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Page 8, CLOVIS NEWS JOURNAL, Thursday, Oct. 28, 1999Internment camp site to be markedBy Deborah BakerTHE ASSOCIATED PRESSSANTA FE — The city willmark the site of an internment camp for Japanese Americans despite opposition from some embittered World War II veterans.Mayor Larrv Delgado broke a tie vote of the Citv Council on Wednesday to authorize a bronze plaque on a boulder near the site of the camp.“We're not dishonoring the veterans in any way. Delgado said before voting in favor of the marker. “We can’t deny history.”Manuel Armijo, who survived the brutal Bataan death march and 3 1/2 years in a Japanese prison camp, complained later that it's “like asking us to turn the other cheek.”“Mavbe it'll heal somebody —% %/but I hope I’m dead,” said Armijo, 88, for whom memories of the war a half-century ago are still fresh.The marker, to lx‘ paid for with private donations, was recommended bv a committee that said it was time to recognize an overlooked chapter in Santa Fe's history.The marker will be placed in acity park on a hilltop overlooking a 28-acre site — now a residential neighborhood — where the camp was located from 1942-46.Surrounded by barbed wire and marked by guard towers, the camp held mainly middle-aged and older Japanese-born men who were leaders in their communities, and therefore considered a threat when World War IIbroke out. It held a total of 4,555men — 2,100 at its peak.More than 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry were removed from the West Coastduring the war and locked up ininternment camps. Most of them were I S citizens and most ended up at 10 major camps operated by the War Relocation Authority, in California, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas.The Santa Fe camp was run by the Justice Department, and its internees were not U.S. citizens, although some had been here for decades. Federal law at the time barred Japanese immigrants from citizenship.The federal government has formally apologized to JapaneseAmerican internees and paid at least $1.6 billion in reparations. At a groundbreaking last week for a memorial in Washington, D.C., President Clinton sent a message calling the internments a “sadchapter” in American history.“People were placed in this internment camp because of their race,” said Carol Robertson Lopez, one of four councilors who voted for the marker.In the multicultural Santa Fe area, with its mix of Hispanics, American Indians and Anglos,breaking down racial barriers always has been crucial, Robertson Lopez said.“I don’t want my son to ever*think that it’s OK to generalize, to stereotype anyone on the basis of their race,” she said.But other councilors said they couldn’t turn their backs on the veterans.“I cannot dishonor the veterans that endured the suffering that they did in Bataan and the Philippines,” Councilor Art Sanchez said.About 1,800 National Guardsmen from New Mexico were sentto the Philippines in 1941. Afterthe Japanese overran the islands and the U.S. forces surrendered on the Bataan peninsula in April 1942, the sick and starving captives were forced to march 65 miles in the hot sun. They-were denied food and water, and were beaten — and some killed — if they fell out of line. The cruelty continued at prison camps.“You just kicked the Bataan ! veterans in the teeth in the twilight years of their life,” said Armijo’s son-in-law, Clarence Lithgow, who jumped to his feet in the audience after the mayor’s tie-breaking vote.“It’s a reminder of what happened to me in the Philippines,” said Arthur Smith, 80. He said while the internees in Santa Fe were treated well “over there they were killing us, day by day.”Smith also suggested that the marker “won’t last too long” once it’s up, if veterans find its wording offensive.The marker will include a brief history of the camp and note that the internees — religious leaders, businessmen, farmers and others — were held without due process.
Newspaper Details
Clovis News Journal
Clovis, New Mexico, US
Thu, Oct 28, 1999
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 25 Aug 2019
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