JAPANESE AMERICAN MUSEUM - SACRED BOOK OF NAMES of INTERRED
EXCERPT: Visitors will be invited to view the names and use a special Japanese HANKO (a stamp or seal) to leave a mark for each person in the Ireicho as a way to honor those incarcerated during World War II. Community participation will "activate" it and rectify the historical record by correcting misspelled names or revealing names THAT MAY HAVE BEEN OMITTED for the record. Time-entry reservations to view the Ireicho can be made online. The Ireicho will be on display during museum hours starting Sunday, September 24, 2022, for one year.
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President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is my favorite U.S. President, though I realize not everything he did during his FOUR TERMS IN OFFICE, as elected through the vote, is without controversy. He entered the Presidency during the Great Depression, the dire conditions of which we in the United States luckily have not entered into again and created many program opportunities to. The forced internment of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in camps is one of the least popular of his legacies. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, this act of war with the United States provoked Roosevelt to respond by officially entering into World War II. Though not so long ago, intelligence gathering and information collections depended upon human contact, not IT or database systems, and there was no way to know who among the Japanese-American community might be a spy for Japan. The United States had held back from military involvement in Europe. There was also a concern that some Americans might take to harming the Japanese (or Asians) living in the United States so, though the camps were rugged, this was thought also to protect them from possible attacks or even mob rule. Roosevelt though Executive Order 9066, in 1942, ordered that Japanese-Americans be taken to camps which were located in-land from the coastal areas where most of them lived.
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As the veterans of this war are in their late 90's, the opportunities to provide oral histories for future generations also ends with their passing.
I had the honor of meeting a man and befriending him some years ago, a Jewish man, who was involved in training the Japanese-Americans who fought in Italy for the United States. (Italy and Germany were allied with Japan and thus against the United States and its allies.)
The United States' combat unit of Japanese-Americans was called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. They were highly decorated which means they faced savage fighting and had severe losses as well.
I urged Sam to contact the Japanese-American Museum and also offered to take him there to see the displays. I felt they might want to have his testimony on record. It never happened. Sam passed away a few years ago, just a couple days after I visited him in his assisted living apartment, where we had a short visit during which he had all his wits. He had recently been hospitalized for some time and told me he was ready to pass. He told me how it was that he had been selected for this opportunity in the military. An engraved plaque honoring him for his service was on his wall, along with the photo of his departed wife and son. Originally from the Philadelphia area, Sam had been a patriotic American. Sam had been tested by the military psychologically as NOT BIGOTED or PREJUDICED. They wanted people to work with Japanese-Americans who would be honorable and fair in working with them.
To put this into context, here was the son of Jewish immigrants who faced bigotry and prejudice themselves, who lived in an ethnic enclave (some call that a ghetto), who was somewhat religious but not so much, and who had fallen in love with his teenage sweetheart, who he would eventually marry and spend his life with. He put military service first.
To me this testing means that the United States military certainly was open to these Japanese - American men fighting for the United States, knew that Japanese-Americans were patriotic, but had concerns that they be treated fairly. The military also thought it would be unwise to send them into the Pacific theater or war where they could be confused visually with the enemy.
One article I read said the United States considered all Japanese Americans to be enemies of the state. That is not correct.
The book was compiled by a University of Southern California professor, Duncan Ryuken Williams, and lists all of those who were interred in camps, over 125,000 names. A new book, but considered sacred, weighing in at 25 pounds or so, it is available for viewing and for placing a stamp or seal.
YOUTUBE - TODAY SHOW - NBC's Emilie Ikeda Not embedded on this blog due to the commercials, but an good video of Emilie Ikeda's visit to the museum to stamp the book. Note that you may stamp the book though not a relative to a person named in the book.
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