Digital BW, The Print

Andrew (Malaysia) and others who are interested,

I'm sure Jack and others can offer an explanation but as Andy kindly pointed
out I am of Japanese descent (third generation Japanese American).  So
perhaps, without assuming any moral high ground, I can offer some personal
insights.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to much of the US populace even today, several
months after the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor (12-7-42) the
President passed an emergency Executive Order that directed anyone with
Japanese descent living in the Western United States to be incarcerated,
without due legal process, in various relocation centers (i.e., prisons).
The crime was never identified and the locations and length of time was
undetermined. 

My parents and three siblings (age 11, 4 and 2) had 48 hours to gather what
they could carry and were rounded up and sent to a processing center. As
they owned and operated a grocery store in San Francisco they were bused to
a local race track where they were assigned a filthy 10''x16' horse stall
and told to make do with several cots, a pile of blankets, and a few pots
and pans. There were communal outhouses, kitchens and, other than the wooden
walls separating the stalls, no privacy whatsoever. What was supposed to be
a three or five day stay turned into almost three weeks - all behind locked
gates, barbed wire and no legal representation. At the height of the frenzy
there was even hushed discussion in Congress of forced castration on these
innocent people.

My family was eventually interned at Topaz, Utah - a dusty, hot-in-the
summer/freezing-cold-in-the-winter high desert (i.e. a hell hole). They were
there for 2 1/2 years. My father worked three jobs and, remember, my mother
had three young kids with another born while they were there. This was
definitely NOT a camping trip.

After leaving the internment camp and fearing extreme "anti-Jap"  sentiment
on the West Coast they were accepted into a Catholic orphanage in Salt Lake
City where they lived and worked, saving what money they could while waiting
for the racism to subside so they could return to San Francisco. In 1950 -
almost 8 years after being uprooted they were finally able to return to
familiar surroundings only to find their personal effects, the business and
property gone. 

My father passed away a few weeks ago (92 years old!) and in spite of
surviving a catastrophic earthquake in Japan and the Great Depression,
losing a young daughter and then his wife, and other tragedies and hardships
that we all endure, he always said that the most emotionally and financially
devastating and humiliating experience was having his family abruptly ripped
from their home and business and forced to live like  prisoners for no other
reason than skin color and nationality. Some will say it was for their own
protection - bullshit - others will say it was for national security - more
bullshit. The overarching reason was to rip-off homes, businesses and land
from many of the hardworking Japanese in the cities and farming communities.

So political correctness aside - you can now understand why many of us who
value freedom and humanity in this group and elsewhere (the real patriots)
cringe and become gravely concerned when racial epithets - however innocent
- are bandied about. And even more so, are really angered when the practice
is rationalized as being either the norm, meaningless vestiges of an
unfortunate past, or - which really pisses me off - written off as
predictable responses from the overly sensitive, politically correct crowd
(thanks Rush and Savage!).

So, Andrew and others, there's a wealth of info on the Web if you're
interested. Even today, many high school US history books fail to offer any
in depth information of the Japanese internment camps, if any, at all.

If anyone has any comment I'd be more than happy to discuss it further
off-list.

It's time to move on!

Peace,

Rick Murai




> From: "alnchiem" <andrewlee@...>
> Reply-To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 00:58:21 -0000
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Japanese carts
> 
> Dear jnhugo,
> You've piqued my interest. I don't know the history of why the 'jap'
> is derogatory. I studied medieval Asian history in primary school and
> mostly 19th century European history (up to  WWI) in secondary school
> in England. 
> So what's the history of the term?
> Andrew