George Nakano, right, with parents and siblings in a photo taken at Tule Lake dated February 1946. (Photo courtesy of George Nakano.)
Sacred Ground Graduates Visit Japanese Internment Smithsonian Exhibit By Diane Williamson, St. John’s, Roseville
Imagine what it would be like to have the government notify your family that you had only a few weeks to dispose of all of your property, belongings and pets and to prepare for departure to an unknown place, where your whole family would be incarcerated under the guard of the US Military. You and your family members would be assigned a number and would only be allowed to take what each one could carry. How very confusing this must have been for the 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry living in the United States after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
In March, a group of Sacred Ground graduates from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Roseville made the trip to Mills Station Arts & Cultural Center in Rancho Cordova to see a traveling exhibit on Japanese Internment from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. There we saw letters from Internees, pictures, history, and a computer where descendants could look up ancestors. Many visitors that day were of Japanese heritage, and we could hear them speak solemnly of ancestors they had found on the computer. As I looked at the pictures of families in the camps, I was reminded of my grandchildren, whose mother is of Japanese heritage. They could have been forced to move to these camps.
In February of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, empowering Army General John DeWitt to issue orders emptying parts of California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona of issei – immigrants from Japan, who were precluded from U.S. citizenship by law, and nisei- their children, who were U.S. citizens by birth. The round-ups began quietly within 48 hours of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This was announced to have been necessary to protect the West Coast. The program got underway despite the belief stated by a naval intelligence officer that Japanese-Americans were being perceived as a threat almost entirely “because of the physical characteristics of the people.” In reality, fewer than 3% were actual threats and the FBI and Navy knew who they were. There was not mass incarceration of U.S. citizens who traced their ancestry to Germany or Italy, America’s other enemies.
Ten war relocation centers were built in remote deserts, plains and swamps of seven states, including California. The largest of these incarceration camps, Tule Lake, is in the Diocese of Northern California. Tule Lake “War Relocation Center”, as it was then called, was designed as a series of blocks. Each block, sided with only tar paper, contained 4-6 family rooms, which ranged in size from 16 x 20 to 24 x 20. Each room had a single light bulb, a coal stove and up to 8 army cots. Residents had little or no privacy, with showers and toilets designated for both men and women. Conditions were harsh, with summer temperatures soaring as high as 110 degrees and winter temperatures plunging below freezing. Most Internees worked at the camp at such jobs as digging irrigation ditches, tending fruits and vegetables, raising chickens, hogs and cattle, making clothes and furniture. They worked as doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters and teachers. Professionals were paid $19 a month, skilled workers received $16 and nonskilled workers got $12.
As the war went on, Japanese residents were forced to answer “loyalty questions”, which included whether they would be willing to serve in the US military if asked and whether they would swear allegiance to the United States and give up their Japanese citizenship. Since these people were not allowed to become US citizens until 1952,
many of them answered no. Tule Lake became a segregation center, to which those residents who answered no to loyalty questions were sent. The population of the camp grew greatly during that time.
After the war ended in 1945, the Internment Camps were closed. Japanese Americans were released, but they didn’t have homes to which to return. They met hostility as they tried to resume their former lives. Some found that their properties had been seized for non-payment of taxes, and jobs were hard to find as they still faced prejudice. It wasn’t until 1952 that the Walter-McCarran Immigration and Naturalization Act allowed Japanese aliens to become naturalized citizens.
The activism of the 1950’s and ‘60’s encouraged the Japanese American community to seek redress. They persuaded President Gerald Ford to rescind Order 9066 by 1976. By 1980, President Jimmy Carter established the Commission of Wartime Relocation of Civilians. The final report of this commission recommended a national apology, compensation payments, and the creation of a foundation to teach Americans about the dangers of racial intolerance. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the US Civil Liberties Act into law, granting at $20,000 payment and an apology to 82,000 former Internees. He said, “Here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.” In October 1990, the first redress checks were issued under President George H.W. Bush and continued under President Bill Clinton.
Seventy-five years after the fact, the federal government’s incarceration of some 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent during the war is seen as shameful. We must work and pray that the fear that drove the government to take such steps will be eradicated over time and that we as followers of Jesus will learn to live out our Baptismal covenant, striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human being.
