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

              >> 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, self-interest 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.
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>> 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.
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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.
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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.
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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 anti-Japanese 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 anti-Japanese 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.