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Show A Reply to Maxine Newell’s Views on Japanese Internment in WWII Dear Jim, 211 N. Main St. I can’t let Maxine Newell’s letter (Feedback, April-May 2001) go by without a response either. the bare facts are that during World War II, for more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry, citizens and non-citizens alike, the due process protection of the U.S. Constitution was suspended based on nothing more than race. The President, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court acted in concert to deny guaranteed rights without legal justification during a time when fear trumped justice. According to the 1940 U.S. Census, persons of Japanese ancestry residing in the continental U.S. made up less than one-tenth of one percent of the total U.S. population, yet the War Department deemed that removal and internment was a military necessity. Persons of Japanese ancestry were not the only ones targeted by our government's actions. Though not en masse, persons of Italian and German ancestries were also interned or had unconstitutional restrictions placed on their liberty rights as well. To the contrary Ms. Newell, criticism of the internment camps in America is not what is unforgivable; what is truly unforgivable is that internment camps in America existed. The larger theme that connects the wartime camps to us here and now is that prejudice and hatred based on differences remain with us. The camps were a manifestation of racial hatred. Hatreds based on racial, ethnic, religious differences and on sexual orientation continue to target individuals and groups, and are manifested in the form of violence and discriminatory practices that directly of indirectly touch most of us still. The article by Lloyd Pierson (February-March 2001) was not America bashing as Ms. Newell writes. I just don’t see how shedding light on the Dalton Wells C.C.C. camp bashes America. Bringing about awareness of events in the past is the duty of historians. Likewise, it is an obligation of those who experienced the camps. These events are what we should be learning from and stories of this shared history belong to us all, regardless of whether barbed wire fences encircle your family’s past or not. Ms. Newell mentions the reparation of $20,000 to World War II internee survivors as a help to start life over again. This is not true. The redress was a payment in recognition of the 259.6007 800.733.6007 ~ Wwww.canyonvoyages.com serious injustice that was done to Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II. Our legal system uses economic payment as one way to make an individual whole again after some damage has been done or a wrong has been committed against that person. However, in the more than fifty years that it took to gain this recognition, thousands and thousands of internees died. They never received a formal apology nor redress from our government. The personal and monetary losses resulting from internment are incalculable. I don’t believe many people would trade four years of liberty rights for $20,000 if given the _ choice. A little known action by the U.S. government during World War II was the actual kidnapping and imprisonment Japanese Latin Americans. This injustice has been brought to light in the case of Mochizaku v. US. This federal class action lawsuit, filed in 1996, sought a formal apology and reparations from the U.S. government for the forcible kidnapping and imprisonment of Japanese Latin Americans. Ms. Mochizaku was one of .. Trying to think of something clever for our ad, ‘but all we came up with was handfuls of hair! - So come in for your boating gear and don't ask us to be clever. WHY SUBSCRIBE TO THE ZEPH YR? kidnapping and imprisonment was initiated and carried out by the U.S. government in order to secure human barter for use in prisoner exchange with Japan during World War Il. More than 800 people were exchanged for U.S. citizens during the war. BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. In Ms. Mochizaku’s case, she was a citizen of Peru, living there with her family when in 1943, without due process of legal justification she was taken without her consent, SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ON PAGE 3 more than 2,000 Latin Americans of Japanese ancestry who was taken from their homes, forced to come to the U.S., and imprisoned in Department of Justice camps. This transported to the U.S., and imprisoned in a detention camp in Crystal City, Texas. She was not released until December 1945. Not only is it hard to believe that our government could conceive of and carry out such a plan, but the terror and hardship inflicted upon Japanese Latin Americans by our government is hard to imagine. The 1998, the Department of Justice settled with the former internees. Under the settlement agreement, the U.S. was to issue a former letter of apology signed by President - Clinton to the survivor or the internee’s heirs was to pay $5,000 in redress from the fund created by the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This is the same fund that payments to Japanese Americans were made from. The original Civil Liberties Act denied redress to Japanese Latin Americans. I hope that recounting this event this is not wrongly construed as America from. bashing. It is another story of injustice that must be told and should be learned Sincerely, — Carol Inouye-Matthews Vancouver,WA Thanks for setting the record straight..JS White Canyon Has Changed... Dear Mr. Stiles: Back in the early fifties, I used to gather three fellow students each spring vacation and head for Southern Utah. One year I bought a ‘33 Chevy for $45 and we put a “Don’t Pass, PUSH” sign on the back and headed for Hanksville. We came down North Wash, across the old Hite Ferry, and on to Natural Bridges. Where the road crossed White Canyon, we climbed down and explored an attractive little slot. : A few years ago I was through that way and decided for old time’s sake to climb down and see if it was as good as I remembered. I was greeted by a great pile of domestic trash under the new. bridge. Hard to believe anybody would haul all that stuff out from Blanding.The lyrical prose of the Fry Canyon Lodge ad in the April/May issue caught my eye. No mention of so mundane a matter as trash disposal.Next time you are through there, stop and take a look.at the old bri----no, no, don’t stop. 5 : Keep up the good work, Jim Thayer | Collbran, CO ; There is no more dreadfu! punishment than futile & hopeless labor. Camus Paso cae "Southern Utah's Finest Selection 100 S. MAIN STREET 259.8118 |