First National "Day of Remembrance" Launched

Civil liberties fund expands reach of event

Photo courtesy
National Japanese American
Historical Society

Evacuation instructions posted in San Francisco in 1942.

BY STACY LAVILLA

A series of commemorative events will call on individuals nationwide next week to reflect on the consequences of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

The activities, ranging from a lecture series featuring U.S. Assistant Attorney General Bill Lann Lee in Salt Lake City to a series of symposiums and jazz concerts in San Francisco, will also mark Feb. 19 as the first National Day of Remembrance commemorating the 120,000 Japanese Americans interned during World War II.

Although numerous communities have observed the internment with local ceremonies and events over the years, the National Day of Remembrance represents the first time the internment is being recognized nationally.

The events, which fall under the theme "Personal Justice Denied: An Issue for All Americans", are meant to serve as a reminder to all Americans of the consequences of the internment and the fragility of our civil rights.

"We want the public to reflect on that day, to remember that it was a day where a major injustice took place," said Dale Shimasaki, executive director at the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund. "We want them to remember because we don't want that to happen to any other group of people ... We want to protect the civil rights not just of Asian Americans, but of all people."

The date marks the 56th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the U.S. government to force Japanese Americans and legal residents from their homes and into internment camps during World War II out of fear that they were capable of committing acts of treason and espionage.

Years later, following an investigation by the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, it was determined that the reasons for the relocation were "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership," and had nothing to do with military necessity.

California Assemblyman Mike Honda of California, whose family was uprooted and interned, introduced legislation earlier this month to declare Feb. 19 a "Day of Remembrance" in California.

"When I was a child, my family was rounded up and sent to an internment camp," said Honda, a Democrat who represents both Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. "Was my family a threat? Were the 120,000 Japanese Americans a threat? The answer is no."

"We must not allow history to repeat itself," Honda said. "We must be firm in standing up to those who fan the flames of hysteria and racism to protect human rights."

Headlining the string of events is a Washington, D.C., ceremony where former internees, as well as notable Japanese Americans, will be on hand to collectively remember one of the darker moments in U.S. history.

The Washington ceremony, co-sponsored by the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund and the Smithsonian Institution, will include poetry readings, a candle lighting ceremony, and a panel discussion featuring Fred Korematsu and his attorneys regarding the Supreme Court cases that challenged the internment.

Korematsu's return to Washington next week follows on the heels of his visit last month, when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, for his act of defiance.

Korematsu lost his initial legal battle in Supreme Court, but was vindicated in 1984 when the court finally overturned his conviction and ruled that the internment program violated the constitutional rights of Japanese Americans.

The decision led to the landmark 1988 Civil Liberties Act in which the U.S. government apologized for the forced internment and compensated each internee with $20,000.

Other national ceremonies, such as one scheduled this weekend in Chicago, will highlight not only the injustice of the incarceration, but those Americans who ignored the widespread hysteria and prejudice against Japanese Americans and spoke out against the internment.

The Chicago ceremony will honor the work of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that protested the evacuation order, provided extra food to internees, and created a hostile when internees were relocated to Chicago.

"They really helped us out during the evacuation ... We're hoping that at the ceremony, people will tell their own stories of what the Quakers did," said Chie Tomihiro a former internee and event organizer.

"Having a National Day of Remembrance is very important to me simply because I think the country should be reminded again and again of what happened to Japanese Americans, and because we don't want this to happen to any other group," Tomihiro said.

Although the U.S. government recognized it was at fault and sought to compensate former internees, there are no guarantees that what occurred 50 years ago cannot occur again, said one Asian American advocate.

"These kinds of things can continue to happen because there was never any resolution at the Supreme Court level in terms of the legality of the incarceration of citizens," said Herb Yamanishi, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League. "There has to be some way to keep public vigilance on these issues."

Another advocate and community activist argued that in light of current political events, Asian Americans are still faced with the same suspicion and prejudice that Japanese Americans encountered over 50 years ago.

"We should all care about [the internment] because at that time Japanese Americans were rounded up as potential spies and the potential enemy," said Helen Zia, a community activist working with the fund. "We learned this year with the campaign finance [investigation] how easy it is for the government, the media, the public opinion, to slide into this notion that anyone with an Asian face is a potential spy, saboteur, enemy within."

©1998 AsianWeek. The information you receive on-line from AsianWeek is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, or repurposing of any copyright protected material.