Redress, the Manzanar pilgrimage and a White House briefing

Vol. 98, No. 17, May 4, 1984. 12 pages. View this issue

The Pacific Citizen’s May 4, 1984 issue returned often to the World War II incarceration (often called internment) and the push for redress. The front page reported on the 15th annual Manzanar pilgrimage, where more than 200 people gathered on April 28 and Karl Yoneda served as keynote speaker. Inside, the paper noted Chinese American, Hawaii legislature and Canadian official support for compensation, and Minoru Yasui wrote about the Salinas monument dedication. The front page also covered a White House briefing for Asian American educators, continued on page 7, and the issue carried columns by Bill Hosokawa, Ron Wakabayashi and Phil Shigekuni.

Also in this 12-page issue: a Chicago opening of the Go For Broke photo exhibit honoring Nisei who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Asian Pacific American Heritage Week events, Harry Honda’s Little Tokyo Life column on early health care, and a story on Seattle school clerks awarded compensation.

What’s in this issue

National

• White House Officials Conduct Briefing for Asian Americans, by P.C. Staff, page 1. About 100 participants of the East Coast Asian American Educators Conference attended an April 19 briefing at the White House covering education, immigration, and foreign policy. Vice President Bush and officials discussed federal education spending, immigration reform concerns including employer sanctions, and U.S. policy toward Asia.
• Conference Addresses Effects of U.S. Military Presence in Pacific Islands, by Stan Shikuma, page 1. A Seattle conference on the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific movement drew over 100 people to hear speakers Darlene Keju and Giff Johnson discuss the effects of nuclear testing, militarism, and colonialism on Micronesia and the Pacific. Workshops covered related issues in the South Pacific, Hawai’i, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.
• Sen. Inouye Urges National Health Plan, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Sen. Daniel Inouye delivered the 1984 Ira Hiscock Lecture at the University of Hawaii, warning that medical costs are rising faster than other segments of the economy. He cited hospital costs in Hawaii rising from $99 per day in 1972 to nearly $600 currently.
• White House Briefing Continued: Capitalism and Democracy, by P.C. Staff, page 7. Paul Gardner of the State Department told the Asian American briefing that the Reagan Administration believes democracy follows economic development, citing South Korea and the Philippines. He also expressed concern about Soviet military buildup in the Pacific region, including the shift to a blue-water navy.
• Zoologist Wins Grant To Study Tropical Parasite Afflicting 200 Million, by P.C. Staff, page 11. University of Oklahoma zoologist Timothy P. Yoshino received a $184,500 Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health to study schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasites that begin in snails. Yoshino hopes his research could lead to genetically engineering snails resistant to the parasite.

Community

• Governor’s Appointments Defended, by P.C. Staff, page 1. California Gov. George Deukmejian’s appointments secretary Marvin Baxter defended the governor against charges by state Senate leader David Roberti that too few Asian Americans had been appointed to state posts. Baxter listed 25 Asian American appointees and claimed they outnumbered those named by former Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. in a comparable period.
• Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, by P.C. Staff, page 1. President Reagan declared May 5-11 Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, prompting events nationwide including arts fairs, health fairs, and heritage dinners in Los Angeles, a KNBC-TV salute in Burbank, a cultural festival in Fresno, Nikkei Matsuri in San Jose, and programs in Portland and Washington, D.C.’s.
• Large Midwest Crowd Gathers for Opening of ‘Go For Broke’ Photo Exhibit, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The first Midwest showing of the Go For Broke photo exhibit opened before 400 spectators at Chicago’s Daley Center Plaza on April 14, featuring color guards, a military band, and keynote speaker Maj. Gen. Allen K. Ono. The exhibit honored Nisei who served in the Military Intelligence Service and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
• Nisei Clerks Awarded Compensation, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Seattle school board voted 4-2 on April 25 to pay $5,000 to each former employee forced to resign in February 1942 because of their Japanese ancestry. The vote included one abstention.
• U.W. Ethnic Studies Consolidated, by P.C. Staff, page 2. University of Washington regents unanimously agreed on April 20 to merge Black, Asian, and Chicano studies programs into one American Ethnic Studies department starting next September. Minority students had staged demonstrations opposing the consolidation.
• International Conference Center To Be Built for Centennial Issei Immigration, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Hawaii Imin Centennial Corp. will reconstruct Jefferson Hall at the East-West Center into the Hawaii Imin Conference Center, honoring Japanese contract immigrants who began arriving in 1885. Gov. George Ariyoshi announced the $5 million project, with a third of funding expected from Japan.
• Women’s Conference Set for Cambridge, by P.C. Staff, page 3. Asian Sisters In Action (ASIA) is presenting ‘Emerging Strengths,’ a one-day conference on personal and collective development for New England Asian women on May 5 at M.I.T. Keynote speaker is May Louie of the Chinatown People’s Progressive Association.
• Job Training for Elderly Asians in Midwest Offered, by P.C. Staff, page 9. The Japanese American Service Committee in Chicago launched a program to develop jobs for economically disadvantaged Asian elderly residents aged 55 and older. Employment counselor Joe Hayes Hirabayashi joined the JASC staff to lead the effort, funded through June 30 by the Job Training Partnership Act.
• Turlock Social Club Announces Scholarships, by P.C. Staff, page 10. The Turlock Social Club voted at its annual meeting to contribute to several scholarships and community organizations, including the JACL Nisaburo Aibara Memorial scholarship and a Cal State Stanislaus scholarship. New officers for 1984 were also announced, led by president Buddy T. Iwata.
• Nisei Week Queens To Hold Reunion, by P.C. Staff, page 11. Former Nisei Week Japanese Festival queens will gather for a reunion on May 6 at the New Otani Hotel in Los Angeles. Em Kato Yamada, the 1952 queen and reunion co-chair, is coordinating attendance with Darlene Kuba, general chair of this year’s Nisei Week festival.

Incarceration & Redress

• Solemn Memorial: 15th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage Draws 200, page 1. The Rev. Nobuyoshi Fukushima placed flowers on a grave at Manzanar cemetery during the 15th annual pilgrimage to the former concentration camp on April 28. More than 200 participants attended, with Karl Yoneda serving as keynote speaker.
• Chinese Americans Back Compensation, by P.C. Staff, page 2. The Organization of Chinese Americans endorsed the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians at its April 7 meeting, supporting bills in Congress for $20,000 compensation per former internee. The 3,500-member OCA has 31 chapters nationwide.
• Hawaii Legislature Endorses Redress, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Hawaii’s House of Representatives unanimously passed House Resolution 201 on April 18, supporting monetary redress for Nikkei and Aleut Americans interned during WW2. The measure was introduced by minority leader Barbara Marumoto, Rod Tam, and David Hagino, all Honolulu Chapter JACL members.
• Canadian Official Calls WW2 Treatment of Internees ‘Stain on Country’s History’, by P.C. Staff, page 2. Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry refuted Prime Minister Trudeau’s dismissive remarks about compensating Canada’s wartime internees, calling the internment a stain on the country’s history. McMurtry stated that citing the passage of time was an inadequate response to the injustice.
• Redress Phase Five: Salinas ‘Kinenhi’ Dedication, by Minoru Yasui, page 5. Combined JACL chapters in the Monterey Bay Area dedicated a stone monument on Feb. 19 marking the Salinas WCCA assembly center site where nearly 3,600 persons were confined in 1942. The ceremony featured Issei choir singing ‘God Bless America,’ remarks by William Marutani and John Tateishi, and recalled the pain and injustice of the incarceration.
• Colorado TV Takes Up Redress, by P.C. Staff, page 10. Arthur Iwasaki participated in a seminar on evacuation, camp life and redress sponsored by KKTV Channel 11 of Colorado Springs. The two-and-a-half-hour panel discussion featured director Jon Turkle and newscaster Lana Munsell and may be broadcast later.

Commentary

• Beware of Wooden Nickels, page 4. This editorial argues against the notion that Japanese Americans have ‘made it’ and therefore don’t need redress money, pointing out many aged Issei and Nisei never recovered economically from the incarceration. The piece contends that the $20,000 redress figure is modest and symbolically important, not about wealth, and that justice shouldn’t depend on financial status.
• Patience Not the Only Virtue, by Bill Hosokawa, page 5. Hosokawa writes about the Japanese virtues of gaman and shimbo as embodied in the TV character Oshin, linking this to President Carter’s ‘malaise’ speech and current debates over Japanese economic policy. He notes criticism in a Japanese magazine arguing that ‘Oshinomics’ and stoic endurance are hurting Japan’s economic recovery and fueling trade tensions.
• Musubi: A Special Book, by Ron Wakabayashi, page 7. Wakabayashi reflects on John Tateishi’s efforts constructing the book ‘And Justice For All,’ an oral history compiling Japanese American voices about the wartime incarceration. He describes the book as a kind of mini-hearing capturing tragedy, anger, compassion and humor, and says he wants his son to have a copy.
• Women’s Concerns: A Man’s Perspective, by Phil Shigekuni, page 8. Shigekuni examines why few women hold chapter leadership positions in JACL despite doing much of the vital organizational work, reflecting on his San Fernando Valley chapter experience. He argues JACL loses out by not fully tapping women’s leadership potential and that men must share household responsibilities to enable change.

JACL

• Masaoka Curtailing Public Engagements, by P.C. Staff, page 10. Gene Takamine, national JACL ways and means chair, announced that Mike Masaoka is currently unable to make speaking engagements. As a result, a planned fundraiser in the Pacific Southwest District requiring Masaoka’s participation will not be organized.

Arts & Entertainment

• Nisei Bonsai Artist Gives Junipers to Country’s National Arboretum, by P.C. Staff, page 11. John Naka of Los Angeles, a leading American bonsai artist, donated eleven mature dwarf juniper trees to the National Arboretum in Philadelphia. Naka, who learned bonsai from his grandfather in Japan, co-founded the California Bonsai Society in 1950.

Obituaries

• Fumi Adachi, 91, by P.C. Staff, page 11. Fumi Adachi, originally from Japan, came to the U.S. in 1919 and lived in several states including New Jersey, Wyoming, Illinois, and Massachusetts. During WW2 she taught at the U.S. Naval Language School in Oklahoma and became a U.S. citizen in 1954; she is survived by two sons and grandchildren.

In-Depth

• Little Tokyo Life (No. 15): A Picture of Health, by Harry Honda, page 12. Honda recounts the history of Little Tokyo’s early health care system in the 1910s, including the Japanese Hospital built in 1915 by Dr. Inosuke Inose and H. Toyosaku Komai, along with midwives, infirmaries, and dentists serving the community. He also recalls photographer Toyo Miyatake’s reminiscences and the hospital’s later transformations into the Turner Hotel and City View Hospital.

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