America's Story: Japanese American Experience. Presentation by Saburo and Marion Masada

Item

Transcript of presentation by Saburo and Marion Masada

Title

eng America's Story: Japanese American Experience. Presentation by Saburo and Marion Masada

Description

eng Japanese American incarceration from the perspective of Saburo and Marion Masada

Creator

eng Masada, Saburo
eng Masada, Marion

Coverage

eng Fresno, California

Date

eng 12/21/2017

Identifier

eng SCMS_jaw2_00001

extracted text

>> Tammy Lau: Hi, I am Tammy Lau, head of Special Collections. Thank you all for joining
us. Welcome. And I will turn it over to Julie Moore who’s going to do the introduction.
>> Julie Moore: Good morning, everyone.

>> Crowd: [Simultaneously] Good morning.

>> Julie Moore: My name is Julie Moore. And I am a Special Collections Catalog Librarian.
And I'm also Sansei, third generation Japanese American. On behalf of the Special
Collections Research Center here at the Henry Madden Library at Fresno State, I welcome
you. I want to take a moment to thank our library for this wonderful 9066 Japanese
American Voices from the Inside series. The entire library has pulled together for this huge
effort, but I would specially like to thank Tammy Lau, let’s give her a round of applause.
[ Applause ]

-- Our head of Special Collections for having the vision for this exhibition. And our Special
Collections Research Center staff members Adam Wallace and Gregory Megee who have
implemented this vision with such great care. When I first moved to Fresno 12 years ago
with my then 3-year-old son, Glenda remembers him playing it on the floor with this little
Thomas engines. It was my aunt Toshie from San Francisco who urged me to contact her
friends in Fresno, Saburo and Marion Masada. The Masadas were my first contacts here in
Fresno, outside of work, of course. And what a wonderful couple they are, always so
welcoming. And they've been such a blessing in our lives. And incidentally my aunt Toshie
Hirose who is 96 years old, who's in the audience today.

[ Applause ]

And my mother, Anne Moore, who is 82 years old, is from Indianapolis, Indiana. And she is
also here in audience [applause]. They are camp survivors. As a little background, Sab and
Marion served for 41 years as pastor of Presbyterian churches in Watsonville and Stockton,
California and Ogden, Utah. They have three grown daughters here in California. Marion
comes from a family of 10 and was born in Salinas, California. Her mother was born in
Prunedale and her father was an immigrant from Japan. Saburo comes from a family of
nine. And he was born in Fresno, California, right here. His parents were immigrants from
Japan in early 1900. So how did such outstanding people and such a cute couple as Sab and
Marion, how did they relate to 9066 and our topic at hand? Well, when Marion was nine
years old and when Sab was 12 years old, their families like my mother's family were part
of over 120,000 loyal and innocent Americans of Japanese ancestry who were forcibly
removed from their homes and incarcerated in America's concentration camps. This
executive order was driven by racism, greed and fear. After World War II, most Japanese
Americans were very quiet about this experience. They're trying to reassimilate into the
American society. But Marion and Sab knew that what had happened to them and their
families and their friends was not right. They knew that they had done nothing wrong.
Since the mid 1970s, some had spoken to many thousands of people across the country to
shed light on this little known piece of American history. At times our US Constitution and
the rights of the US citizens, residents were violated by our own government. Today we are

so fortunate to have them here to speak to you about their experiences that resulted from
the Executive Order. The Masadas are highly sought after speakers for all this work, they
have been recognized with high praise and awards. They received the JACL, that's the
Japanese American Citizens League Distinguished American award for the Spirit of
Education in February of 2015. They also received the HandsOn Central California Award
for Volunteerism in April 2015. They often end their presentation with George Santayana's
quote, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. We must not
allow this to ever happen again." Without further ado, it's my pleasure to present to you
Marion and Saburo Masada.
[ Applause ]

>> Saburo Masada: Ten weeks after Japan bombed our country at Pearl Harbor on
December 7, 1941; our President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.
This authorized Lieutenant General John DeWitt, commander of the Western Defense
Command to uproot 120,000 loyal Americans and loyal legal permanent alien residents
only of Japanese ancestry who were living primary on the West Coast from our homes, our
properties, our communities, our schools and our livelihood, and imprisoned us in
America's 10 concentration camps for up to four years, 1942 to 1946. Our only crime was
our face. We looked like our enemy that bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7th. This
General DeWitt, his rationale for his mass incarceration order was military necessity,
national security, based on the rumors, lies, and propaganda of anti-Japanese factions, selfinterest groups and politicians seeking votes to be elected. General DeWitt's 1942 final
report to the War Department states, "In the war in which we are now engaged racial
affinities are not severed by migration. The Japanese race is an enemy race. And Japanese
born on the US soil, possessed of US citizenship had become Americanized, but the racial
strains are undiluted. There is no ground for assuming that any Japanese, though born and
raised in the United States will not turn against this nation when the final test of loyalty
comes." General DeWitt testified before Congressional committee in 1943 saying, "It makes
no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship
does not necessarily determine loyalty." He stated a Jap is a Jap. When he was asked about
the Americans of German and Italian ancestry, DeWitt answered, "You need not worry
about the Italians and the Germans at all except in certain cases. But we must worry about
the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map." General DeWitt's order was posted
on telephone poles and walls of building. This is a copy of his order. His order begins, "All
persons of Japanese ancestry, both aliens and non-aliens will be evacuated." We know what
an alien is. What's a non-alien? He didn't have the guts nor the integrity to even write both
aliens and American citizens. In 1943, our government showed a film to America to tell
what it was doing to us. The film told America that 120,000 of us were being relocated to
new pioneer communities with more space to live in and with more job opportunities. The
film neglected to explain that we were being imprisoned in America's 10 concentration
camps surrounded by barbed wire camps with guard towers manned by soldiers with guns
pointed at us. The film neglected to show that these concentration camps are built in
desolate desert or swamp lands in seven states of Arkansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah,
Arizona, Idaho and two in California. The film neglected to describe our new homes as
flimsy tarpapered barracks, each barrack divided into four, five bedrooms for families up to

eight members in each room. No furniture except wall to wall army beds. And one light
bulb hanging from the rafters with walls going up only part way so we could hear what was
going on in the next room and even on the other end of the barrack. These barracks had no
privacy, no kitchen, no runny water, no toilets. Here is a propaganda film that the
government showed to America to explain.
[ Music ]

>> Milton S. Eisenhower: When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor; our West Coast
became a potential combat zone. Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons of
Japanese ancestry: two thirds of them American citizens; one third aliens. We knew that
some among them were potentially dangerous. But no one knew what would happen
among this concentrated population if Japanese forces should try to invade our shores.
Military authorities therefore determined that all of them, citizens and aliens alike, would
have to move. This picture tells how the mass migration was accomplished. Neither the
Army nor the War Relocation Authority relished the idea of taking men, women, and
children from their homes, their shops, and their farms. So the military and civilian
agencies alike determined to do the job as a democracy should: with real consideration for
the people involved. First attention was given to the problems of sabotage and espionage.
[Background Music] Now, here at San Francisco, for example, convoys were being made up
within sight of possible Axis agents. There were more Japanese in Los Angeles than in any
other area. In nearby San Pedro, houses and hotels, occupied almost exclusively by
Japanese, were within a stone's throw of a naval air base, shipyards, oil wells. Japanese
fishermen had every opportunity to watch the movement of our ships. Japanese farmers
were living close to vital aircraft plants. So, as a first step, all Japanese were required to
move from critical areas such as these. But, of course, this limited evacuation was a solution
to only part of the problem. The larger problem, the uncertainty of what would happen
among these people in case of a Japanese invasion, still remained. That is why the
commanding General of the Western Defense Command determined that all Japanese
within the coastal areas should move inland. Immediately the Army began mapping
evacuation areas and for a time encouraged the Japanese to leave voluntarily. But trouble
for the voluntary evacuees soon threatened in their new locations so the program was
quickly put on a planned and protected basis. Thereafter the American-citizen Japanese
and Japanese aliens made plans in accordance with orders. Notices were posted. All
persons of Japanese descent were required to register. They gathered in their own
churches and schools and the Japanese themselves cheerfully handled the enormous
paperwork involved in the migration. Civilian physicians made preliminary medical
examinations. Government agencies helped in a hundred ways. They helped the evacuees
find tenets for their farms. They helped businessmen lease, sell or store their property. This
aid was financed by the government but quick disposal of property often involved financial
sacrifice for the evacuees. Now the actual migration got underway. The Army provided
fleets of vans to transport household belongings and buses to move the people to assembly
centers. The evacuees cooperated wholeheartedly. The many loyal among them felt that
this was a sacrifice they could make in behalf of America's war effort. In small towns as well
as large up-and-down the coast the moving continued.
[ Music ]

[Background Music] Behind them they left shops and homes they had occupied for many
years.
[ Music ]

Their fishing fleets were impounded and left under guard. Now they were taken to
racetracks and fairgrounds where he army almost overnight had built assembly centers.
They lived here until new pioneer communities could be completed on federally owned
lands in the interior. Santa Anita racetrack, for example, suddenly became a community of
about 17,000 persons. The Army provided housing and plenty of healthful, nourishing food
for all. The residents of the new community set about developing a way of life as nearly
normal as possible. They held church services, Protestant, Catholic and Buddhist. They
issued their own newspaper, organized nursery schools, and some made camouflage nets
for the United States army. Meanwhile in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and elsewhere
quarters were being built where they would have an opportunity to work and more space
in which to live. When word came that these new homes were ready the final movement
began.
[ Music ]

At each relocation center, evacuees were met by an advanced contingent of Japanese who
had arrived some days earlier and who now acted as guides. Naturally, the newcomers
looked about with some curiosity. They were in a new area on land that was raw, untamed,
but full of opportunity. Here they would build schools, educate their children, reclaim the
desert. Their own physicians took precautions to guard against epidemics. They opened
advanced Americanization classes for college students who, in turn, would instruct other
groups. They made a rough beginning of self-government, for while the Army would guard
the outer limits of each area, community life and security within were largely up to the
Japanese themselves. They immediately saw the need for developing civic leaders. At
weekly community meetings citations were given to the barrack leaders who had worked
most diligently. Special emphasis was put on the health and care of these American
children of Japanese descent.
[ Music ]

Their parents, most of whom are American citizens and their grandparents, who are aliens,
immediately wanted to go to work. At Manzanar, they built a life house and began rooting
guayule cuttings. The plants, when mature, will add to our rubber supply.
[ Music ]

At Parker, they undertook the irrigation of fertile desert land. Meanwhile, in areas away
from the coast and under appropriate safeguards, many were permitted to enter private
employment, particularly to work in sugar beet fields where labor was badly needed. Now,
this brief picture is actually the prologue to a story that is yet to be told. The full story will
begin to unfold when the raw lands of the desert turn green, when all adult hands are in
productive work on public lands or in private employment. It will be fully told only when
circumstances permit the loyal American citizens once again to enjoy the freedom we in

this country cherish and when the disloyal, we hope, have left this country for good. In the
meantime, we are setting a standard for the rest of the world in the treatment of a people
who may have loyalties to an enemy nation. We are protective ourselves without violating
the principles of Christian decency. And we won't change this fundamental decency no
matter what our enemies do, but of course, we hope most earnestly, that our example will
influence the Axis powers in their treatment of Americans who fall into their hands.
[ Music ]

>> Who directed this film was Milton Eisenhower. I'll be sharing with you his memoir that
he expressed much later. We were stunned, shocked, saddened disillusioned and
traumatized in our America when this happened to us. As a small minority, we were
helpless, we had no voice, no power and no one to advocate for us. Our beloved country
was guilty of a blatant and gross violation of our constitutional guarantees and committed
the worst blows to constitutional liberties that American citizens have ever sustained.
There was no charge or trial or due process of law. Our government has kept this history
out of our history books for decades. Marion and I share this history of America so that we
will not be condemned to repeat it again against anyone else. Our government used
euphemisms to describe this mass incarceration. It is said that we were being relocated and
evacuated to new homes. When there is a flood or a fire, people are relocated to a safe
place. In February of 2017, the Oroville Dam was in danger of breaking. Thousands of
people downstream were evacuated, relocated to safe places. We were not relocated and
evacuated to safe places; we were imprisoned in America's concentration camps. America's
concentration camps were nothing like those in Germany, which were euphemistically
called concentration camps to hide the fact that they were actually death camps, or
extermination camps. Also, the word internment camp is a misnomer an internee is an
alien of a country with which we are at war. Justice Department had aliens imprisoned in
internment camps. Two thirds of the 120,000 in these concentration camps were American
citizens, not aliens. We were not in an internment camp but in America's concentration
camp. Our friend Dr. Tetsuden Kashima, professor at the University of Washington told us;
whoever controls the vocabulary controls the narrative. Our government has controlled the
vocabulary too long and has not told what actually happened to us in America. In 1998, the
Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles was asked to put up a display at the
Immigration Museum on Ellis Island in New York. Its display was entitled, "America's
Concentration Camps: Remembering the Japanese American Experience". Understandably
the term concentration was objected by Jewish groups in New York. Leaders of both groups
met to discuss the use of this word and after two hours, both sides agreed that the use of
the word was correct. To avoid any confusion, they agreed to add a footnote to display and
also to put it in the printed program. The footnote said, a concentration camp is a place
where people are imprisoned not because of any crimes they have committed but simply
because of who they are. Nazi camps were places of torture, barbarous medical
experiments and summary executions; some were extermination centers such as with gas
chambers. All had one thing in common, the people empower decided to remove a minority
group from the general population and the rest of society let it happen. Our concern is that
what happened to us in 1942 based on racism and faithism will not be repeated again
against the Muslims, the immigrants, the refugees or anyone else. Our government has kept

this shameful history of America out of our history books for decades. Marion and I shared
the past history so that we will not be condemned to repeat it again against anyone else.
We need to understand-- We need to know our American history to understand how such a
tragedy happened to 120,000 loyal Americans and loyal legal permanent alien residents.
We need to know that there were 40 years leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor of
organized efforts to rid the West Coast of all Japanese. Japanese immigrants began arriving
on the West Coast in early 1900 when the United States looked at Japan to fulfill its labor
force after the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1905, 67 organizations met in San Francisco
to form the Asian Exclusion League with some 67,000 members. Its sole purpose was to
promote the anti-Japanese movement. Numerous efforts and laws are passed to rid the
West Coast of Japanese immigrants. In 1913, California passed the Alien Land Law
preventing Japanese immigrants from owning any land in California, with similar laws
eventually passed in several other states. In 1915, the Hearst newspaper launched an active
anti-Japanese series. In 1924, Congress passed the Asian Exclusion Act stopping any further
immigration from Japan to America. These are just the few the many efforts to rid the
Japanese from the West Coast long before World War II started. Among these members
were the California State Grange, the Western Growers Protective Association, Native Sons
of the Golden West, the American Legion and the Farm Bureau advocating getting rid of the
Japanese immigrants and their families from the West Coast, charging that the Japanese
people were an economic and cultural threat to white America. In 1942, Native Sons of the
Golden West passed a resolution to strip the citizenship of Americans of Japanese ancestry.
In 1943, the California State Grange called for the deportation of all people of Japanese
ancestry, citizens and aliens alike. This 40-year campaign to rid the West Coast of Japanese
people was failing. For example, by the end of 1941 Japanese American farmers controlled
42% of the commercial truck crops grown in California, 22% of the nations total they tilled
only 3.9% of the State's farmland. Ninety-eight percent of California's vegetables were
Japanese American grown. Most of them on land formerly considered undesirable
performing due to alkaline, hardpan, parched and hilly terrain. Japanese American
businesses such as urban and neighborhood fruit stands, grocery stores, florist shops,
restaurants, dry cleaning establishments and other businesses were flourishing in spite of
the discrimination preventing entry into other professional endeavors. When the Japan
bombed Pear Harbor on December 7, 1941, it was the opportunity time for the antiJapanese factions to exploit the war hysteria and fears to flood the public with rumors, lies
and propaganda that we Japanese were dangerous, because we were loyal to Japan, not to
our beloved America. By doing this, they hope to rid once for all the Japanese population
from the West Coast. General DeWitt, a vocal racist was gullible in believing all the rumors
and lies of the anti-Japanese factions and sensationalized by the Hearst newspapers. The
anti-Japanese factions found the perfect opportunity to rid the West Coast of all Japanese
people when Japan bombed our country. They begun spreading lies and rumors that the
Japanese Americans are spying and sabotaging for Japan. Eighteen spies are arrested for
spying during the World War II years. None of them were of Japanese ancestry. Politicians
supported the mass incarceration for a political purpose. Chief Justice Earl Warren,
champion of the civil rights in the '60s, in 1942 was campaigning to be a governor of
California. In 1942, Warren told committee, that was evaluating the necessity of
incarcerating all the Japanese people in the West Coast. He said the very fact that the
Japanese people has not committed any crime is proof that they will when the right time

comes. You follow his logic, the very fact that you have not committed any crime is proof
that you will when the right time comes. Warren got his votes and was elected governor of
California that year. General DeWitt swallowed hook line and sinker these lies and rumors
without any evidence, ordered all people of Japanese ancestry living in the West Coast to be
incarcerated. General Delos Emmons, Commander in Hawaii, refused to follow General
DeWitt's racist order. In 1942, Hawaii's population was 158,000, one-third of Hawaii's
population. Also Hawaii did not have intense 40-year history of anti-Japanese movement
prior to the bombing in Pearl Harbor as did the West Coast. In 1943, General Emmons
replaced General DeWitt who was fired as Commander of the Western Defense Command,
but the damage was done and a mass incarceration was kept intact. In 1942, three
courageous Americans of Japanese descent defied General DeWitt's orders and refused to
comply. Min Yasui, young attorney in Oregon, Gordon Hirabayashi, senior law student at
University of Washington and Fred Korematsu, machinist in Oakland, California, they were
arrested and convicted and sent to prison also. All three appealed their convictions before
the US Supreme Court, Min Yasui and Gordon Hirobayashi in 1943 and Fred Korematsu in
1944. All three lost their appeals. Fred Korematsu lost his appeal, but a serious misconduct
by our government was discovered in 1980, 40 years after the trial. This is Peter Irons, a
legal historian who entered the government archives to look up the files of Korematsu's
1944 appeal before the Supreme Court. He was given the dusty box with Korematsu's name
on it and in a yellow folder inside the top of the file; he found a memo from Edward Ennis, a
Justice Department lawyer to Solicitor General Charles Fahy who defended the government
against Korematsu's appeal. This is Solicitor General Charles Fahy, the top attorney for our
government. Let me give some background to this memo that was given to Fahy. Prior to
the Supreme Court hearing of Korematsu's appeal in '44, Justice Department Lawyers
Edward Ennis and John Burley wanted to provide Charles Fahy with hard facts supporting
General DeWitt's claim that the Japanese Americans were spying and sabotaging for Japan.
They ask US Attorney General Francis Biddle to check with the US Intelligence Agencies for
evidence to support General DeWitt's claim that the mass incarceration was justified for a
reason of national security. When the report came back to them, they were shocked to find
precisely the opposite report. FBI Director Edgar Hoover said that there was no evidence
that Japanese Americans had been associated with any espionage activity ashore or that
there had been any elicit shore to ships signaling either by radio or by light. Federal
Communication Commission Chair James Fly assured that DeWitt's charges of elicit radio
signaling by the Japanese Americans cannot be regarded as well founded. The Office of
Naval Intelligence and other authoritative intelligence agencies categorically denied that
the Japanese Americans had committed any wrong and that they had opposed a mass
incarceration. Other memoranda called the government's claims that the Japanese
Americans were spying as intentional falsehoods. Upon receiving this shocking report,
Ennis sent a memo to Solicitor General Charles Fahy who is preparing to defend the
government against Fred Korematsu. This is the memo Peter Irons found in the
government files. We are in possession of information that shows that the war
department’s report on the internment is a lie and we have an ethical obligation not to lie
to the Supreme Court and we must decide whether to correct that record. What do you
think our government’s top attorney; Charles Fahy did with this memo? Fahy ignored this
memo completely and told the justices that every syllable and word in General DeWitt's
1942 final report of military necessity was valid. The Supreme Court upheld Korematsu's

conviction by a vote of six to three. Fahy quoted from a redacted final report of General
DeWitt, he did not inform the Supreme Court that he was using a revised version of the
final report to defend General DeWitt. When Lieutenant General DeWitt was asked to
submit his final report to the War Department, he was asked to submit it in manuscript
form so they could read it over; instead, he printed 10 hard copies of his final report with
the help of Karl Bendetsen highlighting DeWitt's reputation. When the War Department
read his report, they were alarmed with his racist remark that although there was time,
there was no way of separating the sheep from the goats, which was contrary to the War
Department's opinion that there was not enough time. Also DeWitt's statement that we
would not allow the Japanese Americans to return to the West Coast during the duration of
the war was contrary to the view of the War Department and others. The War Department
ordered all 10 copies, hard copies destroyed including the manuscript and all evidence of
DeWitt's original report. General DeWitt objected strenuously to the revisions but he was
forced to sign it. How do we know this one lone original copy of the 10 was found in 1980
showing words crossed out and words edited in a margin giving evidence of the revised
version. With these new evidences of the government's misconduct before the 1944 US
Supreme Court trial, Fred Korematsu appealed his convictions again, this time, with the
Federal 9th District, a Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on November 10, 1983. I
was able to attend that trial. After the lawyers for both sides gave their arguments, Judge
Marilyn Patel ordered a recess and stated that she would give her verdict after the court
reconvened. I've remembered the court room was very quiet. When Judge Patel returned
and reconvened the court, she had harsh words for the government lawyers for
withholding evidence from the Supreme Court, for destroying the evidence and for lying to
the Supreme Court Justices and she vacated Korematsu's 1942 conviction. One of
Korematsu's lawyers interviewed me years later in Fresno reminding me that the
courtroom had erupted with shouts of victory upon hearing Judge Patel's verdict. I told the
lawyer that I didn't remember that, what I do remember was that I was surprised when I
felt tears coming down my cheeks with the overwhelming feeling that for the first time I
was hearing with my own ears, an official of my own government declaring that we were
put into these concentration camps for up to four years unjustly on a lie by the War
Department and General DeWitt. In 1980, 35 years after the concentration camps were
ordered to be closed, Congress established a Congressional Commission to do a thorough
three-year investigation of how this tragic event could happen in our great democracy. Its
investigation is recorded in this book, Personal Justice Denied. The Congressional
Commission's investigation found that our government's fatal action was based only on the
opinion of respectable persons, no evidence was needed and so none were provided. In
fact, there were no such evidence, only unfounded rumors, lies and propaganda. The
Congressional Commission statement unhappily the false claims and stories on the West
Coast in 1942 made respectable opinion, the old prejudicial propaganda of the antiJapanese faction unopposed had won the day. The War Department and the President
through the press and politicians with the aid of General DeWitt had been sold a bill of
goods. And accepting the vicious views of California's ugly past, they came to believe that
the Japanese living on the West Coast represented a threat to the security of the coast. The
Commission's conclusion: The promulgation of Executive Order 9066 was not justified by
military necessity, were not driven by analysis of military conditions. The broad historical
causes which shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of

political leadership. And I would add organized self-interest groups and their cultural
prejudice and economic greed advocating since the early 1900s ridding all Japanese
immigrants and their families from the West Coast, spreading lies and rumors about the
Japanese on the West Coast, exploiting the fears and hysteria of World War II. I want to
conclude this part of our presentation with memoirs of our nation's leaders who supported
General John DeWitt's orders. Justice William Douglas said the mass incarceration was ever
on my conscience. Milton Eisenhower described the forced removal to concentration camps
as an inhuman mistake. Milton was a brother of our president, Dwight Eisenhower. Milton
was appointed director of the 10 concentration camps in March of 1942, but resigned three
months later stating he was sick of the job and often had trouble sleeping at night. I think
he listened to his conscience. While Chief Justice Earl Warren was living, he was asked to
apologize for advocating the mass incarceration, but he turned away emotionally
overcome. In his 1977 memoir, he wrote, I have since deeply regretted the removal order
and my own testimony advocating it because it was not in keeping with our American
concept of freedom and the rights of citizens and everybody thought of the innocent
children who were torn from home, school friends and congenial surroundings, I was
conscience-stricken, it was wrong to react so impulsively without positive evidence for
disloyalty. Why did he not mention the adults who lost their jobs, their farms, their homes,
and their life long achievements being fulfilled until suddenly interrupted and when the
camps were closed, those still in the camps had to leave and were given $25 and a ticket
somewhere. Many had no home to return to. Seventy five percent of all the lucrative farms
are lost and never recovered by the Japanese American farmers. Many had to move to other
states away from the West Coast where there was still anti-Japanese sentiments and
scarcity of jobs and housing. Some 30,000 migrated to Chicago where they had to start
from scratch. Justice Tom Clark said, looking back on it today, it was a mistake. A mistake? I
call it a crime, 120,000 innocent loyal Americans and loyal permanent alien residents of
Japanese ancestry without any charge or trial, or due process of law were uprooted from
homes, property, work, business, schools, friends and imprisoned for up to four years in
America's concentration camps on the false claim of national security. Now, I have one of
General DeWitt's non-aliens share her story with you.
>> Marion Masada: I am a survivor of America's concentration camp. My citizenship didn't
protect me one bit, our constitution was reduced to a scrap of paper. We Americans living
in Southern Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and California were uprooted from our homes
and put into 16 temporary detention centers in fair grounds and then transferred to 10
America's permanent concentration camps. Most of us were under 21 yeas of age. We had
no power, no voice and no one to advocate for us. This is a graphic photo of a second grade
class. Over night, classes with Japanese students were almost half empty. We disappeared
from our schools, our community and our homes. Before I share my story, I need to share
our Japanese culture to help you understand how we were raised as children. Our culture
instilled in us a moral and ethical way of life. These are the words that were drilled into us.
Haji, I am not to bring shame, disgrace or dishonor on my family, community and country.
Gaman, I am to endure, persevere, with patience and dignity. Shikata-Ga Nai, I must accept
things as they are when they cannot be changed and move forward. Enryo, I am to be
reserved, modest, act in humility and put others first. On, I am to show honor and
responsibility a sense of grateful obligation and a debt of gratitude to family, community

and country. Kodomo-no Tame, for the sake of the children, protect them from negative
experience and attitude. Our culture traits often had showed us with a smiling face, hiding
our sad face. My father was an immigrant from Japan and my mother was born in
Prunedale, California. They were successful truck farmers in Salinas, California and doing
very well financially. They worked very hard to support their large family. It was a matter
of survival. They were at the height of their earning ability when forced into the
concentration camps. I was nine years old when our family was uprooted. At the time, my
mother was 31, papa was 42, Charlie 13, Jimmy 12, Harry 11, I was nine, May eight, and
Bobby was five. We were given name tags with a number 13141, because we would not be
known by our name, but by our number. This was a way to dehumanize us. My mother
pounded it into our heads how important it was to know our number, we children could get
lost because the barracks all looked alike. Our government hurriedly built temporary
barracks on the Salinas Rodeo grounds and we were there for about two and a half months.
We did not know where we were going or how long we were gone-- we would be gone. We
were allowed to take only two bags per person. My mother planning ahead filled one bag
sacrificed one bag and filled it with Kotex pads for my sister and me when we would have
need for it. We were taken on dilapidated trains from Salinas to Poston, Arizona, life in
Arizona was 120 degrees in the summer. We had dust storms so thick we had to cover our
face to protect our eyes and our breathing. Our family of eight lived in one 20 by 25 foot
room with no partitions. There was no furniture just army cots and one light bulb hanging
from the rafters. There was no privacy in our barracks. We lined up to eat in the mess hall
rain or shine. My father was a cook and my mother was a dietitian preparing foods for new
mothers, diabetics and the sick. This meant our family did not eat as a family for the three
and a half years while we were in Poston, Arizona. Family life was never the same after
that. Brothers and sisters were never close after camp. This is our friend, Judy Sugita de
Queiroz who drew the following watercolors. The community bathrooms in each block had
no partitions for privacy. These conditions were very painful and we suffered our shame in
silence. The same with showers, there was no privacy. This is my sixth grade class. You can
see the barracks in the background on the left and on the right. I had one friend, I was a girl
scout. My mother had a baby in camp so my sister May helped with the baby and I did all
the family laundry and ironing. I did the laundry with a scrub board and rinsed the clothes
twice. I did not have much time to play like other children. I was 10 years old. One day my
sister's friend invited my sister and I, my sister and me to stay over night in her barrack.
And in the night, her father molested me. I was so traumatized I had no voice to scream, I
kept this incident to myself for many years because I could not talk about it to anyone. I
was not able to tell my mother before she died. My whole experience being in camp was a
traumatic one. I was made to feel I started the war, I felt being Japanese was very bad. I felt
a hurt I could not explain. I didn't know how to fight back. I felt hate and it was scary and it
didn't feel good. I was in the eighth grade when we were released from camp to go home to
Salinas, but we were not allowed there. We had no home to return to. No one would rent to
us. Mother left behind with our landlord all her wedding gifts that were still new,
household furnishings and other valuables including her wedding ring. When we returned,
we found all our belongings had been looted and ransacked. We literally had nothing. Even
our car was just a shell. We lived temporarily in the Watsonville Buddhist Temple. Since the
temple facilities were too crowded for our large family, we moved to a larger Sunday school
room at the Japanese Westview Presbyterian Church. We children all had to work after

school. I worked as a maid for two homes for 50 cents an hour. After one year, we moved to
San Jose and for the next seven years, I chose to be a live-in maid in the Caucasian homes I
worked for. By doing so, my family would have one less mouth to feed, and one less body to
house. My saving grace was the first day of high school I met an Italian student. She had
recently lost her mother and had moved from Scranton, Pennsylvania to San Jose. She
needed a friend and I needed a friend. We became the closest of friends. When I had
weekends off, she invited me to live with their family who treated me with love and care as
a member of her family. They restored my faith in humanity. I learned that there were good
people in our world. This had a great impact on my life. I want to share two experiences of
discrimination and prejudice that changed my life. The first experience was when I was
working in San Francisco, I needed another part-time job to supplement my income. I went
to interview with Milton Mann [assumed spelling] Photography Studio. He asked me to do
telephone solicitation in front of him, which I did with enthusiasm. When I hung up, he said
my name sounded too foreign and asked me to use a Caucasian name. I did another
telephone call introducing myself as Miss Grant. When I hang up, I was burning with such
anger that I had no words to say to Mr. Mann so I picked up my purse, glared at him and
left. The second experience was when I was working part-time as a community aid in an
elementary school. By now, I was married and had three little children and needed to help
support our income. One day the principal asked me to do the secretary's job also. By now I
was smart, I said that this was-- that was not in my job description since I was a community
aid. Mr. Potter said that I was to do it because he told me to do it. And the superintendent of
school told him to tell me to do it. I said, "Oh" and left. I headed straight to the
superintendent's office and asked him. Why didn't he tell me himself that I was to do the
secretary's job too since this is only a three-hour a day job. Without saying a word, he got
on the phone in my presence, dialed Mr. Potter and told him never to us his name like that
again. How do you think I felt then? I felt power come back to me and I got my voice back. It
seemed that I have been giving my power away. It has enabled me to be strong to tell my
story. It has been healing for me and I thank you for this opportunity to tell my story.

>> Saburo Masada: Thank you, Marion. I vividly remember that Sunday morning, our family
took a break from working in front of our newly bought vineyard and home in Caruthers.
We turned on the radio to relax. A news flash interrupted the radio program around 11 a.m.
Japan is bombing Pearl Harbor, the radio blurted out. I remember saying, what a stupid
thing Japan is doing bombing our country. Who do they think they are? Japan was like the
other side the room-- moon for me. But within a couple of weeks, we began hearing racist
lies and rumors accusing the Japanese Americans of helping Japan in the bombing of Pearl
Harbor. Rumors are flying around that we were loyal to Japan not to our own beloved
America. Before long, I remember hearing anti-Japanese rumors saying, round up the Japs
and put them in concentration camps. I remember our family along with many other
families destroyed anything that had to do with Japanese, valuable photos of relatives in
Japan, magazines, books, phonograph records, dolls, et cetera. So the-- if the FBI came to
our homes, they would think-- they would not think that we were closely associated with
Japan. We were told not to speak Japanese. We took a tragic loss on our heirlooms, culture
and language for no reason. I understood why we did this but I didn't understand why we
had to do it. We were loyal Americans and our immigrant parents loves their adopted
country even though they were denied the right to become naturalized American citizens

until 1952, some 30, 50 years later in America. I will always remember May 16, 1942
because it was the day of the West Coast relays held at Fresno State. I was hoping that
Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam of Fresno State would break his own 15 feet plus world
record in pole vaulting. I never found out because on that very day, the army truck came
into the front yard of our farmhouse and others and all nine in our family had to pile into it
to leave our new home farm and home to be taken to the Fresno Fairgrounds. The Fresno
Fairgrounds, which was a place of fun and highlighting the riches of our Central Valley, was
suddenly turned into a temporary prison camp surrounded by barbed wire fence with
guard towers manned by soldiers with guns pointed at us and a search light that pierce the
dark knight sweeping over some 250 tarpapered barracks throughout the night. I can still
hear the bugle playing their curfew taps at 10 p.m. every night from the grandstand, and
people scurrying into the barracks as the MPs came knocking on each door and pointing
their flashlights into our faces to do a head count, making sure that we were all in our beds.
It was scary being imprisoned but the adults kept us busy with various activities and
prevented us from dwelling on our sad situation. So that's what we all did and did the best
we could to prove that we were loyal to America. We had to bury the trauma being violated
by our own country. This is the aerial view of the Fairground. The dark spots are barracks
in which were over 5,000 mostly from our Central California were imprisoned. This is Mary
Tsukamoto and her daughter Marielle. Our dear friend, Mary Tsukamoto and her family
were also imprisoned in the Fresno Fairgrounds. She recalls in 1942, 4th of July program
held in the Fresno detention center. She said, because we couldn't think of anything to do
we decided to recite the Gettysburg Address as a verse choir. We had noted artist, Henry
Sugimoto draw a big portrait of Abraham Lincoln with an American flag behind him. Some
people had tears in their eyes. Some people shook their heads and scorned saying it was so
ridicules to have that kind of thing recited in this camp. It didn't make sense but it was our
hearts cry. We wanted so much to believe that this was a government by the people and for
the people and that there was freedom and justice. So we did things like that to entertain
each other, to inspire each other, to hang on to things that made sense and were right. After
six months at the Fresno Detention Center, our family was transferred to the Jerome
Concentration Camp in the swampland of Southeastern Arkansas. The weather had
suddenly turned very cold in early November with snow. Three weeks after our arrival, my
father weakened by the trauma and having to live in the cold barrack without any heat
caught pneumonia and died in a makeshift barrack hospital on November 17, 1942. The pot
belly wood heater arrived the day he died, too late. That left my mother who is only 43
years old with seven children facing an unknown future in a concentration camp. I regret
that our family could not have a normal grieving experience. If father had died at home,
relatives and neighbors would have gathered in our home sharing and celebrating our
father's life, enjoying food around our table. But in Jerome Concentration Camp, our
relatives were scattered in other camps and other states. There was no room in the
barracks to share our father's life and no kitchen facility to provide food. I remember going
out the next day to play with my friends who didn't know my father nor that he had died.
Less than a year after we were imprisoned, our government produced its famous loyalty
questionnaire. Everyone 18 years and older have to answer the questionnaire even the
elderly men and women and the disabled. Two of the questions played havoc in all the 10
concentration camps. Question 27; are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the
United States on combat duty whenever ordered? Of course we are Americans, but why are

they asking us now after saying we were dangerous? Question 28, will you foreswear
unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United
States from any and all attack by foreign or domestic forces and forswear any form of
obedience to the allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor or any other foreign
government power or organizations. Why were they asking us who were Americans about
forswearing allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor? Were our government
asking this to Germans about Hitler and the Italians about Mussolini? Ten percent of the
incarcerees refused to answer yes in protest. These were sent to Tule Lake Segregation
Center, a prison within a prison and treated harshly. In 1944, the army came into our
camps for more needed soldiers. A small minority protested and resisted the draft saying,
restore our constitutional rights as American citizens. Release us from these concentration
camps and we will be more than willing to fight or defend our country. These draft
resisters of conscience were sent to the federal penitentiary for up to three years. In 1947,
President Harry Truman pardoned them after these draft resisters of conscience served 18
months in the federal penitentiary. I was told that some non-Japanese soldiers were also
pardoned at the same time so that the release of the Nisei Japanese American resisters
would not appear noticeable. The late Senator Dan Inouye before his death defended the
draft resisters of conscience saying, they're not cowards. It took a lot of strength and a lot
of courage to do what they did. I Think Senator Inouye would have applied his words to the
“no, no” resisters of conscience as well. It did take a lot of strength, a lot of courage to
descent, to be wrongly accused of being disloyal and imprisoned and punished like the
draft resisters of conscience by their own government and echoed by the majority of their
fellow Japanese Americans in the camps and by the leaders of the Japanese Americans
Citizens League. These resisters were in truth defending our constitution and demanding
that our government stop violating our constitution. They were heroes, not disloyal. During
World War II, to demonstrate their love and loyalty to our country, 33,000 Japanese
Americans served in the U.S. military. 13,500 of them came from behind the barbed wire
fence of the 10 concentration camps. These young men and women who were incarcerated
because they were danger to a national security simply had to answer yes to two simple
questions and they were immediately accepted into the army. And even into the sensitive
Military Intelligence Service. What a contradiction! These Japanese American soldiers are
fighting for our country. At the same time, many of their own families were imprisoned in
one of the 10 concentration camps in America. On November 2, 2011, 21 Japanese
American veterans of World War II were belatedly awarded a Congressional Gold Medal for
their valor and service to our country. They segregated all Japanese. 442nd Regimental
Combat Team became the most decorated unit in US military history for its size and length
of service. Six thousand Japanese American soldiers served in the Military Intelligence
Service. General Douglas McArthur stated, "Never in military history did an army know so
much about the enemy prior to actual engagement." General Charles Willoughby on
McArthur's staff, G2 intelligence chief said, "The Nisei soldiers saved countless allied lives
and shortened the war by two years. Beginning January 2, 1945, the camps were ordered to
close and those still in the camps were given $25 and a ticket to somewhere. Most had
nowhere to go. Seventy-five percent of the lucrative and thriving Japanese American farms
in '41 were lost and never recovered. Thirty thousand went to Chicago to start life from
scratch. When my family was released after three long years in the two camps in Arkansas
and finally allowed to return to our home in Caruthers, we were so grateful to the Sorensen

brothers, Ray, Floyd, and Orville, and to Ted and Nelly Nielsen who took care of our farm so
that we had a home to come back to. There were some there true Americans who did what
the Sorensens and the Nielsens did. When asked why his father Ray saved our farm and
home, his son, Don, answered, it was the right thing to do. When we returned to Caruthers,
I was a freshman and my sister was a senior ready to graduate. One of the things I missed
most while in camp were my classmates. I had been--that I had been with through six years
of elementary school. When our family returned to California, I was in the--I was a
freshman in high school. The first thing I did was to look for my dear friends. They were
having lunch on the front lawn. I went to them to be bonded with them again and they
stood up, they were now about a foot taller than I, all they said was hi. No one said we
missed you or where were you or it was terrible what they did to you. Throughout the
three plus years in high school, none of my friends asked me about the three years I was
away from them. I wondered what had happened to our close friendship I had with them. I
was disillusioned. I think this must have hurt me a lot because when people ask me who my
best friends are I can't name one person. I have a lot of friends, but I'm afraid to make close
friends less I lose them again. Some years later, I was reading some old 1942 Fresno Bee
newspaper headlines when I saw the propaganda about us, I realized that my classmates
and their families were reading all those lies and had been to believe that we were profiled
as a danger to our national security. This is my sister Aiko. She was a high school senior
when we returned from camp in late April of 1945. When the school public address system
announced that all seniors should go to the principal's office to be measured for the cap
and gown, she excitedly joined her senior classmates and headed for the school office.
When she got there, she was taken aside by Principal Butzball who had told her, we
decided we don't want any Japs at our graduation, you can't attend. She felt like she was
slapped on her face. She was so stunned and she never told her family. She dropped out of
school, and ironically, that same day she received a telegram that she was hired at the War
Relocation Authority office set up in Watsonville, California to help resettle incarcerees
being released from the camps. We learned details of this, years later when her classmate
Melva Dildine Hunter shared a letter Aiko had written to her in response to their 50th High
School Reunion Invitation. May 19, 1945 a month after a return from the concentration
camps, vigilantes shot five .22 rifle bullets into our home at a midnight drive by shooting
barely missing one of my other sisters, Lily. Based on the recommendation of the
Congressional Commission’s Investigation, in the '80s, Congress passed a Civil Liberty Act
of 1988 requiring the president to write a letter of apology to those who are still living and
a redress check of 20,000, which I call a token penalty check for our country's crime. This is
a part of President H.W. Bush’s letter of apology we received. A monetary sum and words
cannot restore lost years or erase painful memories. Neither can they fully convey our
nation's resolve to rectify injustice and to uphold the rights of individuals. But we can take
a clear stand for justice and recognize as serious injustices were done to Japanese
Americans during World War II. Sadly, today, we still have the Patriot Act, which allows the
government to spy on a citizens and the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows
persons to be detained indefinitely without any charge. Before we have a Q&A session, I
want to conclude with the impact the concentration camp experience had on us. What
happened to us in 1942 must not happen again. Our Japanese cultural traits that were
deeply instilled in us helped us to survive and triumph over the grave injustice, but the
negative side is often overlooked. The pain of the trauma that was buried so deeply within

us was never resolved. This unresolved trauma impacts our lives. A few years ago, I
interviewed our dear friend, Chaplain George Aki, one of the four chaplains of the
segregated Japanese American 442 Combat Unit. Chaplain Aki grew up in Fresno,
graduated from Fresno State. And in 1942 was a senior and ready to graduate from a
theological school in Berkley. I asked Chaplain Aki, what do you remember about 1942? He
told me, when the rumors are flying around, round up all the Japs and put them in
concentration camps, I was telling everyone that this would not happen. I was convinced
that this would never happen in America. I had assured everyone that this could never
happen in America since we were Americans, but I was wrong. When the gates closed
behind me at the barbed wire Tanforan Detention Center, my faith in America died, my
faith in God died and I died. His words resonated deeply within me. That's how traumatic it
was for all of us, young and old. But our culture taught us to take it, to ride above it. To help
people understand the trauma we experienced, I used a metaphor of incest, like innocent
children, we deeply loved, respected and honored our beloved America. We were so proud
to be Americans, but when Japan bombed our country, our country that we honored and
loved so deeply violated us. Like victims of incest, we felt the humiliation, the guilt and the
shame put upon us like victims of incest, we had no power, no voice and no one advocating
for us. Like victims of incest, we could only bury these feelings and try to move forward to
prove that we were as good an American as anyone. This repressed trauma impacts not
only the lives of us who are incarcerated, but also lives of our future generations. I'm proud
of the courage, the faith, the determination and the sacrifice our immigrants and their
children have put forth to rise above the injustice to achieve such great heights and success.
Many of us think that our trauma happened so long ago that it doesn't bother us anymore.
But I believe that many of my generation have difficulty getting in touch with this trauma to
find healing. As experts in healing tell us, if we don't deal with the pain, we do not heal.
Many in my generation tell me that since we were mostly children, it didn't bother us. But
do you tell a victim of incest you were so little it didn't, it doesn't really bother you. Marion
and I find that sharing America's story and the Japanese American concentration camp
experience brings us healing. Our being invited to share our story and you’re listening and
supporting us is healing to us. Thank you for contributing to the healing of both, we, who
were violated and also our country that violated innocent people. The remembrance and
healing of what happen to us in 1942 is so relevant for all of us today. Since last year's
election, I've been hearing echoes of 1942 that exploded fear of World War II to advance
racism and faithism. Voices today are exploiting the fear of terrorism to advance racism
and faithism again. Only as we remember and heal will we gain the courage to stand up for
liberty and justice for all. Thank you.
>> Saburo Masada: Question and answer time.

>> Audience member 1: I have a question. You were 12 years old when you went in and
we've talked about this and my father was 12 and he would never speak of it. He was then
later on drafted into the army to fight the Korean War and that really affected him. Did you
serve in the United States service were you called, were you drafted?
>> Saburo Masada: No, I became a ministerial student, so I was deferred.

>> Audience member 1: If you had to, how do you think that would have made you feel?

>> Saburo Masada: It's hard to imagine what it'd have been like. I think your dad was really
in touch with what had happened, that many of us just buried all that and so we just later
on as usual to be the best Americans as possible. But I hear stories like stories of your dad, I
really appreciate that kind of sensitivity that he had about what was happening to us. Most
of us just buried it. When I asked the younger, the second generation, but asked the older
ones to tell me about their experiences and they’re, “Oh that happened long time ago, it
doesn't bother me.” But when the Congressional Commission wanted testimonies from
Nisei’s many of them didn't want to. But those who did, when they testified, I was told that
they broke down and choked up. And people said “Gee, I’ve never heard them cry before.”
These are the ones who said, “Ah that didn’t bother me.” But when they were allowed to get
in touch with their feelings, they broke down.

>> Audience member 2: I just saw the link to add. I read a book recently called "Infamy",
“Infomy”. It was written by Richard Reeves, who's a Washington Post-- It was just recently
published. And one of the facts that he wrote about in there was that the purpose of the
camps also was to disperse the Japanese population in California that—or on the West
Coast, 120,000. And after the war, only about 70,000 came back. So they were dispersed to
Chicago and the East Coast and those things. So that part of the strategy actually worked
and that not as many people came back to the West Coast. And I've never heard that before,
but I found it a pretty interesting fact.
>> Saburo Masada: I missed the first part. That was the strategy of our government?

>> Audience member 2: Yeah. Yup, DeWitt. This book goes quite a bit into DeWitt and all of
what the cronies he surrounded himself with and how he was able to convince Roosevelt.
But one of the strategies was to take these 120,000 people that are from the West Coast
because, you know, it was about a military action, right, and disperse them amongst all of
the United States and not have them concentrated on the West Coast. I wasn't surprised,
but when I read that, that particular strategy worked.

>> Saburo Masada: I personally don't believe that was a strategy. I think that that becomes
a way to rationalize and to justify what had happened to us, but there was no strategy to
disperse us. The main purpose was not a military purpose either. The main purpose was to
get rid of the Japanese people only on the West Coast. Hawaii had 178,000, which is more
thousand, which is a more strategic military location than only on the West Coast because
of 40 years of history. I personally believe that if it were not for this 40 years of history and
these anti voices, anti-Japanese voices telling these lies upon us, General DeWitt did
swallow that, it would have never happened.
>> Audience member 2: And that's true. I think reading this book, for me, made me realize
how much people in California hated the Japanese, I mean they hated us. And, you know,
growing up as Japanese in California, it was-- actually it spoke a lot to me for whatever
reason, I guess, because I'm old now. And it speaks or spoke to me different. But I was just
shocked that half of us didn't come back. That was the part. And it’s actually hurt me to
think that half of us didn't come back.
>> Saburo Masada: I was with a Japanese American passenger who was on the airplane
with me from Salt Lake City to San Francisco and he happened to say to me, “You know, I

think camp was a good thing for us.” And, of course, when I hear that, red flags come up.
But I said, how so? Well he said, “Well, in my case, from camp, I were able to go to school in
New York, graduate there and got a job there, and now I fly back and forth on this jet.” I
said, you know, if it had never happened, you might be owning this jet you’re flying in. But
people said, “Well, we put you there to keep you safe. Others say that the elderly had a
vacation. They worked so hard, now they get a vacation. And others said, people need to go
to East Coast and find new schools and all that. Always tell the students the illustration of a
person who's raped, she gets beaten up, she goes to the hospital and with a lot of courage
and faith and determination, she survives. She also meets a kind orderly and eventually fall
in love. And after she recovers, they get married and they have a beautiful family. And
someone asked her “You were raped, what do you have to say about it? And she says, well,
you know, it was awful but I think it was a blessing in disguise.” Give me a break. People
have told me that we were put in camp and I should look upon it as a blessing in disguise.
We need to keep the line between the crime and the courage of faith and the stamina that it
took to overcome this severed that line should never get blurred so that we get to try to
say, well, it was a really good thing for us. Never was it a good thing for us, but what it took
for us to overcome it is something admirable and wonderful. But that line between the
crime and the victory should never be blurred. This crime, to me, is ridiculous. Keep it
separate the crime from the courage it took to overcome.

>> Audience member 3: Marion Masada, I'd like to ask you a question. You talked about
your friend who have said that he had lost faith in the United States and its values. I'd like
to ask you if you still have faith today in the values of the United States and the Constitution
and how you feel about that after all that you've experienced.

>> Marion Masada: Well, in going around to share our stories, we have met many
wonderful people. And, you know, war is started by governments not the people, it's the
people who count. It tells us that we, as a people need to stand up. We need to speak up and
for one another. When we see injustice, we need to now speak forth, otherwise the other
side gets their way and they stampede our rights and everything that we love and stand for
in America. One of the things about being in the camps was the psychological trauma for us.
And I find it very hard to speak up in a group where I'm the only Japanese. A lot of times we
go to meetings and, of course, there won't be Japanese because don't like to go to meetings
where we’re going to have to say something or, you know, I'd rather be quiet. And it's hard,
it's hard to stand up and say, hey, folks, this is wrong. It is very difficult. And I've got to get
over this. I've got to get over it because our future is at stake. We all must stand up for
justice. We go to a prison and visit a woman on death row once a month for the last 17
years or so. And we have learned that there are people in prison who don't' go in there.
And, you know, how-- this is an injustice. And I'm wrecking my brain, how do I help her?
Right now she tells us just the very fact that we go to visit her and make her feel like a
human being after we visit and share our stories with one another. She says that she goes.
When she leaves us, when we say-- hug and say goodbye, she just stands up straight and go
back to her cell. And that's about-- but that's what I can do right now for her, but there are a
lot of injustices in our society. And we got to have the courage and the strength to stand up
and say something about it, begin to express ourselves. It's hard. Believe me it's hard. And
that's what I would say to the future generations, that please speak up for us. Please stand

up for justice. And just the very fact, do the right thing like the Sorensens and the Nielsens,
who just stood up for the Masada family and saved their farm and gave them help on a
mortgage so that they would have a place to come back to. And they were asked, why did
you do that? Because it was the right thing to do. It's as simple as that. Do the right thing
whenever it's in your power to do it.

>> Saburo Masada: One of the common questions that students ask is, are you bitter about
your government? How do you feel about your country? Well, like a couple of things, one is
our Japanese culture taught us to respect authority, be faithful, don't put shame on your
country, on your family, et cetera. I personally would not want to do anything that would
bring shame upon my country. That's not to say my country is perfect or that it has not
done anything wrong, but this is my country. I love my country. And so my cultural
background makes it hard for me to feel bitter because that sort of becomes a negative for
my brother and the country I'm feeling towards. The other thing is today's culture is so
different from the culture of the '40s. No one demonstrated that in those days, at least not
in any case like this. Today I'm so glad to hear people demonstrating like the women's
march in Washington and the demonstration against bans on immigrants, but in the '40s
that's not the culture we lived in. So it would be incorrect to try to judge the '40s by the
standards of the '20s. So back in the '40s, people were supported as they we kind to us and
try to help us but they didn't demonstrate or shout or do anything like that. But today, it
requires us to stand up because that's what works-- people powers works good today. In
the '40s, there's no such thing as peoples’ power except in extreme cases. But anyway, I
don't feel any bitterness to our country. I do feel bitter about the injustices that were
perpetrated against us. I don’t believe it would have ever happened if it were not for the
long tradition of the anti-Japanese movement that exploited the fear of war just like they're
exploiting this prejudice against the Muslims today.

>> Audience member 4: I just want to express my very deep thanks for the presentation
and the courage that both of you have in sharing your stories. So they deserve a big
applause. My question has been briefly crisscrossed, so how the culture has played a role at
that time? Actually the Japanese were very non violent or pacifist, whatever you call it, that
they did not demonstrate or did not protest except too lately protest that [inaudible] like
that. The question that I have is that the apology though injustice took place, this shameful
tragedy took place a life so violated and apology has been made by the government and it
just took place. The redress and the [Inaudible] was that enough or was that too little and
too late? How do the people treat it, have they accepted that or do you think that it has
been okay or something more needed to be done in order to rectify what took place so the
redress that took place and apology and more did that create enough or anything like that,
do you have to say?

>> Saburo Masada: That's a question that also comes up in classes and it's a hard question.
When someone said how do you feel about the redress, the 20,000 for still living and the
letter of apology from the President. Well I'm grateful that our country is willing to
acknowledge the wrong that it did and offered the apology. That, I appreciate. The 20,000
when it’s looked upon, or thought of as a remuneration, no way was it a remuneration. To
me it's a token penalty of a crime that our country committed. Our justice system functions
that way, there's a monetary penalty that is often paid. So it is just a token, 20,000 would be

like a drop in the bucket for loss of freedom, property, guilt and everything. But it's a token.
And I don't know if it's a token that's large enough to tell the government, don't do it again,
but it's a token that there's a penalty and that the government should not commit that kind
of crime again. As far as-- it wasn't all adequate enough, I guess everyone is going to have
different opinions, but at a high school, one of the question was asked, what about the
blacks? They have suffered so much. So do you feel the government should compensate
them, a type of redress for them. And I said, you know, that's a tough question, but-- And he
says, what is your redress mean to you? So I said, you know, that's a tough question, but to
me what's important is not the dollar amount, although that's significant, as a token, what's
important to me is that we know this is wrong and that we worked towards justice and
currently in days ahead. And so idea that we should compensate the blacks for, you know,
all the pain and suffering and injustices they've experienced, I don't know how to deal with
that, but I do, I know that what we do need to deal with is to help them get the justice of
today and not try to deal with all the history within, but today that black lives do matter
and that we do support them and that we try to get to the equality in our society that may
not be experiencing.
>> Marion Masada: And there were also many, many people who passed away before they
even got the redress. My father, he passed away, my grandparents passed away. So they
never gone to the redress at all.

>> Audience member 5: Would you like to comment about the Latin American infamies or
the north of the border or south of the border internees. I don't know many details, maybe
you know more.

>> Saburo Masada: Did you know that our government kidnapped people, German, Italians
and Japanese from South America to use it as prisoners of exchange? So from Peru there
was a large number of Japanese who were kidnapped. They were brought to Florida and
then their passport was confiscated and they go to illegal entry to our United States. They
were used as prisoners of war exchange with the Japanese, with the Americans who were
in Japan, prisoners of war in Japan. When their number ran out, they were trying to get the
Japanese Americans from the segregation center in Tule Lake to use them as prisoners of
exchange. Japan said, you can't use Americans. That's an exchange for Americans, so they
refused. But our country was willing to send Americans there to save the Americans in
Japan. The South American people who were sent to the Justice Department interment
camps here in our country were given at $5,000, many of them said that was an insult. They
gave the Japanese Americans $20,000 but that they were given only $5,000. So there is a
group of them that is fighting that, that they refuse to accept the $5,000. They're
demanding a more verbal symbol of apology. I think their demand is being heard now in
Congress.
>> Tammy Lau: I’d like to know how you got started doing these talks. Obviously, you've
done a lot of research, you've studied a lot, you were just a child at that time, so what got
you started on this journey?

>> Marion Masada: Well, we were living in Stockton at that time. We moved to Stockton to
the certain church there in 1969, the civic students were going to Japan as exchange

students and none of them were Japanese, they were all others. We were asked to share our
experiences at the university one time. That was our journey to start. And we went from
little posters to dragging great big posters. Anyway, it got light, the load got lighter, and
then we got sophisticated and we were told, why don't you put it on a PowerPoint? So we
really kind of evolved in this where we had started like this.

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Japanese Americans Set

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