Hello Everyone:
May Gray, a Southern California phenomena. Weather notwithstanding, Blogger has found a warm place to write.
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| Manzanar War Relocation Camp Inyo County, California en.wikipedia.org |
Today we continue on the subject of important sites with problematic history. The focus of the post is Manzanar War Relocation Camp. Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base on December 1941, irrevocably altered the lives of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens. In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 authorizing the Secretary of War to create Military Areas and resettle anyone who might pose a threat to the war effort. Without due process, all Japanese American men, women, and children residing on the West Coast were given a few days to dispose of their property and assets before forced relocation to camps in the interior parts of Washington, California, Oregon, and Arizona for an indeterminate stay (nps.gov; date accessed May 7, 2019). Manzanar was one of those camps.
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| 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage April 27, 2019 manzanarcommittee.org |
Manzanar War Relocation Camp has become a place that transcended its reason of existence. Since 1969, Japanese Americans have traveled to pay their respects to the ancestors who were interned during World War II and a growing number of Japanese who come to express their remorse for their nation's actions and hope to rebuild connections between the communities. This year is the 50th Annual Pilgrimage and activists hope to re-contextualize the camp as a symbol for broader themes of democracy and civil rights.
Manzanar is the first and best-known of these camps. During the afternoon program, a multi-cultural group of speakers: Muslims targeted by hate speech and travel bans; Latinos torn from their families at the border; African Americans harmed by racial profiling; and Native Americans struggling for access to their land (latimes.com; Apr. 27, 2019; date accessed May 7, 2019)
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| Speakers at the 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage pomona.edu |
Bruce Embrey, the son of the activist who started the pilgrimage, urged the gathering to remain vigilant against the growing threat of white nationalism and the president's harsh rhetoric about invasions of migrants and cruel border policies (Ibid). He told The Times,
Manzanar should not just be a symbol of what is wrong with our nation,... Manzanar should become a monument to our cor values of democracy and civil rights. Our message is simple: Speak out, demand equal justice under the law for everyone no matter who they are or where they come from... (Ibid)
Mr. Embrey is the son of Sue Kunitomi Embrey, one of the first camp survivors to break the silence and speak about her wartime experiences.
Nihad Awad, the founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations told the audience "that he made sure his young children read books about American history, including the wartime incarceration" (Ibid). His daughter learned the lessons in an astonishing way: Following 9/11, she packed a suitcase, expecting a knock on the door and be taken away in a similar manner as Japanese American citizens were forced from their homes.
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| Monument to Console the Souls of the Dead japantimes.co.jp |
An attack on one community is an attack on all of us (Ibid), declared Mr. Awad to the thunderous approval of the audience.
It was that declaration of unity that brought Gwen Humphries and Elizabeth Walker to Victor Valley for the 50th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 27, 2019. Ms. Humphries told The Times,
Given the political climate right now and the issues with people of color and from different countries, I think it's important we remember how harrowing discrimination is and how it affected a huge population of American citizens who were put in a concentration camp environment just because of race...(Ibid)
Warren Furutani, a former state assembly member, told the assembly that he and another student activist, Victor Shibata, were inspired by protests of the farm workers on Sacramento and poor people's march on Washington D.C. during the sixties. In a quest for a social justice issue to serve a foundation for a march, Mr. Furutani reached out to elders, asking about the camps, which at the time they were silent. After realizing that 220-mile from Los Angeles to the Owens Valley was not feasible, Mr. Shibata suggested a pilgrimage to acknowledge the spiritual landmark that Manzanar had become.
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| A woman placing a flower at the memorial latimes.com |
The moment marking the healing that has taken place between the Japanese and Japanese-American communities, Japanese consul general of San Francisco Tomochika Uyama offered greetings in Japanese and English. Manzanar pilgrimage organizer Traci Kato-Kiriyama exclaimed How beautiful to hear Japanese spoken here! (latimes.com; Apr. 27, 2019).
Ms. Kato-Kiriyama shared with the crowd "that the painful incarceration had led some of her family members to shun Japanese culture and language. She said, I had people in my family who did not want to speak Japanese or study it ever again (Ibid)
Her family's reaction was not unusual. FBI agents stormed in and arrested community leaders without a shred of evidence. Two months after that, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced relocation and internment. Eventually, the internees were given "loyalty" questionnaires, asking them to choose between Japan and the United States (Ibid).
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| Second generation Japanese Americans Nisei discovernikkei.org |
The chaotic events led to what USC history lecturer Susan Kamei calls hyperassimilation (Ibid), "as many Japanese Americans sought to distance themselves from Japan and prove their American bona fides" (Ibid). Activities encouraged by immigrant parent--language studies, dance, martial arts--fell away in subsequent generations. The wartime trauma faded over time but the two communities are re-establishing their connections.
Kyoto University professor and expert on Japanese American studies told The Los Angeles Times, "...recently there have been a number of TV documentaries and dramas focusing on the incarceration and Japanese American soldiers during WWII" (Ibid).
The Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California and the Japan Business Association of Southern California sent representatives of leading Japanese corporation to the pilgrimage. One of the attendees was Kiichi Nakajima, the vice president and Southwest regional manager of Japan Airlines Company in Los Angeles. Mr. Nakajima confessed he never learned about the incarceration growing up in Japan and was stunned by it. As he viewed the exhibits in Manazar National Historic Site visitor center, he was visibly taken by an illustration of young men beating on each during a camp riot. He noted,
A lot of people must have had so much stress,.... It is very sad and painful for me (Ibid)
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| Manzanar's Japanese Garden najga.org |
Shimpei Ishii, the deputy director of the nonprofit Japan Foundation, was taken with the way workers transformed the desert into lush vegetable and flower fields, even creating a Japanese garden with a pond and brige. Mr. Ishii was touched by the way the internees carried on with every day life under such unbearable conditions.
Writer Masako Miki, a native of Kobe who, like Mr. Nakajima, never learned this history, hopes that the Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage will raise awareness for social justice in Japanese corporate leaders and take back home. As the annual gathering drew to a close, the banner carriers for each of the 10 camps led a procession to the former cemetery. Against the spectacular backdrop of the Sierra Nevada, clergy persons of various faiths offered blessings, prayers, and chants before the "Monument to Console the Souls of the Dead."
The Slave Insurrection Trail in Southampton County, Virginia and Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage are places with complicated histories. They tell the stories of an American that some people would rather forget. An America that enslaved and incarcerated men, women, and children because of their skin color and nationality. What complicates their histories is they are reminders of America's darkest moments, nevertheless, they carry lessons for the present and future that have yet to be fully understood. Perhaps one day, they will. For now we can make sure The Slave Insurrection Trail and Manzanar continue to tell their tales by taking the time to learn their histories.
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