Facing the Mountain (Adapted for Young Readers), page 14
Kats looked around for his own parents. And there they were, waiting and waving.
The war years had been hard on the Miho family. Ayano had had no choice but to sell the hotel on Maui. Katsuichi had just been released from imprisonment. The two of them were scraping out a living picking macadamia nuts for a commercial farm on Oʻahu—just as Katsuichi had done decades before when they first arrived in Hawaiʻi.
It was going to take a lot to put their lives back together. For now, though, Kats savored the moment. Just being with his parents, luxuriating in the warm tropical breeze, smelling the sea, and seeing the morning mist clinging to the green-humped mountains above the city was enough.
Chapter 25
Even after all the casualties the Nisei soldiers suffered in World War II, it would take decades for Japanese Americans to fully win their rightful place in American society. Millions of employers still refused to hire them, and the jobs that were available to them were mostly low paying and menial. Racist slurs and insults still met them everywhere they went. They were still excluded from owning property in certain neighborhoods. At the end of the day, they were still “Japs” to many of their compatriots.
And all the medals and honors earned by their sons and brothers in the war did little to alleviate the trauma that thousands of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers experienced in the camps—or when they tried to return home. Thieves had looted possessions left in storage. Vandals had shattered nursery greenhouses, destroyed merchandise, spray-painted threats on their property—Japs Keep Out! Squatters had occupied homes and refused to leave.
A tough road lay ahead for most Japanese Americans—civilians and veterans alike—before the country’s leadership formally recognized and addressed the wrong that was done to them.
But very slowly a start was made, particularly among those aware of what the Nisei soldiers had accomplished. President Harry Truman pushed for a restoration of property and civil rights for Japanese Americans, and he strove to gain greater public recognition for what the 442nd had done.
Lieutenant Colonel Pursall and President Truman reviewing the 442nd, Washington, DC, July 15, 1946.
In 1952, Japanese immigrants were finally allowed to apply for citizenship. Fred and his siblings coached Kisaburo and Tori, quizzing them on civics and American history for their citizenship exams.
When they both became American citizens, it was a moment of profound pride for Fred. He knew that he and the rest of the 442nd had paved the way to that place. Watching his parents raise their hands at their swearing-in ceremony, he thought to himself, By God, you had a piece of this.[71]
There were multiple efforts to persuade the government to formally apologize for the incarcerations and to pay compensation to the families who had been affected. In 1983, a federal commission recommended that Congress and the president issue an apology, establish a foundation to educate the American people on this hidden part of their history, and pay each surviving detainee twenty thousand dollars in compensation.
Rudy Tokiwa and dozens of 442nd veterans went to Washington, DC, to meet with senators and members of Congress, pressing them to enact the recommendations into law. Finally, in August 1988, after initially opposing the legislation, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, which declared that the incarcerations of Japanese Americans were “carried out without adequate security reasons and without any acts of espionage or sabotage, and were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”[72]
* * *
★ ★ ★ ★
Gordon Hirabayashi was released from federal prison and reunited with Esther and their children shortly after the war ended. For the rest of his life, he continued to speak out in defense of civil rights for all Americans. He died early in 2012.
Later that year, President Barack Obama posthumously conferred on him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor an American can win. As he presented the medal at the White House, President Obama quoted Gordon’s own words, stating the one simple principle for which Gordon fought: “Unless citizens are willing to stand up for the Constitution, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.”[73]
A Final Word
The soldiers of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team won more medals and more honors than any other unit of its size and length of service in American military history. Those honors came at a terrible cost. Both the men of the 442nd and their brothers in the 100th Infantry Battalion suffered an extraordinarily high level of casualties throughout World War II. The 100th, in fact, became known early in the war as the “Purple Heart Battalion” because they were awarded so many Purple Heart medals for the injuries they had suffered.
Although they aren’t discussed in this book, it’s also important to note that in addition to those who served in the 442nd and the 100th, hundreds of Japanese Americans served in the US Army’s Military Intelligence Service, where they used their Japanese-language skills to listen in on enemy radio transmissions and interrogate Japanese prisoners of war. In many cases, these soldiers served in combat alongside other army units, and a number of them gave their lives performing this role.
Looking back on the enormous sacrifices made by Japanese Americans during World War II, I think we have to ask ourselves some questions. Were those sacrifices worthwhile for Japanese Americans? Did they finally put an end to the kind of racism that Fred, Rudy, Kats, Gordon, and thousands of other Japanese Americans experienced before the war?
The answer, sadly, is mixed. Certainly, many Japanese American families have forged successful and happy lives in America since World War II. For the most part, they have not experienced the same relentless barrages of open racism as the Nisei soldiers and their families did. Most Americans now recognize that hateful words like “Jap” have no place in our society. But, looking back on the stories told in this book, I think it’s important to end by underscoring that racism is still an everyday concern for millions of Asians living in America.
When Chinese immigrants first came to the United States in the 1840s, many of them were met with hatred and outright violence. Their homes were burned, they were beaten and robbed, and vicious name-calling followed them wherever they went. Prominent politicians and ordinary Americans called them “rats” and “snakes” and “locusts.” The same voices falsely accused the Chinese immigrants of bringing disease and plagues to the country. Newspapers and Hollywood movies spread these false ideas and promoted what they called the Yellow Peril—the false notion that Chinese and other Asian immigrants were threatening to destroy America. These racist ideas became so prevalent that in 1882 and 1924 Congress passed laws first limiting and then completely banning the immigration of Asians to the United States—a ban based entirely on race.
Then, in the years before, during, and immediately after World War II, the same false claims that had been directed at Chinese immigrants were directed at Japanese immigrants and at their American children. They, too, were compared to pests like rats, snakes, and locusts. They, too, were accused of bringing disease and plague to the United States. They were told there were neighborhoods where they could not live. They were banned from public places, like swimming pools and ice rinks. And, finally, when the war came, they were forced from their homes and incarcerated in the camps you have read about in this book, even as their sons were fighting for the United States.
In recent years, sadly, we have seen some of the same racist language and hateful ideas that were directed at Chinese and Japanese immigrants earlier in our history now being directed against newer Asian immigrants as well as Americans of Asian ancestry. Once again, we have seen politicians and media figures digging up the old lies, associating Asians with pests and bringers of disease. Once again, acts of violence have been leveled against Asians in America, simply because of their race.
So, as you think about the stories of Gordon, Kats, Rudy, and Fred, I hope you will remember that their stories aren’t just history. Their stories shine a light on our own time. They remind us that there is still much work to be done in the business of creating a society free of the kinds of racism they and their families faced. And their stories do something more. They remind us also what it means to be a good American. They show us how four good-hearted young Americans who believed deeply in their country rose to meet the desperate challenges of their time. They give faces and names to the kinds of courage, conscience, and principle that define us as Americans when we are at our best. In short, they inspire us to do as well as they did, to be as good as they were. That is their gift to us.
Acknowledgments
As many books are, this one was ushered into the world with the help of many people.
First and foremost, I want to thank Tom Ikeda of the Denshō project in Seattle. It was largely through my early conversations with Tom that I came to fully understand how important it is for all of us—particularly in these times we are living through—to better understand the experience of Japanese Americans before and during World War II. In addition to the astounding collection of oral histories, letters, newspapers, photographs, and other material that Tom has made available to the world on the Denshō website, he provided invaluable guidance and advice. I also want to thank the staff at Denshō—particularly Brian Niiya, Denshō’s excellent historian—for all the help they have given me in making good use of the resources they tirelessly collect and curate.
I am particularly indebted also to Fred Shiosaki, as well as the family members of some of the other young men whose lives I chronicle in the book—Michael Shiosaki, Mariko Miho, Judy Niizawa, and Robin Tokiwa. Thank you all so much for entrusting me with your loved ones’ amazing stories. I can only hope that I have done some small measure of justice to them.
Among the many people in Hawaiʻi who contributed in so many ways, my thanks go out to Leilani Dawson at the University of Hawaiʻi Manoa; Michiko Kodama-Nishimoto; Gwen Fujie; Shari Y. Tamashiro; and two remarkable gentlemen—Flint Yonashiro and Roy Fujii—both veterans of the 552nd’s B Battery.
On the mainland, special thanks to Janet and Jim Ohta; David Takami; L. Stuart Hirai; Jamie Henricks, Kristen Hayashi, and Anne Burroughs at the Japanese American National Museum; Judy Willman; and Kiyomi Hayashi, for all things Quaker and for keeping me ever in the light.
In the world of book publishing, I can never think of words superlative enough to express again my deep, heartfelt gratitude to two tough, warm, ferociously brilliant women—my agent at WME, Dorian Karchmar, and my editor at Viking, Wendy Wolf. And for this young reader’s edition of the book, I offer my hearty thanks to Liz Hudson for a wonderful job doing the heavy lifting of creating the adaptation, and to Kelsey Murphy for her excellent advice and keeping us on course throughout.
And finally, at home, I have yet again been blessed by the love and encouragement of my family—my daughters Emily and Robin and my wife, Sharon. On this particular journey, Sharon has been with me every step of the way, lending me her keen insights, her excellent editorial eye, and her terrific instincts for good storytelling. More than ever, without her there would be no books.
Resources
Websites
“Archives Spotlight: Remembering Nisei Veterans.” Denshō Catalyst: https://densho.org/catalyst/archives-spotlight-remembering-nisei-veterans/
Go for Broke National Education Center: GoForBroke.org
The Hawaiʻi Nisei Story website: https://web.archive.org/web/20220418002323/http://nisei.hawaii.edu/page/home
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: USHMM.org
Interviews and archives
Clark, General Mark, letter to Colonel Charles Wilbur Pence. September 7, 1944. https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-csujad-1/ddr-csujad-1-200-mezzanine-d2081380e8.pdf.
Congressional Record, December 15, 1941.
Futamase, Fumi Tokiwa, interview by Judy Niizawa. 1995.
Higuchi, Hiro, letters to his wife. University of Hawaiʻi Special Collections, Hamilton Library.
Hirabayashi, Gordon, Denshō interviews. April 1999–May 2000. Denshō Digital Repository.
Hirabayashi, Gordon, interview by Lois Horn. 1990.
Inouye, Daniel, Denshō interview by Tom Ikeda and Beverly Kashin. Americans of Japanese Ancestry Veterans National Convention, Honolulu, June 30, 1998. Denshō Digital Repository.
Miho, Kats, interview by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto and Warren Nishimoto. November 16, 1989.
Niizawa, Judy, interview by Daniel J. Brown. March 17, 2017.
Shiosaki, Fred, Denshō interview by Tom Ikeda. April 26 and 27, 2006. Denshō Digital Repository.
Shiosaki, Fred, interviews by Daniel J. Brown. April 10 and July 2, 2016.
Tokiwa, Rudy, Denshō interview by Tom Ikeda. Americans of Japanese Ancestry Veterans National Convention, Honolulu, July 2 and 3, 1998. Denshō Digital Repository.
Tokiwa, Rudy, interview by Ian Kawata. June 3, 2001. Go for Broke National Education Center Oral History Project. Japanese American Military History Collective.
Tsukiyama Papers. University of Hawaiʻi Special Collections, Hamilton Library.
Notes
Steven M. Gillon, Pearl Harbor: FDR Leads the Nation into War (New York: Basic Books, 2011), 13.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
Lyn Crost, Honor by Fire: Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1994), 9; Ted Tsukiyama, panelist, 70th anniversary Pearl Harbor symposium, broadcast on American History TV, C-SPAN, December 5, 2011.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
Daniel Inouye, interview by Christine Sato, August 14, 2000, Go for Broke National Education Center Oral History Project, transcript, Japanese American Military History Collective, https://ndajams.omeka.net/items/show/1053156.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3
Katsugo Miho, interview by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto and Warren Nishimoto, November 16, 1989, and Kats Miho’s compiled narrative on the Hawaiʻi Nisei Story website.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Katsugo Miho, 1989 interview by the Nishimotos.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
Thelma Chang, “I Can Never Forget”: Men of the 100th/442nd (Honolulu: Sigi Productions, 1991), 84.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
John C. Hughes, “Fred Shiosaki: The Rescue of the Lost Battalion” (Olympia: Legacy Washington, Office of Secretary of State, 2015), 1.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
Time–Life–Fortune News Bureau, War Comes to the U.S.—Dec. 7, 1941: The First 30 Hours as Reported from the U.S. and Abroad (Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 2014), 333.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
Time–Life–Fortune News Bureau, War, 441.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
Fred Shiosaki, interview by Tom Ikeda, April 26 and 27, 2006, Denshō Digital Repository.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Fumiye Miho, unpublished, untitled memoir.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
Richard Reeves, Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese-American Internment in World War II (New York: Henry Holt, 2015), 34.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Reeves, Infamy, 19.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Katsugo Mijo, interview by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto and Warren Nishimoto, February 16, 2006, Denshō Digital Repository.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Rudy Tokiwa, interview by Tom Ikeda and Judy Niizawa, Americans of Japanese Ancestry Veterans National Convention, Honolulu, July 2 and 3, 1998, Denshō Digital Repository; and interview by Ian Kawata, June 3, 2001, Go for Broke National Education Center Oral History Project, Japanese American Military History Collective.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
Rudy Tokiwa, 1998 Denshō interview by Tom Ikeda and 2001 Go for Broke National Education Center interview by Ian Kawata. Many other details come from Daniel J. Brown’s interview with Rudy’s partner, Judy Niizawa, on March 17, 2017.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
Congressional Record (December 15, 1941).
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Reeves, Infamy, 7.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
Rudy Tokiwa, 1998 Denshō interview by Tom Ikeda; Fumi Tokiwa Futamase, interview by Judy Niizawa, 1995; Judy Niizawa, interview by Daniel J. Brown, March 17, 2017.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
“California U’s Best Student is in Jap Camp.” Seattle Times, May 13, 1942, A1.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 20
My portrait of Gordon is drawn from three principal sources: a series of interviews with Denshō between April 1999 and May 2000, a 1990 interview by Lois Horn, and his own account in Gordon K. Hirabayashi, A Principled Stand: The Story of Hirabayashi v. United States (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 127.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
Hirabayashi, A Principled Stand, 61–62.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Rudy Tokiwa, 2001 Go for Broke National Education Center interview by Ian Kawata.
