U.S. states mark 75th anniversary of internment order
for Japanese-Americans
The Japan Times
AP Feb 19, 2017
Shigeho
Kitamoto and her children are evacuated from Bainbridge Island, Washington, on
March 30, 1942. Holding her youngest child is Cpl. George Bushy, a member of
the military guard that supervised the departure of 237 Japanese immigrants and
Japanese-Americans to internment camps in California because the government
claimed they might plot against the U.S. | AP
SALEM, OREGON – States in the
American West are marking the 75th anniversary of the signing of Executive
Order 9066 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that forced 120,000 Japanese
immigrants and Japanese-Americans into internment camps.
Most were from Oregon, California
and Washington state. Adults, including the elderly, and children could only
bring what they could carry and were transported by bus and train, often with
blacked-out windows, They were sent, ostensibly to avoid sabotage and spying,
to camps in California, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and other states as
far away as Arkansas.
Oregon, California and Washington
are not only marking Sunday’s anniversary, but politicians and activists say
America must learn from this dark chapter of history.
Here’s a look at what states are
doing to recognize the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans:
Oregon
The Oregon Legislature is
considering a bill to recognize a Day of Remembrance of the mass incarceration.
Carol Suzuki’s father and
grandparents were forced to relocate from their home in Oregon’s Hood River
Valley to detention camps in California and Idaho. After President Donald Trump
recently signed immigration executive orders, her 9-year-old daughter asked if
she, too, would be put away.
“Sometimes the words of an innocent
child are the ones that affect you the most,” Suzuki testified Monday before
the Oregon Senate committee considering the Day of Remembrance bill.
Suzuki blinked away tears as she
described the conversation with her daughter, who “should never be afraid of
her own government.”
George Nakata, 83, of Portland, told
the committee about his firsthand experience with a “dark chapter in American
history … not found in many school textbooks.”
He recalled being sent with
thousands of other Japanese-Americans to a former livestock exhibition center
in Portland, where the families were confined until rural detention camps were
built. “I can never forget, upon entering the building, the smell of livestock
urine, the pungent odor of manure underneath the wooden floors.”
At the Minidoka relocation center in
Idaho, Nakata as a young boy recited the Pledge of Allegiance as he looked out
at barbed wire and guard towers from tar-papered barracks.
The committee unanimously endorsed
the bill. The House is scheduled to take it up on Monday.
Washington
Washington state began recognizing
Feb. 19 as an annual Day of Remembrance 14 years ago.
Vigils, a taiko drum concert and
other events are planned in Seattle to mark the anniversary Sunday.
Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted that “this
anniversary should serve as an all too real reminder of what can happen when
America acts out of fear.” Inslee also met with former detainees.
California
In California, the Legislature has
passed resolutions proclaiming Feb. 19 as the 75th Anniversary of Executive
Order 9066 and recognizing a Day of Remembrance.
California lawmaker Al Muratsuchi,
who sponsored one of the resolutions, said that with Trump focusing on Muslims
in his immigration order, Americans must ensure no one is targeted because of
national origin or faith.
“Now, more than ever, every American
needs to remember the unjust incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans
during World War II,” Muratsuchi said.
Hawaii
More than 2,000 people of Japanese
ancestry were detained at camps on the islands or on the mainland. In marking
the anniversary, Honolulu businessman and poet Suikei Furuya will share his
story at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii.
Idaho
In Idaho, Lt. Gov. Brad Little will
sign a proclamation Sunday honoring interned Japanese-Americans.
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