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Continued from Page 1a one-time reparation of $20,(MM)ball fields.But on the 50th anniversary of theand a produce business that he had Japanese attack on Peart Harbor, inAt some camps, high schools were built so Japanese-American teen-to give up. With little time to find a ternees now living in the Northwest agers could continue their educa-buyer, he gave away the family’s house in San Pedro to one of his Mex-and West suburbs still express someican workers.confusion and bitterness over a gov-“I knew this was a terrible thing.”said Mayeda, now 66 and living in Schaumburg with his wife, Sue.eminent s decision that will always be difficult to comprehend, but which should never lx’ forgotten.tions. Mayeda and his family were later transferred to a camp inJerome, Ark., where he graduatedfrom the camp’s high school in 1944.But the fact that they were collec-“H's something we d like to see in lively being detained against theirWhat my parents worked for all the history books, because we don’t will was never lost on them, Mayedatheir life, much of it was lost.About 110,000 Japanese-American citizens and Japanese residentwant to see it happen again,” said said.Chiye Tomihiro, Midwest coordina-aliens were sent to relocation camps zens League.tor for the Japanese American Citi-“Barbed wire, guard towers, main the months after the Dec. 7, 1941The first camps opened up in theattack on Pearl Harbor. At first, spring after the attack on Pearl Hardline guns and MPs. I call it concentration camp, American style,”Mayeda said.temporaryborMany male internees decided totions such as the Santa Anita camp.transportedran up against anti-Japanese sentiment well before then.join the service as a way to expresstheir loyalty. Tom Teraji, a 72-year-nent camps along the West Coastold retiree from Mount Prospect whoand in Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho.Kaz Horita, 69 and living in Whea- was interned at the Manzanar,remembersUtah and Wyoming.Calif., camp, could not volunteer,tack, when the driver of a mass but his two brothers did.The internment order, signed by transit bus in his hometown of Taco-“Here I had two brothers servingPresident Franklin Delano Roose- ma, Wash, would not allow him to in the service, and I was being sentvelt on Feb. 19, 1942, was enacted to board because hesafeguard strategic areas along thecoast from subversive acts. But nowpostersto a concentration camp,” Teraji said. Does that make sense?”it is universally regarded as a tragicaffixed to building walls announcing the relocation order. Horita’s fatherStarting over after the campswere shut down in 1944 was especial-mistake— one that stripped Japa-nese-Americans of their dignity, their homes and businesses, and their constitutional rights as citi-Masaji had to sell his two produce ly difficult for older, Japan-born instands and the family’s four-bed- ternees who spoke broken Englishoo mand had missed out on a college edu-zens.For the next two years, the family lived in barracks — first in Pinedale.cation. Horita’s father owned twovery successful produce stands be-Redress came in 1988. when Presi- Calif, and later in Tule Lake, Calif. fore the war; afterward he spent thedent Ronald Reagan signed a bill To pass the time, internees staged rest of his working days as a janitor.that issued a formal apology and talent shows and dances, or built“I always thought the people whogave each living Japanese-American their own basketball nets and soft- got hurt the worst were the parents,” Horita said.*The discrimination did not stopwith the closing of the camps, Horitasaid. In 1954, he bought a house in•V »'.*••w.v.Hiro Mayeda, pictured second from the right in the first row, and the rest of the Denson High School senior class pose for their senior picture. The high school was in the Jerome, Ark. relocation camp, where Mayeda and his family were interned.Morton Grove. Later, he learned the Japanese descent. heals some of it, but you hope itbuilder had run a background check Horita said he hopes America has doesn’t occur to other people foron Horita simply because he was of finally learned its lesson: “Time similar reasons.”
Newspaper Details
Arlington Heights Daily Herald Suburban Chicago
Arlington Heights, Illinois, US
Sun, Dec 08, 1991
Page 100
Full Page
Clipped by
Arkansas S.
AR, USA 06 Sep 2022
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