[Originally published on February 16, 2017 during the Trump administration. Republished to commemorate February 19, the “Day of Remembrance” marking the date on which President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.]
This Sunday marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066. On February 19, 1942, in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the creation of designated “military zones”, giving the U.S. Secretary of War unlimited authority to remove any individuals deemed a security risk.
As a result, about 120,000 innocent people were removed from their homes along the West Coast and imprisoned behind barbed wire for the duration of the war. There was no factual basis for this removal. There was not a single act of sabotage committed by this population to justify their removal. Rather, they were punished for what they might do. Their only proven transgression? Their country of origin/ancestry. Some were immigrants from Japan, like my grandparents – prohibited by law from becoming American citizens. The majority (like my mother, aunt, and uncle) were law-abiding U.S. citizens – Japanese-Americans born in the U.S. to immigrant parents.
In light of the flurry of executive orders coming out of the current White House, I feel it’s a good time for a reminder about the lessons of history. The internment of Japanese-Americans was unconstitutional, as is the current so-called President of the United States’ executive order banning immigrants and refugees based on their country of origin. It was wrong then; it is wrong now.
To give a personal face to the impact of racist legislation, I’d like you to meet some of the Japanese-Americans imprisoned for three and a half years because of their ancestry – my family:
My grandfather (Jichan) was 65 years old at the time of internment. He had come to San Francisco as a young man in 1896 from Wakayama, Japan, and established a business selling Japanese art goods. Through the years, he survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and later, financial difficulties stemming from embezzlement by a Caucasian business partner. By the 1930s, he and his younger brother had established a thriving retail business on Grant Avenue, in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He nurtured the cherry tree in the back yard of the family’s rented Victorian on Pine Street and liked to bake apple pies. When Executive Order 9066 forced their removal from the West Coast, my grandfather and his brother had to sell the business at a tremendous loss.
My grandmother (Bachan) came to San Francisco in 1910 after a miserable year spent living with her in-laws in Wakayama. She had six children (two died in infancy). She had the ability to cook for masses of people who frequented the family home (whether it was a Nisei basketball team, visiting officers from the passenger ships that made frequent trips across the Pacific, or friends, relatives, or friends or relatives of friends). Pine (the Victorian on Pine Street that was the Takahashi home) was a kind of halfway house before the war; many immigrants from Wakayama would stay there en route to agricultural jobs in the Central Valley. My grandmother had a big heart and must have been a good listener, because Pine became a haven for disappointed picture brides escaping from unhappy marriages to Issei (first generation) migrant workers. My grandmother would feed, commiserate and advise. She was 60 years old when interned.
(late 1930s)
My aunt Kiyo was among the oldest generation of Nisei, born in San Francisco in 1913. At the age of 10, she sold donuts in Golden Gate Park to help raise relief money for the victims of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. As the eldest child, she absorbed much of the culture clash that invariably faces American children of immigrant parents. Strong-willed and independent, she clashed with my grandfather when he objected to her wearing lipstick to a YWCA dance. A prime target for community matchmakers, my aunt never married. “In those days,” she sometimes told me, “we wouldn’t even consider marrying a younger man” (and additionally, anti-miscegenation laws were not ruled unconstitutional in California until 1948). She may also have been influenced by overhearing the runaway country wives’ tales of woe and disappointment. She was interested in fashion and always up for adventure. She was 30 years old, helping in the family business, when the family was interned. After the war she was a career government employee with the Department of Housing and Urban Development until retirement.
My mother was greatly influenced by public-school principals (Miss Love of Pacific Heights Elementary) and teachers (Miss Alma Powell, Commerce High Spanish teacher) during her childhood in San Francisco. Throughout her life she remembered rules for behavior that she absorbed from Miss Love, and a curiosity and love of other places through postcards sent her by Miss Powell. She also had friends from school who were outside the Japanese community. So although her family life was centered around Japanese neighbors, relatives, and institutions, she maintained connections beyond the community throughout her life. She was the first child in the family to graduate from college. A UC Berkeley graduate with a degree in Education, she was not hired as a teacher* and helped in the family business. She was 23 when she was interned. She married my dad (who was in the U.S. Army) during the war. After the war, they returned to San Francisco and raised a family.
[* When Alice Fong Yu, the first Asian-American public school teacher in California, applied to a teacher’s college in San Francisco, she was initially not accepted because, according to the college president, she “would not be hired for a job anywhere in the country.”]
My Uncle Shig managed to avoid internment. A UC Berkeley student at the time of Pearl Harbor, he was one of about 700 Nisei (second-generation) UC students forced to leave college because of Executive Order 9066. Many were never able to complete their college education, but my uncle was able to transfer credits to Ohio University, and spent the war years there. He went on to do graduate work at the University of Chicago before joining the Army and going to post-war Japan to assist General MacArthur’s land-reform efforts. He became an economist with the World Bank after the war.
My Uncle Edwin was the baby of the family, born in 1929. He was 12 years old when the family was interned, and thus spent formative years behind barbed wire. My aunt sometimes reflected that spending his teen years in internment camp probably impacted my uncle’s educational and career aspirations. After the war, he worked as a salesman and raised a family in Oakland, then Richmond, California.
The 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 gives me the opportunity to share some of my family’s memories of the internment. Look for them in future posts.
All images © R.A. Sasaki. All rights reserved.
As a Sansei who has spent the majority of my adult life far removed from the USA and Japanese-American culture and communities, this is the first time I have read Ms. Sasaki’s work. My experience of Japanese-American authors is limited and whenever an author comes to my attention, I acquire the author’s work/s. Suffice it to say, the style of Ms. Sasaki’s work that I have just read though a Facebook posting is very appealing and rich. . Her understated style speaks volumes and resonates strongly with the myriad experiences of Japanese-Americans. The J-As have different and unique family experiences but their common bond is their appearance in the North American landscape. I have since become an aficionado of Ms Sasaki’s works and my next step after finishing this reply will be to acquire her works to add to my treasured collection of Japanese – American novels. BTW, would there be a chance for Ms Sasaki to come to London (UK) for a reading and/or subsequent book promotion ? The initial scenario could take place at an academic institution where courses on American History are run and/or at one of the many literary festivals that take place in the UK. It would be satisfying if Japanese-American writers could expand their readership outside of North America.
Sascha, thank you for your kind and generous words. It’s always a wonderful feeling to hear that my words have in some way connected with an individual somewhere out there; we are no longer strangers.
You have probably heard of and read such wonderful writers as Julie Ohtsuka (Buddha in the Attic); Sylvia Watanabe (Talking to the Dead); Nina Revoyr (The Age of Dreaming, Southland); and so many others — but in case not, check them out!
In response to your question, “book promotion” might be pushing it since The Loom came out 26 years ago… but maybe the concept of a “sell-by” date is strictly an American preoccupation. After all, human stories are timeless, and the themes are (unfortunately) particularly timely in today’s political environment. I would love to visit the UK again!