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During the Nihonmachi Outreach Committe (NOC) Day of Remembrance event, Yaneko Ogawa lights a candle representing one of the many internment camps during World War II. Ogawa was interned at the Topaz, Utah, Japanese internment camp during the war.

In light of a past injustice

Interned Japanese from WWII honored in Sunday's ceremony

By: Colleen Watson

Posted: 2/19/08

A breathy, haunting melody flows out of a bamboo flute. Over the music, a man behind a podium reads out "Tule Lake, Calif., 29,400."

A candle is lit.

Ten more candles are lit, and with each tiny flame, a name, state and number are read. Each candle represents an internment camp where, according to the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee, more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent were interned during World War II.

A map in the back of the auditorium of the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin in Japantown showed where the different internment camps were located, stretching from California into Arkansas. In the front, near the podium, was a replica guard tower.

Sunday was a day of remembrance, celebrated now for 28 years in San Jose by the outreach committee - remembrance of Feb. 19, 1942, when President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed the removal of people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps.

About 200 people filled the gym, 100 had never been there before.

Jennifer Lee, a junior psychology major, was there for extra credit in her Aikido class, a Japanese-derived martial art, but came away with something more than class participation points.

"I felt like it gave me more awareness about Civil Rights," she said. "It's not just about the past. It's happening right now."

Though the day was in memory of what happened more than 60 years ago, another major theme of the night was that of vigilance - and to make sure that what happened to the Japanese community wouldn't happen again.

Jimi Yamaichi, who spent four years in three internment camps starting when he was 20, said, "My face was my crime because I looked different."

Now he worries that the same thing is happening after Sept. 11.

Reiko Nakayama, a volunteer with the association and Aikido teaching assistant at SJSU said, "The Muslim-Americans and South Asian Americans are experiencing the same harassment that the Japanese community did at the beginning of 1942."

Samina Faheem Sundas, executive director of American Muslim Voice, was a guest speaker. She spoke of how, after Sept. 11, the Japanese community was the first group to show support to Muslims.

"We see history being repeated through government procedure and processes," she said, adding that today, as was in 1942, racial prejudice, war hysteria and a weak government were leading to civil rights violations.

"We have repeated, essentially, what happened in 1942," said California Rep. Mike Honda, who had spent his early childhood in an internment camp in Colorado. He was referring to Muslims living in America that had been registered and deported.

"For the past few years we have fallen asleep," he said. "This evening is a wake-up call, so that acts of the government don't go unchecked by us."

Those who were relocated received redress in 1988 when former President Ronald Reagan signed HR442, which awarded the Japanese $20,000 and a letter of apology from the government, said Kathy Tafeda, a volunteer of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee.

HR442 is in reference to the 442nd Japanese American Battalion, which fought in World War II and is the most decorated battalion in U.S. history, said Gary Jio of the committee.

More than 2,000 Latin-Japanese Americans who were taken from 13 different countries have yet to receive redress, said Honda.

The evening included a candlelight procession through Japantown and a cultural drum performance by San Jose Taiko.