The shocking stories of environmental injustices at Japanese American prisoner camps during WWII

Thomas S. Takemura had been growing vegetables and raspberries on a 14-acre family farm in Tacoma, Washington, when Japanese fighter pilots bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Not long after the United States declared War on Japan, Takemura, along with other people of Japanese ancestry, were stripped of all their rights and sent off to incarceration camps in remote towns like Hunt, Idaho, or Delta, Utah. The daily misery was compounded by the scorching heat and dust storms.

Takemura’s imprisonment began May 12, 1942, less than a week before Takemura could harvest his lettuce.

He later added, “What a shame.” It is a shame.

Takemura gave This is a detailed account1981, when he testified to the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment for Civilians. This commission investigated the wrongful imprisonment and mistreatment of Japanese Americans, which was one of the most serious injustices in American history.

Takemura said that he lost approximately $10,000 in farm profits over the four years he was gone. He told the commission that the total cost was not only about the money.

Takemura also lost his love and affection, he stated. This is especially true when a person is forced to leave their home and evacuate without knowing where he is going and when he can return. I cannot express the pain and the loss.

Wartime hysteria

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Takemura wartime tragedy. Executive Order 9066February 19, 1942, 80 year ago today. This order allowed the creation of military zones from which people could not be excluded.

It didn’t mention any specific racial groups, but the Japanese Americans were clearly the target due to widespread fear they would become spies for Japan or commit acts of sabotage inside the United States.

General John L. Dewitt (head of the Western Defense Command) created Military Area 1 on March 2. This included western Washington, Oregon, California, and southern Arizona. Military Area 2 encompassed the rest of these states. Around a third of the country had been created by the end of summer 1942. 110,000 Japanese AmericansTwo-thirds of the expelled were citizens of the United States. Military Area 1 and the California section of Military Area 2.

They were kept in 10 places. Camps built in hasteCalifornia, Arizona and Utah, Idaho, Wyoming. Colorado, Colorado, Arkansas. Some were allowed to leave camp for college, military service, or jobs, but many remained in these places until the war ended three year later.

The wartime experiences of Japanese Americans have been the subject many books, essays, and articles. memoirs, novels, Films, museum exhibitsAnd podcastsAll of these stories show their courage in the face blatant violation to their civil liberties. The postwar period is not prominently featured in most of these narratives because many survivors tried to move on quickly.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a growing wave of discontent among Japanese Americans. Leaders of the movement were influenced by the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests and the background of the civil rights movement. Japanese Americans Citizens LeagueMany other activists also began to push for redress. They sought to restore civil rights, receive a formal apology and monetary damages from the U.S. government.

With the support from U.S. Senators. The leagues redress commission is Daniel Inouye, Spark Matsunaga, and U.S. Reps. Norman Mineta, and Robert Matsui. John Tateishi, the leader, successfully lobbied Congress in favor of creating the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment for Civilians 1980

The Congress assigned the nine members of the panel to review Executive Order 9066 and other military directives requiring detention of U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens. They also conducted archival research and traveled across the country to collect testimony from more than 750 witnesses. TakemuraBetween July and Dec 1981.

Over twenty days of hearings, Japanese Americans told poignant stories about freedoms lost and indignities that they endured. They poured through the hearing rooms like a torrent.

Environmental hazards

Takemura’s story shows that many testimonies have shown that Japanese Americans suffered wartime anxiety in the natural environment. These ranged from the temperate lands on the Pacific coast to the arid deserts in the inland West.

Executive Order 9066’s impact was therefore not only economic, political, or cultural. It had an impact on the environment. Former farmers spoke of their displacement by referring specifically to specific plots of land or specific crops. Their years of tending the soil were lost to neglect and rapacious speculators.

Like Takemura Clarence I. NishizuNishizu later testified that his family, who lived in Orange County, California, continued to plant vegetables after the war began. He believed that I, as an American citizen would not be subjected to evacuation or internment.

His family lost their land and crops, and he was proven wrong. He testified that I was evicted just as the rosebuds began to bloom.

Japanese Americans were also affected by the harsh environment in which they lived, from blinding dust storms to blistering heat. The trip to Manzanar was described as a desolate and barren camp in eastern California. Dr. Mary OdaAs I recall, my first reaction to camp had been dismay and disbelief.

The physical toll of the dark surroundings was not only devastating for the soul, but also very distressing. Oda stated that her older sister, who died at 26 from bronchial asthma as a result of the terrible dust storms, developed it. Her father suffered from constant nasal irritation, and later died from throat and lung cancer.

Oda was not the only one to suffer the untimely deaths inflicted upon loved ones. Toyo SuyemotoKay testified about how the environment had a devastating effect on her sons’ health. Kay, an infant, was born at Tanforan Assembly Center, where horses stalls housed people. He developed asthma and allergies, and died in 1958 at the tender age of 16.

Her voice crackingShe said, “I simply wonder, members, what my son Kay, who would be 40 years old this January, might have been able to say to you today if he lived.” He was a blessing to us all.

American apology in writing

One year later, the hearings were over, the commission published Personal Justice DeniedA nearly 500-page report concluded that Executive Order 9066 was motivated by war hysteria, race prejudice, and a failure to exercise political leadership.

Even Henry L. Stimson the former Secretary-of-War admitted that forced evacuations were a personal injustice to loyal citizens.

This point was confirmed hundreds of times by the testimonies, which also showed that the incarceration was also an ecological injustice.

The environmental environment did not create the conditions for Japanese Americans’ suffering and losses. The federal government’s decision not to give them their land back and to place them in unforgiving and unfamiliar places only served to increase wartime inequalities.

The recommendations of the commissions were used by Congress to pass the 1988 Civil Liberties ActEvery living victim will be offered a formal presidential apology, along with $20,000. All in all, 82,219 people
Rectified.

However, the success of the redress movement did not mean the end of political action. Takemura spoke out about his wartime experiences in high school history classes in the area for several years prior to his death in 1997. He recognized that many young people were unaware of the incarceration.

Survivors, their families, activists, and scholars continue to speak out about the environmental impacts of Japanese American incarceration. They make pilgrimages to former camp sites every year, some of them managed by the National Park Service as landmarks, national historic sites, and monuments.

They speak of the fragility civil rights, both then and now. They gaze at the same lonely vistas their forebears had and feel the sun beat down on them. Even for a short time, they feel the isolation, devastation, and confinement of exile or confinement.

Eighty years after Executive Order 966, there has been a sharp rise in Asian hate crimesThe fight for justice continues to be urgent.