Volume 43- No. 12
March 22, 2012
by Claudia Aragon War can be a cold and cruel mistress, causing men to do unspeakable deeds, as neighbor turns against neighbor in the name of peace, liberty and honor. Like most people I learned American history in both middle and high school, beginning with the wars that set our great country free. I remember learning about the first and second World Wars as well. Television was used as an instrument for patriotism as shows like Combat and Rat Patrol were there for our viewing pleasure. The movies gave us the likes of Kelly’s Heroes, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, From Here To Eternity, Bridge Over the River Kwai and Tora, Tora, Tora, just to name a few. As children, we went from playing cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians, to playing war. Trading off being the bad guy, as each of us took turns playing the German or Japanese soldier. It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties that I learned of Executive Order 9066, in which 110,000 JapaneseAmerican citizens were interned into prisoner camps on mainland America. I met my dear friend Akie Matsumoto in 1983, after I went to work for Home Savings of America, located in Irwindale, California. She worked in the purchasing department and was very quiet and unassuming. At 57, she still retained her striking beauty. As our friendship grew, we shared stories of our families’ past. I told her I had attended high school, just north of Sacramento, in the small town Marysville. She said she had been there, and lived there for a short time, but not under the best of cirThe Paper - 760.747.7119
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cumstances. That was the day she began to tell me her story. Her father had been a very successful businessman in Los Angeles, until that fateful day in December of 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. That was when widespread racism and panic gripped our country by the throat, as 2nd and 3rd generation American born Japanese became targets of hate crimes, including
Akie’s family, as longtime business associates and loyal customers stopped frequenting her father’s business. However, before her father met financial ruin, the family was dealt a much more severe blow. According to the information on record at the Truman library: On February 11, 1942: The Secretary of War, Henry Stimson called on President
Roosevelt and recommends the immediate mass evacuation of all people of Japanese descent, from the nation’s Pacific Coast region of California, Oregon and Washington. There were sensationalistic headlines and articles such as those by columnist Walter Lippman, whose nationally syndicated column only threw gasoline on an already out of control inferno. On
February
“Executive Order 9066” Continued on Page 2
12,
1942,