CONCENTRATION CAMPS: FROM JAPANESE INTERNMENT TO TODAY’S DETENTION FACILITIES “After Pearl Harbor, there were talks about rounding us up, to which we began calling ourselves Japanese-Americans. Up to that point, we just referred to ourselves as Japanese, but after that we began using that hyphenated term.”
is not a foreign concept in Fresno. Fresno’s history of redlining and separating minority groups are engraved in the foundation of the city. It has been seen in Black, Chinese, Hmong, and Hispanic communities throughout Fresno.
about minority groups?
Saburo and Marion Masada are survivors of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese-Americans to be put in camps after the effects of Pearl Harbor. I had the honor of speaking with the two about their experience and how they see similar issues taking place in 2019. When I brought up the topic of Japanese Internment, Mrs. Masada corrected me by stating that they there were concentration camps.
This is most evident in the use of redlining throughout our city’s history. Redlining is a systematic way to marginalize minority groups by denying services or making it more difficult to access resources by raising prices. This is often accomplished by ostracizing groups. Major news outlets play a role in this process
Marion: In the news is that little girl, they took her father. This was in Mississippi. She said, “My father is not a criminal. Please have a heart and bring my father back.” Her plea in the media was potent, very strong. I hope that the message got through to everyone who sees that, because that’s what’s happening. Innocent people are being rounded up.
The two then discussed the discrimination they faced even after World War II ended.
which Marion and Saburo touched on.
Saburo: I do, and that’s out of ignorance, self-centered greed, and prejudice. Today I’m hearing the same thing I heard in ‘42.
They called us non-aliens. That means citizens. They didn’t have the guts to call us citizens.
Marion: After the war, it was difficult the way that people treated us. We were Americans. They wouldn’t rent to us, sell food to us. They made us feel like it was bad to be Japanese. Saburo: For the Japanese to walk down the road, you were made to feel self-conscious with an inferiority complex. It’s hard to buck against it. Especially if you grew up learning to be quiet...if someone calls you Jap, just smile. The use of discrimination to separate minority groups
The “Lights For Liberty” Fresno vigil
08 | Fall 2019
Marion: I feel like all the storytelling in the media reports at the time were all lies.You could even see the Fresno articles back then not reporting the truth. Saburo: Japanese farmers produced 90 percent of the vegetables in California, but when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, anti-Japanese groups found the perfect time to exploit the fears and the hysteria of war to get rid of us by spreading lies that we were disloyal to America. Catacutan: Today we see our own president claiming specific groups are drug dealers, terrorists and rapists. Do you see similarities today with how people speak
Marion Masada (left) and Saburo Masada (right) Photos by Raymart Catacutan
What Marion is referring to is the Mississippi ICE raids that occurred earlier this year, a prime example that even today we have federal organizations targeting minority groups. Ever since their formation after the September 11 attacks, ICE has taken pride in “protecting against border vulnerabilities.” This has led to more deportations in the past two presidential terms than in any other time in US history, which means more families being torn apart and Americans being held in detention centers. In 2017, Donald Trump closed the Office of Detention Policy and Planning, the office that withheld living standards in these detention centers.
Bob Sandoval at the “Lights For Liberty” vigil