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Learning from the past
In the wake of America's entry into World War II, more than
100,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry — including thousands of King County
residents — were forced to leave their homes, possessions and friends behind and
report to relocation centers and internment camps where many were confined for
the remainder of the war years.
This extraordinary federal action, signed into law by
President Franklin Roosevelt though Executive Order 9066,
effectively suspended civil liberties for Japanese Americans.
So egregious was this violation of basic civil rights, that 40 years later, in 1983,
a Presidential commission called the internment program an act of racism and
wartime hysteria, and in 1988 President Reagan signed a reparation agreement
that officially apologized and provided each surviving camp member with
$20,000 in compensation.
But the story does not end with reparations.
Each year, on February 19, the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, the
Japanese American internment is remembered both for the pain it
caused and the lessons that can be learned — with the hope that
history will not repeat itself.
A King County perspective
In King County, Japanese American residents, most of them
American citizens, had long played an active and important role in the
local community, well known as farmers, businesspeople, teachers, and more.
But in the first months after Pearl Harbor, amid a wartime climate of suspicion
and hostility, the Japanese American community was torn asunder.
Over 7,000 residents from Bellevue, Renton, Tukwila, Kent,
Auburn, and Seattle were "evacuated" by Federal military authorities to "Camp Harmony,"
a temporary detainment center on the grounds of the Puyallup Fair.
By August, most were transported even further, to the Minadoka Relocation Center in Idaho.
Although some internees were eventually allowed to leave for jobs
or college away from the West Coast — or even allowed to serve in
segregated military units — others stayed in the camps for the
duration of the war, and tried to make a life in an extremely difficult situation.
But in many ways, life had changed forever. When the war ended,
Japanese Americans returned often to find little left of their old homes
or businesses. As the nation publicly celebrated victory, Japanese Americans
began to privately re-build their lives in a nation that had so recently interned them.
Learning history's lessons
For many internees, the history of the camps
remained an intensely private experience, seldom shared. But younger Japanese
Americans realized that if history were lost, so too would be the lessons
of the past. As a result, in 1978 a group of Seattle residents created the first
Day of Remembrance. Posters in Seattle — designed to resemble the original
placards ("Instructions to All Persons of Japanese Ancestry") announcing the
forced evacuations — invited people to board a bus for the Puyallup Fairgrounds.
Frank Abe, communications director for the Metropolitan King County Council,
remembers the first observance. "We were stunned when nearly 2,000
people turned out," he writes. "The line of cars stretched for miles
down the highway. Inside the cars parents spoke to their kids
about the camps, some for the first time."
Since that first event, the Day of Remembrance has grown.
This year, observations were held in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and —
once again — the Puyallup Fairgrounds. Some Japanese Americans are also
working on plans for a permanent commemoration. As Abe writes, "Like the original Day
of Remembrance, it would be another way to reclaim our past and make it our own."
For more information: (external links)
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Japanese American residents in King County board the bus for Camp Harmony in 1942.
[Expanded view].
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