on the train. I could not do anything - not
even eat. So I went to the shower room, the fire was still smoldering so I added three shovelfuls of coal.
I waited a while. Then I went into the shower and took a cold shower, then a hot shower. I repeated this
three or four times. I went outside and ran for three blocks. When I passed in front of the hospital,
everyone was looking at me, frightened.
About half past four, labor started. I ran into the hospital and checked on the frequency of the labor pain
myself. I went to the delivery room a little before eight and had a baby girl at 8:15 p.m.
Theresa Hotoru Matsudaira
27
After six months in Bismarck, we were transferred by blind window trains again to Roseburg, New
Mexico. Speaking in Japanese or in loud tones was prohibited. Internees were ordered to raise their
hands for permission to go to the lavatory and we had to line up and wait our turn. No one was able to
see outside the train.
The camp in Roseburg, New Mexico, was an internment camp and internees had to wear uniforms similar
to prison garb and had numbers on their backs. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire fences and the
U.S. Army patrolled the fence with machine guns mounted in jeeps. We, the internees, felt that it was
very strange since none of us was trying to escape. The government official said that the soldiers were
there to protect us internees. In six months, we were again moved to an internment camp in Santa Fe,
New Mexico. After I was in Santa Fe for four months, I was paroled in November of 1943, and I was
able to join my family in Camp Minidoka in Idaho. I returned to Seattle in April of 1945. I was
prohibited from working outside the Seattle area, so I had to work as a gardener from my home. I was
also obliged to report once a week to the Immigration Office the times and places where I had worked.
Four months after returning to Seattle, the war finally ended. I felt like a bird released from its cage.
Masato Uyeda
Soon after the beginning of the war, our Nikkei had to live under terrible fear. Many Issei leaders, our
friends, were arrested and taken away to the Seattle immigration Office by the FBI without having done
anything wrong. I was worried to death every time a car stopped in front of the house because it might be
time for my husband to be arrested.
We had a store in Pike Place Market for over 12 years in 1942, and we had good customers and a good
business. On December 14, 1941, someone burned down the store and we lost all that we had worked so
hard to have. The fire department said it was arson, but they never found out who did it. There were
rumors that the owner of the market had set fire for insurance and also because there were so many
Nikkei tenants in the market. We had to rent a new store and take our merchandise from storage. We
also had to clean up the burned store in a hurry. We had heavy investments in merchandise and we had to
cash out our life insurance to meet the cash needs because of the fire.
Then, we heard that all Nikkei on the West Coast must be moved inland, so we had to sell the new store,
too.
Ayako Uyeda
Excerpted from Educator’s Resource Guide for teaching the Japanese American experience 1999
by the Wing Luke Asian Museum, pp. 23-34.
28
Out in the Desert
In 1942, students in the Poston concentration camp put together albums about what their life was like.
They wanted to give albums to schools throughout the country in order to share their experiences with
other students, and find pen pals in the outside world. They called their original albums “Out in the
Desert.”
Life in Poston in Winter
7:15 AM; it’s time to get up already! It seems like I’ve slept but a few hours. I’m trying hard to get up,
but the cold air always tempts me to stay in bed. I have found that getting out of bed slowly makes me
feel colder, so I always jump out in a hurry. Putting on my clothes as rapidly as I can, and try to forget
the cold air that comes through the cracks in the floor.
Our apartments are not provided with bathrooms like we had at home, so we go to a bathhouse which is
located in the middle of our block. Sometimes, hurrying makes me forget to bring my toothbrush. How I
hate to go back after it!
Clang! Clang! there goes the breakfast bell. Doesn’t the time fly! Here, as in every other camp, everyone
eats in a block mess hall. How good it feels to get into that warm room and have a good hot breakfast!
On our way to school we always talk about how cold it is. Our hands feel numb and how it hurts to feel
the sting on our finger tips . . . . We reach our school room eager to get around the single burner kerosene
heater, but there is not room for all . . . .
Hisako Sumioka, 8th Grade
The First Duststorm I encountered in Poston
My first day in Poston, and what a day it was! Lack of appetite, incessant heat, and nothing to do and
besides all this, a sandstorm for a reception at night . . . the clouds began to gather. Closer and closer they
came and one man said we were in for a change of weather, but I don’t think he nor anyone else expected
the change so soon, because the very next minute found everyone hurrying into their houses and shutting
the windows and doors . . . .
The sand which came in during the time we were closing the windows, and the sand which was coming in
through the finger-wide cracks in the door made the room very unpleasant. Some of us had wet towels
over their mouths, others had dry towels and I made use of a kerchief. When I looked outside, it was
almost like night, because the sand was so dense . . . .
This was the first of several dust and rain storms I encountered in Poston. I was like a wilted flower
because I had just moved in so suddenly from the cool climate of Salinas, California, to the tropical
climate of Poston. I hope and pray that I will never again have this sort of unusual but discouraging
experience.
Yoshie Yamasaki, Junior Class
Excerpted from the Japanese American National Museum Quarterly, vol. 9 no. 3,
29
October-December 1994, pp. 20-22.
SILENCE . . . NO MORE
by Kiku Funabiki
Silence, forty years of silence
Forty years of anger, pain, helplessness
Shackled in the hearts of
Issei, Nisei, Kibei *
Many died in silence
Some by their own hands
Some by others
Today
The survivors
Stood tall, strong, proud
Issei, Nisei, Kibei all vowed
No more enryo, giri, gaman **
Shattering the silence.
Today
the survivors
Cried out redress, restitution, reparations
for
a father detained in five
prisoner-of war camps in America
for the crime of being Japanese
and joined his loved ones
in yet another barbed wire compound
then returned home to die at seventy-three
in San Francisco ***
for
a mother whose demons drove her
to hammer her infant to death
now skipping merrily after butterflies
in the snow
for
a brother, honor student,
star athlete, Purple Heart veteran
now alone in a sleazy Seattle Hotel room
sitting on the edge of a cot
rocking, rocking
for
a girl of fourteen
mother to the Japanese American children
in Petersburg
orphaned by the FBI seizure
of all Japanese adults
now agonizing in guilt
at having detoured the jailhouse
too ashamed at the sight of her father
waving desperately at her
for
a baby whose whimpers
were silenced forever
in a camp hospital
the Caucasian doctor who never came
was a father of a son killed
in the Pacific
Silence
Silence, no more
. . . no more
This poem was written after a public hearing in 1982, held by the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and
Internment of Civilians in ten cities. Many ex-detainees spoke out for the first time. The incidents are taken from
actual testimonies at hearings the author attended in San Francisco and Seattle. The author later read her poem with
her testimony at a Congressional hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary in Washington, D.C. in 1984.
* Issei, Nisei, Kibei: first generation/second generation/second generation educated in Japan
** enryo, giri, gaman: deference/obligation/endurance (deeply entrenched cultural values)
*** Author’s father: Sojiro Hori
30
GLOSSARY
Alien Land Laws: Laws enacted by various western states (including California) that prevented
Japanese and other Asians immigrants from purchasing agricultural land. Although the laws were aimed
at Issei farmers, they made no specific reference to Japanese or “Orientals.” Often the phrase “aliens
ineligible for citizenship” was used instead. First enacted in the 1920s, the laws generally remained in
effect until well alter World War II.
assembly centers: Temporary detention centers that housed Japanese Americans who had been forcibly
removed from the West Coast in the early months of World War II. These assembly centers were hastily
erected quarters located throughout California and the West at fairgrounds, racetracks, and other similar
facilities.
Civil Liberties Act of 1988: Enacted on August 10, 1988 to redress the wrongs committed by the United
States government toward Japanese Americans during World War II. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988
called for a formal apology written by the president and $20,000 in compensation for each survivor of
America’s concentration camps.
concentration camps: Euphemistically called “relocation centers” by the W.R.A. (War Relocation
Authority), the concentration camps were hastily constructed facilities for housing Japanese Americans
forcibly removed from their homes and businesses on the West Coast during World War II. Located in
isolated areas of the U.S. on either desert or swampland, the camps were usually surrounded by barbed
wire and guarded by armed sentries. Most inmates were transferred to their camp by train from an
“assembly center” between April and September 1942. In all, over 120,000 Japanese Americans served
time in these camps. The Tule Lake concentration camp in California was the last of the camps to be
closed in March 1946.
Day of Remembrance: The Day of Remembrance is an annual ceremony held on or around February 19
in most major cities with significant Japanese American populations to commemorate the signing of
Executive Order 9066. The first Day of Remembrance was held in 1978 in Seattle, Washington.
euphemism: The substitution of a milder, vaguer, or more pleasant word or expression for one
considered to be offensive or unpleasant.
evacuation: Refers to moving people in order to rescue and protect them from danger. Flood, hurricane
and earthquake victims are evacuated and relocated. The government used “evacuation” as a euphemism
to refer to the forced removal of the Japanese Americans during World War II.
Executive Order 9066: Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the
War Department to “prescribe military areas . . . from which any or all persons may be excluded.” This
order, which on the surface made no reference to Japanese American or native-born Japanese, served as
the basis for the future curfew and “exclusion orders” issued by Lt. General John L. De Witt and the mass
incarceration of all West Coast Japanese Americans in concentration camps.
internment camps: Administered by the Justice Department for the detention of enemy aliens deemed
dangerous during World War II. While the majority of the approximately 120,000 Issei, Japanese
Americans, and South American Japanese who were incarcerated during World War II were in one of the
31
10 concentration camps administered by the W.R.A. (War Relocation Authority), several thousand others
came under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department in a separate and parallel internment. Reflecting the
usage of terms in most recent historical literature, the W.R.A. camps are referred to this booklet as
“concentration camps” while the Justice Department camps are called “internment camps.”
Issei: The first generation of immigrant Japanese Americans. The Issei are the parents of the Nisei, the
grandparents of the Sansei, and the great grandparents of the Yonsei. Born in Japan, they immigrated to
the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century where laws prevented them from being naturalized as citizens until
1952.
Kibei: Term for the generation of Nisei who were born in the U.S. but educated in Japan. For reasons
ranging from economic hardship to a desire to retain Japanese culture, many thousands of Nisei were sent
to Japan by their Issei parents to be raised by grandparents or other relatives in Japan. Believed most
likely to be “disloyal” during World War II, ironically Kibei were over-represented in number both in
Tule Lake “segregation center” and in the Military Intelligence Service of the United States Army.
Nikkei: Term for people of Japanese descent outside of Japan. In the United States used to describe the
four generations of people of Japanese ancestry in America: Issei, Nisei, Sansei, and Yonsei.
Nisei: The second generation Japanese Americans, children of the Issei, the Nisei are the first Americanborn generation, thereby citizens.
non-alien: W.R.A. (War Relocation Authority) euphemism meaning “American citizen.” The use of the
euphemism is a typical example of how far the government and W.R.A. went to underplay the forced
removal and detention both to the general public and to the Japanese American community.
No-No Boys: Internees 17 years or older who answered “No” to the loyalty questionnaire, specifically
questions #27 and #28. Considered “disloyal,” many of these persons were sent to Tule Lake Camp.
Redress movement: Movement organized by the Japanese American community in the 1970s and 80s to
obtain an apology and compensation from the United States government for its wrongful actions towards
them during World War II. This movement resulted in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.
relocation: Euphemism for the imprisonment/incarceration of Japanese Americans in concentration
camps within the interior of the country.
relocation center: Euphemism used by the government for the ten permanent W.R.A. camps.
Sansei: Third generation Japanese Americans, generally born between the years 1945 to 1965, during the
“baby boom” period.
Yonsei: Fourth generation Japanese Americans, the children of the Sansei.
W.R.A.: War Relocation Authority. Governmental agency charged with administering America’s
concentration camps. The W.R.A. was a civilian agency created by Executive Order 9012 on March 18,
1942 to oversee the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II.
32
RELEVANT RESOURCES AND LINKS
A Lonely Patch of History
http://www.qnet.com/~earthsun/lonely.htm
A More Perfect Union
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. 20560;
(202) 457-4185
America’s Concentration Camps
http://www.ionaprep.pvt.k12.ny.us/projects/intrnmnt/intrnmnt.htm
Asian Americans in the Santa Clara Valley
http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/scvasian.html
Camp Harmony Exhibit
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/Exhibit/default.htm
Children of the Camps: The Documentary
http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/index.html
Conscience and the Constitution
http://www.resisters.com
Japanese American Exhibit and Access Project
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/harmony/default.htm
Japanese American Internment
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/main.html
Japanese Americans Internment Camps During World War II
http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/9066.htm
Japanese American Internment Camps Remembered
http://libwww.cabrillo.cc.ca.us/html/depts/internmentengl.html
Japanese American Internment Memorial
http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/memorial.html
Joseph Yoshisuke Kurihara
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8420/kurihara.html
Journal of San Diego History
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/sdhs/journal/spring93/chapter1.htm
Manzanar-America’s Concentration Camp
http://members.aol.com/EARTHSUN/Manzanar.html
33
Maps of Japanese American Internment Camps
http://www.scu.edu/SCU/Programs/Diversity/map.html
Rabbit in the Moon
http://www.pbs.org/tvraceinitiative/rabbitinthemoon/index2.html
Remembering Manzanar
http://www.qnet.com/~earthsun/remember.htm
War Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona, 1942-1946
http://www.library.arizona.edu/images/jpamer/wraintro.html
Japanese American Evacuation & Resettlement Records; Inventory of the Japanese
American Evacuation & Resettlement Records, 1930 - 1974
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/dynaweb/ead/berkeley/bancroft/jvac/@Generic__BookView
When Americans were treated as traitors
http://www.service.com/paw/Centennial/l994_Apr_15.1940SB.html
Yahoo! Parks - Manzanar
http://parks.yahoo.com//parks/parks/manz/
JAPANESE AMERICAN MEDIA
Japanese Internment - Videos in the Media Resources Center at UC Berkeley
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/internment.html
Media Arts Center of the Japanese American National Museum
http://www.janm.org/mediaartscenter
369 East First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012; (213) 625-0414
National Asian American Telecommunications Association (N.A.A.T.A.)
http://www.naatanet.org/
346-9th Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103; (415) 863-0814
Visual Communications
http://viscom.apanet.org//flash/index.html
120 Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012; (213) 680-4462
34
MILITARY LINKS
History…442ND RCT
http://www.katonk.com/442nd/442nd.htm
Dad’s War
http://members.aol.com/dadswar/index.htm
MIS (Military Intelligence Service) Americans of Japanese Ancestry in the U.S. Armed
Services in the Pacific Theater During World War II
http://www.nikkeiheritage.org/mispacific.html
Service Battery
http://www.webcom.com/akato/home.html
Veteran/Military Web Sites
http://members.aol.com/veterans/warlib6.htm
ONLINE JOURNALS
Asian Week
http://www.asianweek.com/
Giant Robot
http://www.giantrobot.com/
Welcome to YOLK.com
http://www.yolk.com/index.html
ORGANIZATIONS
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (A.C.LU.-N.C.)
http://www.aclunc.org/
1663 Mission Street, Suite 460, San Francisco, CA 94103; (415) 621-2493
Asian American Curriculum Project
P.O. Box 1587, 234 Main Street, San Mateo, CA 94401; (415) 343-9408, (800) 874-2242
California Historical Society (C.H.S.)
http://www.calhist.org
678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105; (415) 357-1848
Center for Japanese American Studies (C.J.A.S.)
766 Spruce Street, San Francisco, CA 94118; (415) 387-4271
35
Consulate General of Japan, Japan Information Center (J.l.C.)
http://www.cgjsf.org/
50 Fremont, Suite 2200, San Francisco, CA 94105; (415) 777-3533
Hapa Issues Forum
http://www.hapaissuesforum.org
3433-13th Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610; (510) 261-7477
Japanese American Citizens League (J.A.C.L)
http://www.janet.org/jacl/
National Headquarters: 1765 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94115, (415) 921-5225
Japanese American History Archives
http://www.amacord.com/fillmore/museum/jt/jaha/jaha.html
1840 Suffer Street, San Francisco, CA 94115; (415) 776-0661
Japanese American National Library
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/janm/main.htm
RO. Box 590598, San Francisco, CA 94159; (415) 567-5006
The Japanese American National Museum
http://www.janm.org
369 East First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012; (213) 625-0414
The Japanese American Network Page (J.A.*Net)
http://www.janet.org/
231 East Third Street, Suite G-104, Los Angeles, CA 90013; (213) 473-1653
Japanese American Services of the East Bay
2126 Channing Way, Berkeley, CA 94704; (510) 848-3560
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (J.C.C.C.N.C)
http://www.jcccnc.org/home/index.html
Email: jcccnc@jcccnc.org
1840 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94115; Phone: (415) 567-5505; Fax: (415) 567-4222;
Japanese Community Youth Council (J.C.Y.C.)
1596 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94109; (415) 202-7909
Japanese Peruvian Oral History Project (J.P.O.H.P.)
RO. Box 1384, El Cerrito, CA 94530; (510) 528-7288; jpohp@prodigy.net
Japantown Planning, Preservation and Development Task Force (J.P.P.D.TF.)
1760 Buchanan Street, Suite 1, San Francisco, CA 94115; (415) 346-1 239
Kimochi
1715 Buchanan Street, San Francisco, CA 94115; (415) 931-2294
36
Museum of the City of San Francisco
http://www.sfmuseum.org/war/evactxt.html
National Japanese American Historical Society (N.J.A.H.S.)
http://www.nikkeiheritage.org
1684 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94115-3604; (415) 921-5007
Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress (formerly National Coalition for Redress/Reparations)
Los Angeles Chapter- http://www.ncrr-la.org
231 East Third Street, Suite G104, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Wing Luke Asian Museum
http://www.wingluke.org
407 7th Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98104; (206) 623-5124
REDRESS
Office of Redress Administration (O.R.A.)
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ora/main.html
Campaign for Justice: Redress Now for Japanese Latin Americans
Northern California Chapter- PO. Box 1384, El Cerrito, CA 94530; (510) 528-7288
Southern California Chapter- PO. Box 251425, Los Angeles, CA 90025;
mjnakanishi@hotmail.com
Excerpted from Dear Miss Breed: Teacher’s Guide by the Japanese American National Museum,
pp. 43 - 46.
37
Journey to Democracy: Learning from the Japanese American Experience
Curriculum Development Workshop
February 12, 2002
Literary Works Session
Presenters:
Tracy Lai, Seattle Central CC, History Instructor,
Robert Dela-Cruz, South Seattle CC, English Instructor, (206) 768-6454, rcruz@sccd.ctc.edu
Literary Works
1. No-No Boy by John Okada
This novel is arguably the most famous book in Seattle about the Japanese American experience.
The story is about Ichiro, a No-No Boy, and what happens to him when he returns to Seattle from prison
after the war. Another major character is Kenji, the US Army soldier, who befriends Ichiro despite
Ichiro’s stance against fighting for the United States.
This is an excellent novel to use in a literature class. Okada provides us with multiple stories and
contrasting characters about the Japanese American experience. For example, Ichiro’s parents are Issei.
His mother is a staunch defender and believer of Japan. She looks forward to returning there. She
dismisses the defeat of Japan as simply US propaganda. Ichiro’s parents are contrasted with Kenji’s
family whose actions and descriptions seem to have come directly from a Norman Rockwell painting.
The novel brings out the many varied conflicts which came about when the US government
decided to round up Japanese Americans and place them in concentration camps--the conflict between the
Japanese Americans who became No-No Boys versus those who fought, the conflict between Japanese
Americans and non-Japanese Americans, the inner conflict of trying to determine if one is Japanese,
American, neither, or both.
John Okada was born in Seattle, WA in 1923. He attended the University of Washington and
Columbia University. He fought in World War II. He died at the age of 47.
2. Baseball Saved Us and Heroes by Ken Mochizuki
Both these books come under Children’s Literature but can be used for high school and college
courses. Baseball Saved Us is about a Japanese American boy who plays baseball while in the internment
camp and later when he and his family are released from the camp. Baseball becomes his means to break
the stereotype and prejudice against Japanese Americans. Heroes, set in the 1960s, is the story about a
Japanese American boy who when playing war is always given the role of the enemy because he, being
Japanese, looks like “them.” The story ends when his uncle, who fought in Korea, and his father, who
fought in World War II, show up at the school in their uniforms.
These books give a child’s perspective of what it means to be a minority, someone who
desperately wants to fit in but is nevertheless different from the rest. Another teaching point is that in
both stories the Japanese Americans have to “prove” themselves in order to get respect from others.
Ken Mochizuki lives in Seattle. He is available for speaking engagements. His phone number is
(206) 624-4831.
3. Why She Left Us by Rahna Reiko Rizzuto
This novel covers three generations of a Japanese American family and how the internment
affects them and their relationships. A significant question arises when a son wonders why his mother
took his younger sister with her but left him behind with his grandparents and uncle. An instructor can
focus on the intricate, complex connections among family members, how what one says and does affects
the others.
38
Reference Materials
1. Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle by David Takami, published by the
Wing Luke Asian Museum.
2. Educator’s Resource Guide for teaching the Japanese American experience: 1999, published by the
Wing Luke Asian Museum.
3. Due Process: Americans of Japanese Ancestry and the United States Constitution
1787-1994, published by the National Japanese American Historical Society.
4. Teacher’s Guide: The Bill of Rights and the Japanese American World War II Experience,
published by the National Japanese American Historical Society.
5. Everything You Need to Know About Asian American History by Lan Cao and Himilee Novas.
39
Journey to Democracy:
Learning from the Japanese-American Experience
Videos on the Japanese American Experience during WWII
For Additional Videos, Refer to the
Seattle Community Colleges’ Libraries Listing
The Color of Honor Producer/Director: Loni Ding. c1988, 90 minutes.
Awards: CINE Golden Eagle. Available from NAATA. A vivid, collective portrait of the
Japanese American experience in World War II, including an introduction to the
evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans in the US In this film, Loni Ding
features the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated military unit in US
history; the Military Intelligence Service (M.I.S.), the linguists who decoded Japanese
military plans; and the thousands of draft resisters and army protesters who challenged
the constitutionality of the internment camps.
Conscience and the Constitution: Written, Produced, Directed by Frank Abe. c2000, 56 minutes.
Website: www.resisters.com. Available from: Japanese National Museum http://shop.store.yahoo.com/janm/index.html. Awards: Best Feature Film: Los Angeles
Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival, Vermont International Film Festival; Best
Documentary: San Luis Obispo International Film Festival, New York International
Independent Film & Video Festival; Best Music Score: Emerald City Awards, Seattle. In
World War II a handful of young Americans refused to be drafted from an American
concentration camp. They were ready to fight for their country, but not before the
government restored their rights as U.S. citizens and released their families from camp. It
was the largest organized resistance to incarceration, leading to the largest trial for draft
resistance in U.S. history. The dissidents served two years in prison, and for the next 50
were written out of history... until now. This powerful film has moved audiences
nationwide and changed the way we look at this period of American history.
Days of Waiting: Producer/Director: Steven Okazaki. c1988, 28 minutes, documentary. Available from
NAATA. Awards: Academy Award Winner, Best Documentary Short Subject, George
Foster Peabody Award. “Days of Waiting is a poignant documentary about an
extraordinary woman, artist Estelle Ishigo, one of the few Caucasians to be interned with
100,000 Japanese Americans in 1942. . . She refused to be separated from her Japanese
American husband and lived with him for four years behind barbed wire in the desolate
Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming. . . her sketches and watercolors form[ing] a moving
portrait of the lives of the internees, the struggle to keep their health and dignity and hope
alive.”
-- Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle
40
Double Solitaire: Producers / Director: Corey Ohama. c1997, 20 minutes, experimental documentary.
Available from NAATA. Awards: SECA Award in the Media Arts, King Hu Award, Los
Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival. This personal documentary uses the motif
of games to look at how the Japanese American internment during World War II may
have affected the lives of two “ordinary” people, the filmmaker’s father and uncle, Norm
and Stan. Third generation Japanese Americans, Norm and Stan are “all American” guys
who love bowling, cards, and pinball. They also pursue hobbies like sports and following
the stock market. Placed in the Amache internment camp as children, they don’t think the
experience affected them that much. But in the course of navigating the maze of her
father’s and uncle’s pursuits while simultaneously trying to inquire about their past, the
filmmaker is able to find connections between their lives now and the history that was
left behind.
Graves of the Fireflies: Original Story by Akiyuki Nosaka. Executive Producer: Ryoichi Sato. Written
and Directed by: Isao Takahata. Anime. c1992, 88 minutes. Website:
www.centralparkmedia.com. Award: Best Animated Feature Film 1994 Chicago
International Children’s Film Festival. It is post-war Japan, just weeks before the
American occupation. In the city of Kobe, a boy lies dying in a train station. Beside his
body lies a small candy container. A janitor, unsure what to make of its ashy contents,
pitches it into the night. As fireflies float softly around it, the ghostly image of the boy
and his little sister appear...
Flashback to a short time earlier: Orphaned and homeless from a fire-bomb attack on
their city, 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister, Setsuko, set out to survive in the
face of a society that is no longer able to protect them. Forced to live in an abandoned
bomb shelter in the Japanese countryside, they slowly come to realize that they can never
escape the hardship of war, or even find enough food to survive...
Heart Mountain: Three Years In an Internment Camp: Host: Jan Yanehiro, Consulting Producer:
Dianne Fukami, Coordinating Producer: Heather Searles, Executive Producer: David
Hosley. A KCSM Television Production in the New Americans Series. c1997, 27
minutes, documentary. Award: National public television broadcast. Available from
NAATA. Vivid color 8 mm home movie footage brings home the realness of history in
this documentary collage of life at Heart Mountain, a concentration camp in Wyoming
where more than 10,000 Pacific Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans were
incarcerated during World War II. Personal remembrances and never-before-seen movie
footage and photographs detail the political and the personal situation in which Japanese
Americans found themselves in suddenly at the onset of WWII.
The first internees arrived by train on August 12, 1942, and prepared the camp for those
coming over the next eight weeks. What the government called a Relocation Center soon
became Wyoming’s third largest city -- an isolated city powered by imprisoned families
and the military that presided over them. Many people from the camp were used to save
the Wyoming agricultural economy by replacing the labor lost to the fighting of the war.
Later, controversy split the camp when the government imposed questions about their
loyalty to the United States.
41
Looking Like the Enemy: Directed by Robert A. Nakamura. Written and produced by Karen L. Ishizuka.
52 mm. Color VHS. Available from the Japanese American National Museum.
AWARDS: Columbus International Film & Video Festival, Chris Award, 1996; Seattle
Asian American Film Festival, Bronze Carp Award, 1996. A video essay on the
paradoxes of race and the ironies of war. Looking Like the Enemy is a bold and daring
exploration into the often horrifying predicaments faced by Asian American soldiers who
fought in WWII, and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Breaking a legacy of silence, 18
veterans share tears, laughter and gut-wrenching experiences that help fill in the gaps that
official history has often left out.
Manzanar. Director: Robert A. Nakamura. Producer: Visual Communications. c1971, 16 minutes,
experimental documentary. Available from NAATA. A lyrical, pensive documentary
which captures Nakamura’s emotions upon visiting the Manzanar WWII internment
camp. As a Nisei (second generation Japanese American), he recalls his many childhood
experiences in the concentration camp.
Meeting at TuIe Lake: Director/Producer: Scott T. Tsuchitani, for the Tule Lake Committee. c1994, 33
minutes, documentary. Available from NAATA. Among the ten internment camps that
imprisoned 120,000 Japanese Americans during WWII, Tule Lake Segregation Center
was the site for over 18,000 “disloyals.” Fifty years later, seven former internees discuss
their past and how they came to terms with their identity, politically and socially, both
during and after the camp experience. The viewer is challenged to reconsider what
loyalty and citizenship really mean in a country deeply rooted in a history of racism.
Created to be shown during a pilgrimage to Tule Lake in 1994. Meeting at Tule Lake is
the product of a community studies approach to research and teaching.
Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story: Producer Eric Paul Foumier. Documentary,
c1999, 60 minutes. Available from NAATA. With this documentary, Fred Korematsu is
no longer an unsung hero. The Oakland, California native was 23 years old and a
shipyard welder in 1942 when he refused to obey Executive Order 9066, which sent
120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry into internment camps in the Western desert. An
uncommon tale of personal courage, “Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu
Story” is the striking story of the legal fight to vindicate Korematsu and turn a 40-yearold injustice into a civil rights landmark.
A Personal Matter: Gordon Hirabayashi vs. the U. S.: Producer: John de Graaf, with The Constitution
Project. c1992, 30 minutes, documentary, with study guide. Available from: NAATA.
Awards: Certificate of Merit, Worldfest Houston Film & Video Festival, The Silver
Gavel Award, TV Documentary, the American Bar Association, Bronze Plaque,
Columbus International Film & Video Festival. During WWII, Gordon Hirabayashi
refused to be interned on the grounds that Executive Order 9066 violated his
Constitutional rights. This acclaimed video shows a personal look at basic protections of
the Constitution such as due process of law and individual rights.
42
Something Strong Within: Written and produced by Karen L. Ishizuka, Edited by Robert A. Nakamura.
40 mi B/W & Color Footage VHS. Available from the Japanese American National
Museum. Awards: CINE Golden Eagle, 1995; American Association of Museums, Silver
Muse Award, 1995; American Association of Museums, First Place History (Exhibits),
1995; San Jose State University Film & Video Festival, First Place Documentary, 1995;
Houston International Film Festival, Bronze Award, 1995; Columbus International Film
& Video Festival, Chris Award, 1995. This critically acclaimed, award-winning video
was created for the National Museum’s exhibition, America’s Concentration Camps:
Remembering the Japanese American Experience. A haunting compilation of neverbefore-seen home movies of the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans
during WWII. Includes footage from Amache, CO, Heart Mountain, WY, Jerome, AR,
Rohwer, AR, Topaz, UT, TuIe Lake, CA, and Minidoka, ID.
Starting Over: Survivors Japanese Americans After the War Producer: Dianne Fukami, for KCSM TV
60. c1996, 60 minutes, documentary. Available from NAATA. This public television
program documents the struggle of Japanese Americans as they resettled throughout the
US following their incarceration in relocation camps during World War II. For decades
after the war, they fought to overcome the stigma of being of Japanese ancestry and the
prejudice they encountered as they tried to find housing and employment and laid the
foundation for a better life after the war. Among the dozens of people interviewed are
former Congressman Norman Mineta, Bill Taketa whose home was hit by bullets and an
arson fire, Army veteran Mel Tominaga and Shig Takahashi who was one of the first
Japanese Americans to return to California from a camp.
Survivors: Producer/Director: Steven Okazaki. cl982, 30 minutes, documentary. Available from
NAATA. Survivors is the first English language film in which Hiroshima and Nagasaki
atomic bomb survivors speak for themselves about their experiences, fear and trauma. A
chilling account of the aftermath of nuclear warfare. Survivors is a very real and
important reminder of the human costs of war.
Tanforan: Race Track to Assembly Center: Director: Dianne Fukami, for KCSM TV 60. c1995, 57
minutes, documentary. Available from NAATA. The Tanforan Race Track was the site
of an assembly center in 1942, where thousands of Japanese Americans lived for as long
as six months while the more permanent WWII concentration camps were being built
inland. This is the first in-depth study of an assembly center and the beginnings of new
cultural and social systems, which were developed then transferred to the permanent
camps. Interviews with ex-internees tell compelling stories of the hardships and losses
they endured during this period. Rare film footage, photographs and artwork are also
featured.
Unfinished Business: Producer/Director: Steven Okazaki. c1986, 58 minutes, documentary. Available
from NAATA. Awards: Best Feature Documentary, Academy Award Nomination, CINE
Golden Eagle. This highly acclaimed film tells the story of three Japanese Americans,
Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui, who refused to be interned and
were imprisoned for violating Executive Order 9066. It reveals efforts by the three men
to reopen their cases and overturn their convictions.
43
Visible Target: The story of the evacuation and internment of Japanese Americans from Bainbridge
Island, Washington as narrated through archival footage, photographs and interviews.
Wataridori: Birds of Passage: Director: Robert A. Nakamura. Producer: Visual Communications. c1976,
37 minutes, documentary. Available from NAATA. This important tribute to the Issei
(first generation Japanese Americans) integrates the stories of three people who describe
a collective history through their personal memories. These Issei pioneers talk about the
World War II internment evacuation and later pilgrimage to the Manzanar concentration
camp.
THE NATIONAL ASIAN AMERICAN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATION (NAATA)
346 Ninth Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, California 94103
tel-415-552-9550, fax-415-863-7428. email: naata @ sirius.com
JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM
369 East First Street, Los Angeles, California 90012
phone: (213) 625-0414, fax: (213) 625-1770
1-800-461-5266. website: http://www.janm.org/main.htm
44
Films on the Relocation of Japanese Americans
Available through the Seattle Community Colleges’ Libraries
The Asianization of America. A Films for the Humanities presentation; produced by Michael
Rosenblum; directed by Tony Marshall. Princeton, NJ. : Film for the Humanities, c1988.
Discusses the history of people of Asian descent in America, and shows economic and social effects of
Asian Americans on American culture.
Location: Central Campus Media Services
Call Number: E184.06A95 1988 [VHS]
Children of the Camps: Produced by Satsuki Ina; directed by Stephen Holsapple; written by Satsuki ma
... [et al.]. San Francisco, CA: NMTA Distribution, 1999.
Viewer discretion advised due to adult language. Part of the Children of the camps educational project,
this video shares the experiences, cultural and familial issues, and the long internalized grief and shame
felt by six Japanese Americans who were incarcerated in internment camps as children during World War
II.
Location: North Campus Media Services (second floor)
Call Number: [VHS 1290]
A Family Gathering. Produced by Lise Yasui and Katherine Kline in association with the Long Bow
Group, inc.; directed by Lise Yasui and Anne Tegnell. American experience (Television program)
Washington, D.C.: PBS Video, c1989.
Originally televised as a segment of the television program the American experience. A granddaughter in
reconstructing her family’s history in the United States, runs into reluctance to talk about the years of
World War II, a time when most of her family was interned in camps as west coast first and second
generation Japanese. The picture she gains gives her a fuller idea of her heritage, previously based on her
father reminiscences and home movies.
Location: Central Campus Media Services
Call Number: B769.8.A6F3 1989
Guilty by Reason of Race. National Broadcasting Company, inc. Films Incorporated. 1972. With guide.
Examines the conditions of fear and prejudice that resulted in the internment of American citizens of
Japanese ancestry during World War II.
Location: North Campus Media Services (second floor)
Call Number: [MP 206 - 207] in two parts
Japanese Relocation during World War Two. Writer-producer, Judith Espinola. Seattle: Metrocenter
YMCA, c1979. 93 slides: b&w + 1 sound cassette (13 mm.: 1 7/8 ips, mono.) + 1 discussion guide.
Residents of Washington State discuss their feelings and opinions about the Japanese-Americans being
relocated during World-War II.
Location: Central Campus Media Services
Call Number: D769.8.A6J3 [CT]
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Journey to America. Guggenheim Productions, Inc.; WGBH Educational Foundation and WNET-13;
produced by Charles Guggenheim. American experience (Television program) Alexandria, Va.: PBS
Video, 1990, c1989.
Originally presented as a segment of the program American experience. Documentary using archival
photographs and films, made as a tribute to the over 12 million people who journeyed to the U.S. from the
old country through Ellis Island between 1890 and 1920.
Location: Central Campus Media Services
Call Number: E184.A1J6 1990 [VHS]
Rabbit in the Moon. A Wabi-Sabi production ; a film by Emiko Omori. San Francisco, Calif. : Wabi-Sabi
Productions, 1999. 1 videocassette (85 min): sd., col. and b&w; 1/2 in + 1 facilitator’s guide (13 p. ill.; 28
cm.).
A documentary/memoir about the lingering effects of the World War II internment of the Japanese
American community. Visually stunning and emotionally compelling, the film examines issues that
ultimately created deep rifts within the Japanese American community, reveals the racist subtext of the
loyalty questionnaire and exposes the absurdity of the military draft within the camps. These testimonies
are linked by the filmmakers’ own experiences in the camps and placed in a larger historical context by
the director.
Location: Central Campus Circulation Desk - Media
Call Number: D769.8.A6R33 1999 Guide + VHS
The Relocation of Japanese-Americans. Mount Dora, Fla. : Documentary Photo Aids, [198-?] 15
photographs: b&w; 28 x 36 cm. + 1 teacher’s guide.
Presents a series of photos portraying the relocation of Japanese Americans into internment camps
following the outbreak of World War II. The collection includes portraits of the “patriotic” response
evidenced by some in Pacific coastal and western states as the relocation effort gained momentum.
Location: Central Campus Circulating Collection
Call Number: D769.8.A6R45 [PHOTO]
Starting Over: Japanese Americans After the War. / KCSM; producer/director, Dianne Fukami;
executive producer, David H. Hosley. KCSM-TV (Television station : San Mateo, Calif.) National Asian
American Telecommunications Association. San Mateo, CA: Distributed by NAATA, c1996.
Documents the struggle of Japanese Americans as they resettled throughout the U.S. following their
incarceration in relocation camps during World War II.
Location: North Campus Media Services (second floor)
Call Number: [VHS 1291]
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Tanforan: Race track to assembly center San Mateo County Community College District; producers,
Dianne Fukami, Donald Young; director, Dianne Fukami. San Francisco, CA : CrossCurrent Media;
National Asian American Telecommunications Association [distributor], 1995.
The Tanforan Race Track was the site of an assembly center, in 1942, where thousands of Japanese
Americans lived for as long as six months, while the more permanent WWII concentration camps were
being built inland. This is the first in-depth study of an assembly center and the beginnings of new
cultural and social systems, which were developed and then transferred to the permanent camps. Includes
examples of propaganda against Japanese-Americans in 1942.
Location: North Campus Media Services (second floor)
Call Number: [VHS 1297]
Topaz: KUED-TV; producer, director, screenwriter, Ken Verdoia. Salt Lake City, UT: KUED-TV, 1987.
Documents the denial of rights to American citizens of Japanese descent who were forced from their
homes to Utah’s desert rangeland during World War II.
Location: Central Campus Media Services
Call Number: D769.8.A6T69 1987
Who’s going to pay for these donuts, anyway? Fo Fum Productions; producer/director, Janice Tanaka.
San Francisco, CA : CrossCurrent Media : Distributed by NAATA, 1992. Chronicles the filmmaker’s
personal search for her father (Togo Tanaka), whom she has not seen since age three. She finds him in a
half-way house for the mentally ill in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. As a young man, he had been arrested by
the FBI for opposing the Japanese-American internment and diagnosed as a schizophrenic. The film
provides clear evidence of the profound effect of the Japanese-American internment on generations of
individuals.
Location: North Campus Media Services (second floor)
Call Number: [VHS 1296]
Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice: Produced and directed by Rea Tajiri, Patricia Saunders.
San Francisco, CA: CrossCurrent Media : NAATA, 1991.
Yuri Kochiyama’s political activism began with her internment during World War II as a JapaneseAmerican, and subsequently included worldwide nuclear disarmament, Black liberation, and
freeing political prisoners.
Location: Central Campus Media Services
Call Number: HN85.Y871 1993 [VHS]
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On order for the Seattle Central Community College Library:
Once Upon a Camp video series from the Japanese American National Museum. Once Upon a Camp is
an educational video series that teaches students of all ages about the life-long lessons of the unjust
incarceration of Japanese Americans by the US government during WWII. Each video is augmented with
a teacher’s guide. A collaborative project of the Japanese American National Museum with the UCLA
Asian American Studies Center in conjunction with the Alhambra School District, the series was created
and produced by the National Museum’s Media Arts Center. Funding was provided by a grant from the
California Civil Liberties Public Education Program with additional support from the Nathan Cummings
Foundation.
The Bracelet: Directed & edited by John Esaki. Produced by Jennifer Kim. A video presentation of
Yoshiko Uchida’s children’s book about a gift from the heart and friends separated by war. Joanna
Yardley’s original illustrations are intercut with rare home movies and historic photographs to tell this
heartwarming story of emotional growth and understanding. Read by veteran teacher Patty Nagano who
conducts a discussion and activities with a 2nd grade class after the story. Suggested grades: K-5. 25 mm.
Color VHS
Dear Miss Breed: Directed & edited by Veronica Ko. Produced by Jennifer Kim. The real life story of
how San Diego children’s librarian Clara Breed became an unlikely hero to Japanese American youth in
one of America’s concentration camps. Set against sweeping visuals of camp life documented by rare
home movies, excerpts from some of the 250 letters Miss Breed saved from wartime correspondences
with the students present an ardent chronology of the young inmates’ upheaval, incarceration and
eventual resettlement through their own words. Suggested grades: 6-8. 13 mm. Color VHS
Interactions: Created by Julie Asato, Justin Lin and Daric Loo. Directed & edited by Justin Lin.
Chronicles four high school students as they are given four days to tackle one mission: to find out what
life was like for teenagers in camp during World War II. Equipped with a phone and a computer, Kiet,
Christina, Miguel, and Lluvia embark on a surprisingly emotional journey as they talk to former camp
inmates, explore the ruins of an actual camp an ask themselves, “What would I have done?” and “Could
this happen to me?” Suggested grades: 9-12. 33 mm. Color VHS
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