Lessons of internment

Re “Looking back with shame,” editorial, Feb. 19

My mother, who was Japanese American, was a Times reader before she, my father and my oldest brother were forced into the Manzanar internment camp, where I was born. She kept a number of Times articles before going off to camp, so I know of the role the newspaper played in fueling the racism against Americans of Japanese ancestry.

A Times survey published on Dec. 6, 1943, asked readers, “Do you favor a Constitutional Amendment after the war for the deportation of all Japanese from this country, and forbidding further immigration?” Another question: “Would you permanently exclude all Japanese from the Pacific Coast states, including California?” The other survey questions were similarly egregious and served to promote the belief that all Japanese Americans were guilty for the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Times must not let its journalistic integrity be compromised once again over the hysteria surrounding Muslims and refugees. It must stand firm against those who prefer to undermine our Constitution. Larry Naritomi Monterey Park

When, on Dec. 8, 1941, our teacher in mechanical drafting at Woodrow Wilson Junior and Senior High School in El Sereno let us gather around his radio to hear President Roosevelt’s declaration of war on Japan, I gazed back to look at Willie.

Willie was one of the most popular kids in our 8th-grade class; he also happened to be Japanese. While the rest of the class gathered around the radio, I noticed that Willie remained hunched over his drafting table. He understood that Japan, the country of his parent’s ancestry, had attacked his country and he was devastated and ashamed.

Later, we found out that Willie would be leaving us. He and his parents were being sent away to a detention camp. Our teacher let us give Willie a farewell party.

Some weeks later, I recall standing with my parents and hundreds of others on Huntington Drive adjacent to the Pacific Electric streetcar tracks as train after train of red cars, loaded with frightened-looking Japanese men, women and children, rolled by. We stood there in silence and did nothing.

Even today, 75 years later, I look back in shame. Martin A. Brower Corona del Mar