Looking at the Entire Legacy of a Man, Even the Tarnishes
A veteran Congressman and beloved alumnus of the University of Washington lives on through a bronze monument modeled in his likeness. Does present day context absolve Scoop Jackson from his WWII legacy?
Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson’s image etched in stone contains dual identities. The late Washington state senator’s bust hewed out of bronze was recently brought out to the open after years of obscurity at the University of Washington. One part of history illuminates his hard-line position against Japanese Americans during World War II, another calls attention to Jackson’s softened feature as a man who later atoned and championed civil rights.
Above all, many say, the bust is modeled after a human being.
University officials hope Jackson’s transformation in the context of social justice will find a more prominent location in students’ minds. In a leafy area in front of the school of international studies, also named after the late Democratic senator, Anand Yang stopped a few students breezing by to ask about Jackson’s identity and legacy.
There were a few blank looks and guesses, but the answer was always no.
“We need to use this as a teaching moment,” said Yang, director of the Jackson School of International Studies.
A larger than life regional figure, Jackson served nearly 43 years in the House of Representatives and the Senate. He even made two unsuccessful bids for the U.S. presidency. But his Congressional career was fraught with controversy. He entered Congress at 28 as its youngest member and spent his first two terms in the House dealing with WWII.
Jackson strongly supported the wartime removal and internment of JAs, he opposed JAs in the Armed Services and later resisted the return of JAs after the war, said Yang.
In 1943, Jackson and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce expressed interest in potentially using Japanese internees as forced labor to address the wartime shortage in farm labor.
Later as a close friend of Sen. Daniel Inouye, Jackson came around and was part of a group who supported the Senate bill for reparations.
Jackson, a University of Washington alumnus, was also criticized for his hawkish position on the Vietnam War and Central America in the Iran Contra Affair. His Congressional career ended in 1983 when he died from an aortic aneurysm, but his tarnished legacy kept the oversized bust, a gift from the Jackson Foundation in 1984, in the shadows of a fourth floor alcove for over two decades.
In more recent years, Jackson’s daughter asked for the bust to be moved outdoors, as it was intended.
“Back in 1942, Scoop’s position was reprehensible,” said Yang. “That’s only part of the legacy. The senator also championed higher education and social welfare programs … but that doesn’t mean we’re going to gloss over history.”
University officials met with the Asian Pacific American community last year to talk about the move. School officials also plan to host a classroom discussion about Jackson’s personal transformation.
“We didn’t have a problem with them moving the bust,” said Jeffrey Hattori of Seattle JACL. “We spent most of the time talking about how we can use Senator Jackson’s career as it evolved in terms of his position on internment, and have an honest conversation with students about social justice.
“People can evolve and policy can evolve over time,” Hattori added.
JACL Executive Director John Tateishi said the Jackson he knew was a strong supporter of redress.
“In much the way Earl Warren changed his views from World War II to the civil rights movement, Scoop Jackson seemed to have changed and certainly was a strong supporter of redress,” said Tateishi. “We all pay for our sins of the past at some points in our lives. I think there’s a lesson in Scoop Jackson in this regard, a man hardened in his views of Japanese Americans and, like so many, caught up in the fervor of World War II’s climate. I don’t think that fact should ever be forgotten or glossed over. He was what he was. But I think an important part of the lesson of Scoop Jackson was that he changed over the years, softened his views to the point that he was in some ways the antithesis of who he was some 40 years earlier.”
But not all are convinced. Shingo Yamazaki, a sophomore at the university, says he has mixed feelings about the bust. The plaque beneath the sculpture lists Jackson’s “commitment to quality education, human rights and the importance of creating new generations of leaders and specialists in international affairs.”
The “human rights” part sticks uneasily with him.
“I have no qualms about honoring Henry Jackson for his contribution to the University of Washington, but to exalt his commitment to human rights is ignorant and disrespectful,” said Yamazaki.
Jackson, who himself earned the nickname “Scoop” from a then popular cartoon character, also has a U.S. Navy submarine, a high school and wilderness area named after him.
For a brief time after his death, the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was renamed after him, but even then fear of economic loss forced airport officials to change it back.
A celebration of Henry “Scoop” Jackson at the University of Washington is slated to take place June 3.
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