Imagine the government forcing you from your home, being imprisoned in a detention camp under armed guards and behind barbed wire—and then being required to join the military to fight for the nation that had locked up you and your family.
That’s what happened in a little-known chapter of U.S. history, in which many of those men went on to become American military heroes, some making the ultimate sacrifice. These soldiers, along with all other Japanese Americans who served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II, were honored with a new U.S. Postal Service stamp on June 3, 2021.
The barracks at Manzanar War Relocation Authority Center in California relied on cloth partitions to provide privacy. War Relocation Authority, U.S. National Archives via Wikimedia Commons
From the time the first immigrants had arrived from Japan in the 1880s, people of Japanese ancestry in the U.S.—whether they were American citizens or not—faced decades of discrimination. The inequities stemmed from politicians promoting anti-immigrant sentiments, workers and businesses fearing economic competition, and tensions relating to Japan’s rise as a military power. The attack on Pearl Harbor whipped those prejudices into a frenzy of fear that swept the nation. After Dec. 7, 1941, anyone with a Japanese face, especially on the West Coast, had the face of the enemy.
A little more than two months later, on Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forcible removal of about 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry from California, Oregon, Washington and parts of Arizona. Without any evidence of disloyalty or charges brought against them, these people—including my grandparents, parents and their families—were sent at gunpoint to hastily constructed detention facilities in desolate inland locations, where they spent the duration of the war.
Two-thirds of those incarcerated were “Nisei”—American citizens, born in the U.S. to Japanese immigrant parents. Their first-generation parents, called “Issei,” were barred by federal law from becoming citizens. Lacking any political clout or any effective allies, the community was powerless to fight against removal and imprisonment.
My forthcoming book, “When Can We Go Back to America? Voices
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