Re: Japanese internment

Our appreciation to reporter Jake Abbott for a good job on a difficult task of piecing together a story resulting from President F.D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 some 75 years ago. Thanks also to Editor Steve Miller for his responsive comments on April 15.

We are remiss in not mentioning several important facts not told.

When the bombing of Pearl Harbor happened, all eligible Japanese Americans were reclassified 4-C, enemy aliens, unqualified for military duty, from 1-A. In 1943, when America was having a shortage of military personnel, President FDR authorized an all-segregated unit of Japanese Americans to volunteer or be drafted. Men from Hawaii and the men from the 10 internment camps stepped forward to serve with distinction. They served with honor to become the most highly decorated American military unit of its size ever with the 100th Battalian/442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe.

The Freedom of Information Act revealed many years later that thousands of Japanese Americans served in the secretive Military Intelligence Service in the South Pacific, translating Japanese military orders, interrogating prisoners and the like. Military leaders are quoted that these men saved millions of lives and shortened the war by two years. They served such a perilous duty that they needed a Caucasian soldier “buddy” with them constantly as their fellow soldiers thought they were the enemy infiltrating their ranks.

The men who rejected the “Loyalty Oath” did so to protest their treatment while they were all loyal Americans.

In ensuing years, President Jimmy Carter appointed a fact-finding committee of prominent Americans to explore the effects of EO 9066. They concluded after many hearings that it was “racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership” that caused the incarceration of the Japanese Americans.

President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which gave monetary reparations to all living internees and a presidential apology.

We hope that America has learned its lesson. The rumors of treating Muslim Americans like the Japanese Americans bring back bad memories of the 1940s. We are all good Americans of immigrant origins. Let us strive for equality for all.

Roy and Miriam Hatamiya