00:00:06.600 --> 00:00:09.360
August of 2013, a young woman,

00:00:09.420 --> 00:00:13.820
a high school kid we brought in to help
upstairs to clean up some of the drawers

00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:14.940
upstairs that were kind of messing.

00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:19.480
She was doing some cleaning things up
and she actually ran across an old 16

00:00:19.860 --> 00:00:22.120
millimeter film in the drawer there.

00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.360
The film that was shot about 1938 that
shows the Japanese community here in

00:00:27.400 --> 00:00:31.980
Monterey playing baseball down
the wharf, having fun. And so gee,

00:00:32.360 --> 00:00:33.800
we'd never seen this film before.

00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:39.780
So I began to look through the drawers
and I see this sort of rolled up

00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:41.580
envelope.

00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:46.200
So I pulled them out of the envelope
probably the first time since 1945

00:00:46.540 --> 00:00:50.900
and I unrolled them and I saw
what they were. Holy mackerel.

00:01:10.100 --> 00:01:12.920
What is the legality
of rounding people out

00:01:14.820 --> 00:01:17.100
without trial, without evidence,

00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.120
and without any due process of any kind?

00:01:23.580 --> 00:01:26.220
They were incarcerated merely
because they looked like the enemy.

00:01:29.781 --> 00:01:32.881
They lost their property,
they lost their businesses,

00:01:33.521 --> 00:01:37.581
some had lost their lives.
And even after the war,

00:01:37.721 --> 00:01:42.101
after the people returned from the
war, they were subjected to vandalism,

00:01:43.301 --> 00:01:46.761
attacks, threats, this sort of
thing. That was pretty commonplace.

00:01:56.821 --> 00:02:01.741
The Monterey petition is a
textbook example of people

00:02:02.281 --> 00:02:04.601
standing up for what the
country should be about.

00:02:06.561 --> 00:02:10.521
For these people in Monterey to take
a contrary stand and see the humanity

00:02:10.601 --> 00:02:12.761
behind it, that's pretty exceptional.

00:02:15.401 --> 00:02:17.701
I think it's a lesson for all time.

00:02:48.201 --> 00:02:52.421
Monterey was originally a Spanish
town, Spanish capital of California.

00:02:53.461 --> 00:02:56.101
I mean, they were speaking
Spanish here until the 1890s.

00:02:56.681 --> 00:03:01.602
This was not your typical New England
replica, California town. This.

00:03:01.702 --> 00:03:06.682
Was a different place. Very large
Sicilian Italian population.

00:03:07.482 --> 00:03:11.602
And we often forget about the important
Japanese American contribution to the

00:03:11.642 --> 00:03:12.782
fishing community here.

00:03:15.162 --> 00:03:19.062
Sicilians and Japanese fishermen
dominated the economy here.

00:03:19.922 --> 00:03:22.182
Japanese came here because of fishing.

00:03:23.182 --> 00:03:27.182
So the Japanese came here for abalone
and they also came here for salmon.

00:03:28.082 --> 00:03:31.442
And they've been completely sort
of written out of that history.

00:03:31.502 --> 00:03:34.182
It's all focused on the
Italians and Sicilians.

00:03:35.402 --> 00:03:40.022
In the 1997 season, there were 185
Sambos bricking the Monterey Bay.

00:03:41.260 --> 00:03:43.282
145 of them were Japanese own.

00:03:45.702 --> 00:03:48.042
The Monterey Peninsula
was such a multicultural,

00:03:48.982 --> 00:03:52.142
a wonderful mix of people.

00:03:53.322 --> 00:03:58.302
And many of the racist things that
grew other places didn't take root

00:03:58.342 --> 00:03:59.175
here.

00:04:00.002 --> 00:04:01.542
But the Japanese who came to Monterey,

00:04:01.662 --> 00:04:05.042
one of the things they did was they
westernized themselves immediately and got

00:04:05.082 --> 00:04:06.962
involved within the
communities themselves.

00:04:10.902 --> 00:04:13.902
Monterey is the only place, but
the fishermen here had one union.

00:04:14.462 --> 00:04:16.422
Whereas in Southern California,
Northern California,

00:04:16.522 --> 00:04:19.642
all the ethic groups had separate
unions. Monterey had one.

00:04:21.502 --> 00:04:22.862
Monterey is a small town.

00:04:23.222 --> 00:04:26.382
These guys all grew up together and
they all went to school together.

00:04:26.502 --> 00:04:30.843
They all played together.
But the real key,

00:04:31.063 --> 00:04:34.243
at least for me, the
real key was baseball.

00:04:37.063 --> 00:04:38.603
They all played baseball together.

00:04:39.663 --> 00:04:43.443
And it was not uncommon for these young
Japanese boys to learn to speak Italian

00:04:43.463 --> 00:04:44.483
before learning to speak English,

00:04:44.643 --> 00:04:47.523
and those Italian boys that learned to
speak Japanese before they learned to

00:04:47.543 --> 00:04:48.376
speak English.

00:05:02.123 --> 00:05:06.563
And if you look at any photograph from
any Japanese event that's going on,

00:05:06.643 --> 00:05:09.683
the first thing you'll see in every
photograph is the American flag.

00:05:10.403 --> 00:05:11.903
They always had that flag out there.

00:05:15.563 --> 00:05:20.120
Japanese owned farms all in the
Carmel Valley and around the Monterey

00:05:20.200 --> 00:05:21.033
Peninsula.

00:05:22.443 --> 00:05:27.383
The Miamoto family that farmed
around Carmel Mission and lower

00:05:27.463 --> 00:05:29.603
Carmel Valley before the war,

00:05:30.423 --> 00:05:35.163
they had strawberry farms and
they would invite the local kids

00:05:35.403 --> 00:05:39.603
to come down and pick strawberries at
five cents of basket. And of course,

00:05:39.663 --> 00:05:42.063
we would steal a few
as we were going long.

00:05:42.843 --> 00:05:45.823
And I don't think I've ever tasted
a strawberry as good as those.

00:05:48.843 --> 00:05:53.463
No, I don't think the Miamotos did
farm down there anymore afterwards.

00:05:54.863 --> 00:05:58.103
After the war, they lost the
land, they lost the business,

00:05:58.984 --> 00:05:59.884
they lost all that.

00:06:01.384 --> 00:06:05.104
And I asked Miaomiao Mota why he has
never been resentful. And he said,

00:06:06.124 --> 00:06:08.464
"It's in the past. We've
got to get over it.

00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:15.904
" There's a Japanese saying which
kind of means unpleasantness is

00:06:15.964 --> 00:06:16.797
not to be noticed.

00:06:17.244 --> 00:06:21.644
It can't be helped. You just have
to suck it up and deal with it.

00:06:22.704 --> 00:06:27.324
Many Isai Nisei parents did
not talk about camp life

00:06:28.144 --> 00:06:30.324
or the evacuation from their homes.

00:06:30.464 --> 00:06:34.224
They didn't talk about it. They
sucked it up and marched on.

00:06:35.084 --> 00:06:36.064
But over time,

00:06:36.224 --> 00:06:41.124
as it became more acceptable
within the Japanese community to

00:06:41.164 --> 00:06:43.564
begin to talk about it, they did.

00:06:44.184 --> 00:06:47.884
I count myself as one of the lucky
people who grew up during the time when

00:06:47.924 --> 00:06:50.304
Martin Luther King was alive. Of course,

00:06:50.364 --> 00:06:54.384
during the struggle for black civil
rights, we as Japanese Americans,

00:06:54.864 --> 00:06:57.884
as Asian Americans,
wondered about our own past.

00:07:03.644 --> 00:07:06.800
The Japanese had no Navy
to speak of at all in 1850.

00:07:08.264 --> 00:07:09.504
Admiral Perry came and said,

00:07:09.564 --> 00:07:14.544
"Welcome to the world in 1853."
Japan immediately begins to ramp up.

00:07:15.124 --> 00:07:19.324
Their technology explodes.
They're so good at stuff,

00:07:20.044 --> 00:07:23.324
but we brought them a model train and
they were making railroads in five years.

00:07:25.504 --> 00:07:28.185
There had been misunderstandings,

00:07:28.264 --> 00:07:33.160
disagreements between Japan and the
United States going back to 1900.

00:07:35.365 --> 00:07:38.305
In 1905, the Japanese Navy,

00:07:39.265 --> 00:07:43.605
they took on the Russians. The
Russian fleet came all the way around,

00:07:44.205 --> 00:07:48.045
came up along the coast, and
in the straits of Sushima,

00:07:49.825 --> 00:07:52.225
the Japanese Navy sank, destroyed them.

00:07:53.665 --> 00:07:57.665
That is such a seminal event in the
history of the world. At that moment,

00:07:58.085 --> 00:08:02.505
brown people, particularly people who
were colonials, all sat up and said,

00:08:02.605 --> 00:08:03.438
"Say what?

00:08:03.640 --> 00:08:07.525
" It became the inspiration
for revolutionary movements
everywhere in Asia.

00:08:09.245 --> 00:08:12.365
Japan was becoming a formidable country.

00:08:14.325 --> 00:08:19.165
There grew increasing
concern about the role

00:08:19.365 --> 00:08:22.605
of Japan and trade with the US.

00:08:24.365 --> 00:08:25.725
Pearl Harbor doesn't come out of nowhere.

00:08:25.825 --> 00:08:30.545
Pearl Harbor comes out of the fact that
the growing power had a natural resource

00:08:31.085 --> 00:08:34.945
deficit. They didn't have iron
ore. They didn't have oil.

00:08:36.125 --> 00:08:37.520
Meanwhile, in 195,

00:08:38.225 --> 00:08:42.265
the Asiatic Exclusion League
was founded in San Francisco,

00:08:42.665 --> 00:08:46.445
which sort of picked up the
anti-Chinese stuff, warmed it up,

00:08:47.225 --> 00:08:50.885
and became the basis of the
anti-Japanese movement in California.

00:08:52.305 --> 00:08:56.105
In 1924, US Congress passes legislation,

00:08:56.446 --> 00:09:01.226
which severely limits further
Japanese immigration to the US.

00:09:02.966 --> 00:09:05.566
The Congress shuts off Japanese
immigration altogether.

00:09:06.606 --> 00:09:11.366
Huge uproar in Japan.
They lost face. Actually,

00:09:11.426 --> 00:09:14.126
on June 1st, 1924, in Tokyo,

00:09:14.246 --> 00:09:16.526
they had a national humiliation day,

00:09:17.326 --> 00:09:20.746
humiliation over the fact
that America had snubbed them.

00:09:21.966 --> 00:09:25.806
Or more accurately, the
elite diplomatic community.

00:09:28.126 --> 00:09:30.426
So you can see this thing is building,

00:09:31.226 --> 00:09:35.586
and the only thing between
Japan and California is water.

00:09:37.546 --> 00:09:39.766
By the '30s, internationally,

00:09:40.486 --> 00:09:43.186
everybody knew there was going to be a
war between the United States and Japan.

00:09:43.866 --> 00:09:45.526
I mean, this is not a secret,

00:09:47.106 --> 00:09:49.566
and it's making everybody very nervous.

00:10:02.166 --> 00:10:04.786
War with Japan was not a surprise.

00:10:05.866 --> 00:10:08.626
Pearl Harbor was a
surprise. That was a shock.

00:10:08.726 --> 00:10:12.246
That knocked everybody off their balance.

00:10:13.426 --> 00:10:16.406
We interrupt this broadcast bring to
this important bulletin from the United

00:10:16.466 --> 00:10:18.286
Press. Flash, Washington.

00:10:18.706 --> 00:10:21.826
The White House announces
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

00:10:22.226 --> 00:10:24.886
The way we spent an evening
was around the radio.

00:10:25.766 --> 00:10:30.707
Listening to the news. I mean, that's
the entertainment we had, was the radio.

00:10:31.647 --> 00:10:35.987
Everyone, of course, was crying. We
were all scared too. We were terrified.

00:10:36.127 --> 00:10:38.960
Harbor. Pearl Harbor.

00:10:40.040 --> 00:10:42.307
There was no warning. Oh,

00:10:42.487 --> 00:10:45.147
I was shocked when that happened.

00:10:46.007 --> 00:10:49.247
I couldn't believe that Japanese
soldiers would attack Pearl Harbor.

00:10:50.767 --> 00:10:55.407
There were so many Japanese already
there. Well, some of the kids in my class,

00:10:55.467 --> 00:10:58.247
they had brothers that
were killed in Hawaii,

00:10:59.167 --> 00:11:02.927
and that really shook me
up. And here I'm Japanese.

00:11:04.427 --> 00:11:08.167
We, Americans, tend to look at Pearl
Harbor and then for some reason,

00:11:08.647 --> 00:11:13.327
don't know what happened between
Pearl Harbor and say the summer.

00:11:15.187 --> 00:11:17.467
The night of December
7th, that Sunday evening,

00:11:18.407 --> 00:11:21.947
I call it the night of the kitchen
tables. It's the night when everybody,

00:11:22.147 --> 00:11:24.147
everybody, not just Japanese,

00:11:24.547 --> 00:11:26.687
but everybody was sitting
around a kitchen table going,

00:11:28.207 --> 00:11:29.827
"What's going to happen to
us? What are we going to do?

00:11:30.047 --> 00:11:34.347
How do we respond to this? " And
by doing that, they turned in.

00:11:35.707 --> 00:11:40.487
They turned in and started to worry, as
we all naturally do, about themselves.

00:11:40.827 --> 00:11:42.847
And as they are all turned in,

00:11:43.647 --> 00:11:45.987
the community disappears behind them.

00:11:58.167 --> 00:12:02.608
After Pearl Harbor, the
anti-Japanese sentiment really.

00:12:02.668 --> 00:12:05.808
Intensifies. General John
El Dewett, for example,

00:12:06.920 --> 00:12:09.440
said that the Japanese
race is an enemy race.

00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:14.560
The very fact that no sabotage has
occurred to date is a disturbing and

00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:17.320
confirming indication that
such action will be taken.

00:12:21.560 --> 00:12:24.160
What kind of conspiracy theory is that?

00:12:26.280 --> 00:12:30.000
General John Eldewett was
a QAnon of his day. But.

00:12:30.640 --> 00:12:34.548
Critical to this whole story
was the absolute palpable fear

00:12:36.680 --> 00:12:41.588
that was here on the coast. Part
of the plan Japanese had in place,

00:12:41.598 --> 00:12:45.120
Admiral Yamamoto, to move the
submarines onto the American coast.

00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:47.313
There are nine,

00:12:48.120 --> 00:12:52.628
what are called eyeboats stationed
from Seattle to San Diego.

00:12:53.408 --> 00:12:54.448
They're just off the coast,

00:12:54.708 --> 00:12:59.288
and it starts for the Monterey
Peninsula on the 20th. 20th of December.

00:12:59.908 --> 00:13:04.648
And submarine I- 23
surfaces off of the Cypress

00:13:04.668 --> 00:13:09.528
Point Golf Course in the
full view of golfers.

00:13:11.408 --> 00:13:16.348
So they come up and they chase a tanker
across the surface using the deck gun

00:13:17.308 --> 00:13:22.288
and they don't hit it. But in
full view of God and everybody,

00:13:22.848 --> 00:13:26.848
right? There's a Japanese
submarine 363 feet long.

00:13:27.349 --> 00:13:32.169
These are big puppies. Firing
this five and a half inch cannon,

00:13:32.229 --> 00:13:34.869
which makes an enormous noise. Pawhoom.

00:13:35.509 --> 00:13:39.169
And chasing a tanker right across
Monterey Bay, right in front of everybody.

00:13:40.109 --> 00:13:44.629
Newspapers play it up because censorship
came immediately after Pearl Harbor.

00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:47.449
Local newspapers, national newspapers,

00:13:47.529 --> 00:13:50.289
their news is being controlled
by the military. Well,

00:13:50.849 --> 00:13:53.389
they couldn't not know this. Pawhoom.

00:13:54.169 --> 00:13:59.169
I can remember them talking
about the submarines down the

00:13:59.249 --> 00:14:04.009
coast, right where mom and dad
had lived when they were younger.

00:14:04.509 --> 00:14:06.709
When your parents are
afraid, you're afraid too.

00:14:07.489 --> 00:14:10.329
They really did think they
were going to be invaded.

00:14:11.269 --> 00:14:14.369
And so fear does do horrible things.

00:14:15.169 --> 00:14:19.349
Enemy planes and scare headlines on
December 8th are purely imaginary.

00:14:19.849 --> 00:14:22.400
But on February 23rd, 1942,

00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:26.289
a submarine does shell a
refinery near Santa Barbara.

00:14:27.009 --> 00:14:30.269
The highest military authorities are
certain the enemy does not plan an

00:14:30.329 --> 00:14:34.769
invasion, but behind the
defenses, fear is screaming hate.

00:14:35.509 --> 00:14:40.109
Columnist Westbrook Pigler wants all
Japanese under guard and to hell with

00:14:40.129 --> 00:14:44.909
habeas corpus. Columnist Henry MacLemore
writes, "I hate Japanese, all of.

00:14:45.780 --> 00:14:49.889
Them." And what you find is at
times of economic depression,

00:14:50.489 --> 00:14:52.529
economic challenge, or war,

00:14:53.429 --> 00:14:56.589
that this xenophobia springs
up in California history.

00:14:58.229 --> 00:15:02.110
Americans are remembering
with vengeance in their heart.

00:15:03.370 --> 00:15:08.310
When conspiracy theories and
alternative facts holds way over

00:15:08.350 --> 00:15:09.183
the real ones,

00:15:10.090 --> 00:15:14.790
then a society can descend into a very
dark place where neither facts matter,

00:15:15.390 --> 00:15:19.530
the law doesn't matter, nor the
Constitution. And at that point,

00:15:20.170 --> 00:15:23.870
not only do people suffer, in
this case, Japanese Americans,

00:15:24.490 --> 00:15:26.280
but democracy itself is imperiled.

00:15:27.960 --> 00:15:31.920
The restrictions start actually in
January and they begin to tighten.

00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.200
They tighten their bank accounts, they
tighten, they collect all the radios,

00:15:37.230 --> 00:15:38.910
but they did that actually for
the Italians and the Germans too.

00:15:40.400 --> 00:15:42.000
A lot of prejudice in those days.

00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:48.680
Italians got a lot of prejudice.
Germans, there was a lot of prejudice.

00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:54.400
Japanese. The worst
probably. It was hysteria.

00:15:55.380 --> 00:15:57.440
But especially in time of war.

00:16:01.720 --> 00:16:04.480
There's no ceiling to human hate.

00:16:05.800 --> 00:16:10.280
The FBI had been targeting these
people long before the war started.

00:16:10.760 --> 00:16:15.400
They were looking for leaders in the
Japanese community, the Italian community,

00:16:15.560 --> 00:16:16.640
and the German community.

00:16:18.440 --> 00:16:21.080
15 Individuals, men, all,

00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:27.280
were in fact arrested in the
morning hours and taken away by

00:16:27.400 --> 00:16:28.233
the FBI.

00:16:28.880 --> 00:16:33.480
This happened in several local
communities up and down the West Coast.

00:16:34.920 --> 00:16:35.753
Well,

00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:40.800
I was at school and I came home
and my mother and my older sister

00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:45.600
were standing at the door waiting
for me. I said, "What happened?" "Oh,

00:16:45.720 --> 00:16:49.720
they took dad away. "And then
it came out in the paper.

00:16:49.880 --> 00:16:54.680
There were about 12 or 15 of
the Japanese community leaders

00:16:55.600 --> 00:16:59.120
that were taken to a place
in San Francisco, Shark Park.

00:17:01.720 --> 00:17:06.600
I spent 30 years talking to people
who were here during this period,

00:17:06.760 --> 00:17:10.560
during that period from December
7th to about the 1st of May.

00:17:10.920 --> 00:17:15.200
And what I was curious about
was, what the hell were you?

00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:17.640
Where were you

00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:23.920
when this thing started to round
up the very people that you knew,

00:17:24.751 --> 00:17:27.431
the people that you were your neighbors?

00:17:29.631 --> 00:17:30.671
Why didn't you say something?

00:17:32.311 --> 00:17:36.331
You were disappointed, you
know? You born and raised there,

00:17:36.391 --> 00:17:37.951
and then all of a sudden they dragged.

00:17:37.971 --> 00:17:38.804
Your father.

00:17:41.871 --> 00:17:46.531
The first Japanese American arrested
was a friend of mine named Tommy

00:17:46.631 --> 00:17:49.891
Catatani. They came at
him with full force.

00:17:50.871 --> 00:17:54.772
They threatened his loved ones.
They threatened the community,

00:17:54.912 --> 00:17:59.912
and I think that's an important
reason why people accepted this.

00:18:01.552 --> 00:18:04.972
It's a lot more complex if you think
they should have rebelled early on.

00:18:07.472 --> 00:18:12.432
Executive Order 9066
was issued on February

00:18:12.432 --> 00:18:14.000
19, 1942,

00:18:15.032 --> 00:18:18.212
by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

00:18:19.052 --> 00:18:22.392
What it did was establish
the Western Defense Command,

00:18:22.752 --> 00:18:27.072
which was authorized to create
military zones of exclusion

00:18:27.432 --> 00:18:32.160
leading up to the forced
removal of 120,000

00:18:32.492 --> 00:18:33.912
Japanese on the West Coast.

00:18:36.032 --> 00:18:38.120
Tuesday, April 28th, 1942.

00:18:38.812 --> 00:18:42.432
Instructions to all persons of Japanese.

00:18:43.092 --> 00:18:47.192
All persons of Japanese ancestry,
both alien and non-allien.

00:18:47.492 --> 00:18:51.400
Both alien and non-alien
would be evacuated from the
above area by 12 o'clock

00:18:51.440 --> 00:18:52.273
noon.

00:18:53.312 --> 00:18:57.872
President Roosevelt decided that the
best thing to do would be to gather

00:18:58.672 --> 00:19:03.452
all the Japanese along the
coast and take them away

00:19:03.712 --> 00:19:06.892
so that they would not
be giving information.

00:19:06.952 --> 00:19:09.652
This was our view of what was happening.

00:19:10.692 --> 00:19:14.032
People sitting in grammar
school, half the school,

00:19:14.192 --> 00:19:16.072
half the class was gone the next day.

00:19:20.912 --> 00:19:25.813
What is the legality of rounding
people out on the naked accusation of

00:19:25.832 --> 00:19:29.973
the military alone that you're
dangerous without trial,

00:19:30.593 --> 00:19:33.513
without evidence, without
any due process of any kind?

00:19:34.653 --> 00:19:38.313
This is something the government said
they wanted to do and they had to do,

00:19:38.493 --> 00:19:41.533
and that was the word
they used, was internment.

00:19:41.893 --> 00:19:43.553
It was a gentler word.

00:19:45.013 --> 00:19:49.293
They invented a whole language
to justify that process,

00:19:49.453 --> 00:19:53.853
whether it was evacuation or
relocation or internment. Yeah,

00:19:53.973 --> 00:19:58.653
I think we're struggling to find a
description of what America did to its own

00:19:58.713 --> 00:19:59.546
people.

00:20:00.813 --> 00:20:05.513
There's words that have been used
to soften it to such a point that it

00:20:05.573 --> 00:20:09.513
becomes meaningless. It's not an
evacuation. It's not a relocation.

00:20:10.453 --> 00:20:13.573
It is the removal of
person civil liberties.

00:20:14.933 --> 00:20:18.573
I think incarceration is a more accurate
way of portraying what happened.

00:20:19.433 --> 00:20:21.393
The public really had no choice.

00:20:21.953 --> 00:20:26.373
You can't stop the US government
doing things like that.

00:20:27.093 --> 00:20:28.873
They'll shoot you. This.

00:20:28.993 --> 00:20:31.733
Just didn't happen in the
United States. In Canada,

00:20:32.373 --> 00:20:36.693
they made a move against Japanese
and Italians. They did it in Mexico.

00:20:37.793 --> 00:20:39.973
They were being taken away,

00:20:40.873 --> 00:20:43.493
leaving all of their possessions behind.

00:20:44.053 --> 00:20:48.733
It was very scary for us to
think that we could do that to

00:20:48.833 --> 00:20:49.666
them.

00:20:50.293 --> 00:20:55.014
How could right-minded people
allow this to happen? I mean,

00:20:55.513 --> 00:20:57.734
the government's basically
stupid. We know that.

00:20:58.194 --> 00:21:02.774
Fortunately, we now know because
of Freedom of Information Act,

00:21:02.834 --> 00:21:05.274
that it was a great deal
more sinister than that.

00:21:06.474 --> 00:21:08.514
There was no reason to do this Roundup.

00:21:09.634 --> 00:21:13.954
That the incarceration result of very
highly educated people intentionally

00:21:14.314 --> 00:21:16.374
suppressing facts, evidence,

00:21:16.574 --> 00:21:21.334
intelligence reports in order to
achieve a political end that would

00:21:21.374 --> 00:21:25.314
benefit them, even if it meant
lying to the US Supreme Court.

00:21:26.414 --> 00:21:30.654
That's a very different story than
saying that the Japanese-American

00:21:30.694 --> 00:21:32.914
incarceration was a result of stupidity.

00:21:37.234 --> 00:21:41.714
And we were given
approximately, if I recall,

00:21:41.874 --> 00:21:45.934
five or six days to pack
up, sell dad's business,

00:21:47.054 --> 00:21:51.114
and be ready to report to one of

00:21:52.110 --> 00:21:55.794
1617 so- called assembly centers,

00:21:55.894 --> 00:21:58.814
which were really detention centers.

00:22:01.994 --> 00:22:04.674
My father, he received
his diploma from Berkeley,

00:22:05.114 --> 00:22:08.634
mailed to him while he was
being held in a horse stall.

00:22:09.994 --> 00:22:13.214
My father's family and
my mother's family too,

00:22:14.594 --> 00:22:18.674
almost 8,000 Japanese Americans were
put in Tanforan Assembly Center.

00:22:19.194 --> 00:22:22.514
That was a horse track converted
into a temporary detention camp.

00:22:24.674 --> 00:22:28.215
Men, women, and children
were put in horse stalls,

00:22:28.575 --> 00:22:32.135
which is the naked light
bulb, no heat, no hot water.

00:22:35.275 --> 00:22:38.955
It was kind of scary
thinking where would we go?

00:22:41.595 --> 00:22:46.435
All the Japanese American Japanese of
ancestry were herded up and put into

00:22:46.495 --> 00:22:49.575
camps. And one of the camps was in Poston,

00:22:49.675 --> 00:22:51.855
Arizona in the middle
of the Arizona desert.

00:22:53.495 --> 00:22:54.875
There were thousands of us there.

00:23:03.115 --> 00:23:07.675
A typical barrack was 20
feet wide and 120 feet long.

00:23:08.175 --> 00:23:09.475
By being a family of six,

00:23:10.115 --> 00:23:13.240
we got a room that was 24 by 20.

00:23:16.240 --> 00:23:17.375
They all suffered.

00:23:18.535 --> 00:23:22.755
Some of them were beaten pretty
badly by the guards. Of course,

00:23:22.855 --> 00:23:26.655
they had kids that died at Pearl
Arbor or something like that.

00:23:29.775 --> 00:23:33.275
There's a few instances of people who
walked too close to the wire and were shot

00:23:33.335 --> 00:23:34.168
dead.

00:23:35.255 --> 00:23:38.375
And I spent my sophomore,
junior and senior year there.

00:23:40.035 --> 00:23:42.675
Well, we wrote letters
every day to Washington.

00:23:43.755 --> 00:23:46.315
Please release my dad.

00:23:47.035 --> 00:23:50.755
And so they finally did let
us join them in Crystal City.

00:23:51.955 --> 00:23:53.075
And it was a family camp.

00:23:53.135 --> 00:23:57.656
There were about maybe
about 3000 of us families,

00:23:58.236 --> 00:23:59.676
fathers and mothers and kids.

00:24:02.936 --> 00:24:04.000
The beginning of 1943,

00:24:04.836 --> 00:24:08.056
people began to get drafted out of
those camps to serve in the US Army.

00:24:08.156 --> 00:24:09.216
My father was drafted.

00:24:10.856 --> 00:24:15.296
The Americanism of the great majority
of America's Japanese finds its highest

00:24:15.336 --> 00:24:17.936
expression in the thousands who
were in the United States Army.

00:24:18.456 --> 00:24:21.576
Almost half of them are in a
Japanese American combat team.

00:24:22.156 --> 00:24:23.916
Some of the volunteers came from Hawaii.

00:24:24.676 --> 00:24:27.476
Hundreds of them volunteered while
they were in relocation center.

00:24:28.616 --> 00:24:33.116
Volunteers out of camp.
About 1200 out of the camps,

00:24:33.276 --> 00:24:37.296
young men. That formed the 442nd,

00:24:37.376 --> 00:24:42.276
which went on to fight heroically
and in the European theater in Italy,

00:24:42.536 --> 00:24:43.476
all the way up to Germany,

00:24:44.516 --> 00:24:49.136
which incidentally turned out to
be the most decorated military

00:24:49.316 --> 00:24:51.916
unit in all of American military history.

00:24:53.576 --> 00:24:56.896
And my husband was in the 442nd. Yes,

00:24:56.956 --> 00:25:01.856
he was the first sergeant of
service company. He didn't
talk about it very much.

00:25:02.516 --> 00:25:03.349
No. No.

00:25:04.876 --> 00:25:08.416
He was in Europe fighting
in France and Italy.

00:25:09.776 --> 00:25:12.496
And his parents are in camp like that.

00:25:15.596 --> 00:25:18.296
And that's where we stayed for
three years during the war.

00:25:30.217 --> 00:25:33.577
Is there anything left
of the old Japan town?

00:25:35.177 --> 00:25:40.037
A few homes, residential
homes, and the JCL Hall.

00:25:44.517 --> 00:25:47.200
So we knew there had been this
petition drive in May of 1945,

00:25:47.837 --> 00:25:49.717
but we never knew that the
petition still existed.

00:25:49.837 --> 00:25:52.757
We didn't even think about it. We
just assumed they were long gone.

00:25:55.797 --> 00:25:58.557
August of 2013, the young woman,

00:25:58.617 --> 00:26:02.997
a high school kid we brought in to help
upstairs to clean up some of the drawers

00:26:03.037 --> 00:26:03.870
upstairs.

00:26:06.317 --> 00:26:10.557
And she actually ran across an old 16
millimeter film and the drawer there.

00:26:13.117 --> 00:26:17.257
A film that was shot about 1938 that
shows the Japanese community here in

00:26:17.297 --> 00:26:19.817
Monterey playing baseball
down the wharf, having fun.

00:26:23.297 --> 00:26:26.957
So I began to slip through the drawers
and I could see some blue things hanging

00:26:26.977 --> 00:26:29.397
out of it. And I thought it
initially it looked like blueprints,

00:26:29.477 --> 00:26:33.920
so I pulled them out of the envelope
probably the first time since 1945,

00:26:34.437 --> 00:26:38.777
and I unrolled them and I saw
what they were and holy macro.

00:26:39.617 --> 00:26:43.657
I realized how important they were and
how they tied all the story together.

00:26:44.917 --> 00:26:48.297
And I first heard about it from
Tim. He sent me an email and said,

00:26:48.357 --> 00:26:49.457
You never guessed what I found.

00:26:51.197 --> 00:26:55.978
The petition in Monterey was a
direct response to an advertisement

00:26:56.737 --> 00:26:59.138
taken by a group in Salinas.

00:26:59.918 --> 00:27:03.478
And it was essentially an organization
to stop the Japanese from coming back to

00:27:03.518 --> 00:27:04.351
the West Coast.

00:27:04.598 --> 00:27:07.038
There was just one name attached to it,

00:27:07.558 --> 00:27:10.858
and it was the Monterey Bay
Council on Japanese relations.

00:27:11.158 --> 00:27:12.578
We tracked down who that was.

00:27:12.958 --> 00:27:13.818
Edward Seaford,

00:27:14.378 --> 00:27:18.358
who I believe was a lawyer and worked
for an organization called the Salinas,

00:27:19.058 --> 00:27:21.878
a Valley Grower Shippers Association.

00:27:22.258 --> 00:27:23.598
He was very powerful.

00:27:24.378 --> 00:27:29.238
He was very well funded
and he had control of the

00:27:29.278 --> 00:27:31.638
grower's community throughout the valley.

00:27:33.038 --> 00:27:37.718
Seaford's anti-Japanese activities
stretched back to the 1930s.

00:27:38.378 --> 00:27:42.498
The Japanese were targeted here
almost as soon as they arrived.

00:27:43.418 --> 00:27:47.398
They threatened the power structure
of California agriculture.

00:27:48.878 --> 00:27:53.458
A lot of the anti-Japanese
stuff is economic.

00:27:54.378 --> 00:27:55.211
It's competition.

00:27:56.098 --> 00:28:01.098
I think that there was an advantage
to some of the farmers in the

00:28:01.198 --> 00:28:05.658
Salinas Valley, especially of not
wanting the Japanese to come back.

00:28:06.818 --> 00:28:10.858
They were very hard workers and
very successful. In other words,

00:28:10.918 --> 00:28:12.378
they were rising competitors.

00:28:13.358 --> 00:28:17.478
And when you get too close to
taking away my business and job,

00:28:18.058 --> 00:28:20.058
I'm going to find a way to push it back.

00:28:20.698 --> 00:28:23.389
But, but, but you also ...

00:28:24.598 --> 00:28:26.278
There's the element of race there.

00:28:26.819 --> 00:28:27.899
They go hand in hand,

00:28:27.958 --> 00:28:32.919
and I use this metaphor because one
doesn't exist without the other.

00:28:36.039 --> 00:28:37.160
In 1942,

00:28:38.539 --> 00:28:43.119
a representative of the Salinas
Valley Growers Association was

00:28:43.199 --> 00:28:45.099
interviewed in the Saturday Evening Post.

00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:51.699
He finally just says it. We
don't want to compete with him.

00:28:52.599 --> 00:28:56.299
We don't want him to come
back. He just says it flat out.

00:28:57.619 --> 00:28:58.459
We don't want him to come back.

00:28:59.499 --> 00:29:02.779
You want this coast for
white people or brown people?

00:29:04.219 --> 00:29:07.760
All the standard racist stuff
that had been going on since 1905.

00:29:11.179 --> 00:29:15.359
The ad that appeared in the Herald was
unsigned. And from my point of view,

00:29:15.779 --> 00:29:17.819
that's about as gutless as it gets.

00:29:18.919 --> 00:29:23.599
The anonymity of it sort
of reeked of what was

00:29:23.679 --> 00:29:28.519
going on over in Germany. People in
the community of Monterey were shocked,

00:29:29.459 --> 00:29:32.419
and they took that initial
shock and took it into action.

00:29:34.659 --> 00:29:37.279
If you go through the heral,
the ad comes out first,

00:29:38.079 --> 00:29:40.079
and then the next day,

00:29:41.219 --> 00:29:45.199
the rebuttal letters start,
these individual letters.

00:29:46.819 --> 00:29:50.459
Kariss Wilson Weston,
Tony Ricketts is in there,

00:29:52.359 --> 00:29:56.560
and then there's Mrs. Sumita's
wonderful letter that comes out of

00:29:57.360 --> 00:29:58.193
camp.

00:30:00.200 --> 00:30:04.400
I am an American citizen of Japanese
ancestry and formerly a resident of

00:30:04.460 --> 00:30:09.360
Monterey. At present, I'm in a
relocation camp in Poston, Arizona,

00:30:09.980 --> 00:30:13.600
where at one time over 20,000
Japanese made their homes.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.160
Last week when I received
my issue of the Herald,

00:30:17.340 --> 00:30:20.040
I was quite hurt to read
the large ad in the paper,

00:30:21.220 --> 00:30:24.240
"To discourage the return of
the Japanese to the West Coast."

00:30:28.120 --> 00:30:30.320
My husband is fighting in Italy now,

00:30:30.420 --> 00:30:32.640
along with hundreds of
other Nisei soldiers.

00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:37.540
Fighting for what he believes is
right, the American way of life.

00:30:39.780 --> 00:30:41.140
Someday when the war is over,

00:30:42.440 --> 00:30:45.200
we hope to return to
Monterey with our little son.

00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:50.200
I want to thank the people of Monterey
who wrote to the Herald to defend us.

00:30:51.460 --> 00:30:54.280
I know as long as there are people
like that left in this country,

00:30:56.040 --> 00:31:00.520
while the Nisei boys did not die in vain,
and what they fought for will delawn.

00:31:01.100 --> 00:31:03.300
Respectfully, yours, Mrs. Yukosamita.

00:31:09.660 --> 00:31:13.580
And so this group of sort of
forward-thinking citizens said, "No,

00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:16.320
these are American citizens.
They were born here.

00:31:16.820 --> 00:31:18.620
They have as much right
to be here as we do.

00:31:19.040 --> 00:31:22.500
" Okay. Specifically Tony Ricketts,

00:31:23.120 --> 00:31:27.680
Edward Ricketts. And I saw
Steinbeck in here someplace.

00:31:29.440 --> 00:31:31.220
John Steinbeck signed this?

00:31:31.300 --> 00:31:35.160
I go to Salinas High School and John
Steinbeck went to school there. Yep,

00:31:35.220 --> 00:31:39.700
so of course I know who he is. I've read
the red pony, I think. Grapes of wrath.

00:31:39.760 --> 00:31:42.900
Good stuff. Heck yeah.
Steinbeck, you rule.

00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:47.580
Literature that he wrote,
predicament of ordinary people,

00:31:47.740 --> 00:31:51.920
caught under circumstances and
out of their control, victimized.

00:31:52.520 --> 00:31:56.280
In that sense, it doesn't surprise me,
but this is quite a historical document.

00:31:56.820 --> 00:31:59.280
The canning season was
a very, very lively,

00:31:59.820 --> 00:32:04.660
very noisy and stinkt, very bad smell.

00:32:09.160 --> 00:32:13.100
I'm Ed Ricketts Jr. My
father was Ed Ricketts Sr.

00:32:14.400 --> 00:32:18.400
And he lived at what they call
the lab on Canterbury Road.

00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:20.993
Ed was, of course,

00:32:21.100 --> 00:32:24.560
a well-known famous marine biologist made
famous really by John Steinbeck in the

00:32:24.580 --> 00:32:25.880
books Cantera once we Thursday.

00:32:27.340 --> 00:32:30.460
There were three houses of
prostitution on Canterbury Road.

00:32:31.580 --> 00:32:35.880
The lab was right smack across
the street from the biggest one.

00:32:37.600 --> 00:32:42.080
My dad had an awful lot of friends. They
were older than I, but younger than he.

00:32:44.040 --> 00:32:48.001
I know they had this whole kind
of artist colony, Henry Miller,

00:32:48.441 --> 00:32:49.741
Steinbeck and all these people.

00:32:49.801 --> 00:32:52.601
I've just imagined their lives
must have been fascinating lives.

00:32:53.281 --> 00:32:56.581
I did know that Doc was
characterized after Ed Ricketts.

00:32:57.881 --> 00:33:00.901
Everything is based a
little bit on a truth,

00:33:01.821 --> 00:33:05.721
but John was able to exaggerate
an awful lot of things.

00:33:06.521 --> 00:33:10.561
Physically, they were opposites.
John was a big monster.

00:33:11.881 --> 00:33:13.641
Dad was a little short guy.

00:33:14.461 --> 00:33:17.221
And God bless Ed Ricketts.

00:33:17.541 --> 00:33:22.321
Ed Ricketts wrote a letter to the
Monterey Herald in which he compared

00:33:22.941 --> 00:33:26.241
this movement in Salinas to
what was going on in Germany,

00:33:26.721 --> 00:33:31.441
and he referred to it specifically
as a form of Hitlerism and

00:33:31.521 --> 00:33:32.354
fascism.

00:33:33.081 --> 00:33:35.801
So Tony Ricketts and Tony Jackson
are actually the same person.

00:33:36.601 --> 00:33:39.701
Tony Jackson was the girlfriend
of Ed Ricketts at that time.

00:33:40.141 --> 00:33:43.721
But if you look at the petition, she
actually signs it as Tony Ricketts.

00:33:47.241 --> 00:33:51.601
Tony was concerned about the
treatment of the Japanese

00:33:52.121 --> 00:33:54.781
World War II. Tony didn't like it.

00:33:55.581 --> 00:33:59.401
And so she was giving speeches
in favor of the Japanese people.

00:34:00.481 --> 00:34:03.201
She was the one, I guess,
who started all this.

00:34:04.361 --> 00:34:08.521
It's just the kind of thing that I
could imagine my mom saying, "Well, why?

00:34:08.581 --> 00:34:08.800
Well,

00:34:08.800 --> 00:34:13.381
let's get a petition going and let's
knock on doors and let's let people know.

00:34:13.800 --> 00:34:17.941
" Because in her faith of
humanity and the fundamental good,

00:34:18.761 --> 00:34:21.261
she would assume that if people
really understood what was going on,

00:34:21.401 --> 00:34:23.681
they would see the light and
they would join the movement.

00:34:24.381 --> 00:34:29.181
These families have made their homes
here for many years and have been part of

00:34:29.221 --> 00:34:32.321
the life of our community.

00:34:32.401 --> 00:34:37.361
I know that this is the typewriter
that was used by dad with a small

00:34:37.681 --> 00:34:40.001
print, Elite, not Pica.

00:34:41.121 --> 00:34:44.481
It was typed and supposed by Tony.

00:34:45.601 --> 00:34:47.601
She was the fastest
typist in Edwick's lap.

00:34:47.661 --> 00:34:50.741
She was probably the fastest typist
in Monterey. I can now hear this.

00:34:51.001 --> 00:34:53.021
This is ding.

00:34:55.360 --> 00:34:59.601
I was able to interview Nancy Costello
who actually signed the petition and he

00:34:59.621 --> 00:35:01.721
was actually an organizer of that group.

00:35:02.321 --> 00:35:05.241
And she told me that with
this outrage in shock,

00:35:05.721 --> 00:35:10.541
they wanted to mobilize and to
respond as an interracial community

00:35:11.041 --> 00:35:12.761
to this racism from Salinas.

00:35:14.421 --> 00:35:19.401
What they decided to do was
create team leaders to hand out

00:35:19.421 --> 00:35:22.461
the petitions. If you look
on the top of the petitions,

00:35:22.561 --> 00:35:25.001
you can see who actually
carried them around,

00:35:25.061 --> 00:35:29.381
and they came from different quarters
in the community. Nancy took one,

00:35:29.761 --> 00:35:31.262
Tony Ricketts took one.

00:35:32.482 --> 00:35:35.842
I think they just went down the street
and whoever they ran across in the

00:35:35.882 --> 00:35:38.282
neighborhood, I stood in the corner
and said, "Hey, can you sign this.

00:35:40.410 --> 00:35:42.582
Petition?" Tony Ricketts, of course.

00:35:43.922 --> 00:35:46.222
She takes that to her friend.

00:35:47.022 --> 00:35:49.122
And I can look at the one, for example,

00:35:49.202 --> 00:35:51.682
that was signed by Ed
Ricketts and John Steinbeck.

00:35:51.840 --> 00:35:54.682
I could look at that and I could
tell exactly where they were.

00:36:00.582 --> 00:36:03.802
Everyone around there, everyone loved
their people and they were shipped out.

00:36:04.242 --> 00:36:08.562
A great big family of
Japanese. Miami Amoto,

00:36:08.702 --> 00:36:11.342
I used to go to school with
him. It was a dirty trick.

00:36:11.982 --> 00:36:13.862
So of course my dad was angry.

00:36:14.062 --> 00:36:16.562
He could have signed a
thing like that right away.

00:36:17.762 --> 00:36:22.702
I suspect that it was Tony Ricketts
who took the petition and brought

00:36:22.722 --> 00:36:27.702
it to Robinson and Una
Jeffers in Carmel and

00:36:27.762 --> 00:36:29.482
also the Weston Clan.

00:36:29.542 --> 00:36:33.122
They were all part of the artist colony
down there at the time because she was

00:36:33.202 --> 00:36:37.142
writing for a literary magazine at
the time that a lot of the Carmel

00:36:37.762 --> 00:36:40.482
artisans were writing in
and contributing artwork to.

00:36:47.962 --> 00:36:51.922
Jefferson was a very
important poet to my dad.

00:36:53.902 --> 00:36:56.662
Very, very important. I don't
think they knew each other.

00:36:57.762 --> 00:36:59.582
They were both people of great compassion,

00:37:00.202 --> 00:37:04.462
so it's not surprising that they signed
the letter, but at the same time,

00:37:04.542 --> 00:37:08.062
it is surprising. So it's
one of those kind of enigmas.

00:37:08.702 --> 00:37:10.982
And when I think of Jeffers,
I've been thinking about it,

00:37:11.202 --> 00:37:16.182
and the only thing that comes to mind
is a line from his poem, The Answer,

00:37:16.682 --> 00:37:19.082
where he says, "To
maintain one's integrity,

00:37:19.742 --> 00:37:23.382
be merciful and uncorrupted
and not wish for

00:37:24.500 --> 00:37:28.622
evil." And if that's the
way he understood integrity,

00:37:29.162 --> 00:37:33.942
then the signing of this
document certainly fits in
and explains it, I think.

00:37:35.642 --> 00:37:37.742
Read that petition
carefully, because to me,

00:37:39.002 --> 00:37:43.600
it's a wonderful testimony to the 442nd

00:37:43.680 --> 00:37:46.760
Regimental Combat Team. It doesn't say,

00:37:47.120 --> 00:37:51.640
"We believe the camps were a mistake."
That's not what it says. It says,

00:37:52.080 --> 00:37:56.240
"We joined the Department
of Defense in welcoming.

00:37:56.940 --> 00:38:00.880
Back." The war department believes that
the people of the Pacific Coast area

00:38:01.040 --> 00:38:05.720
will accord returning persons of Japanese
ancestry all the considerations to

00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:07.200
which they are entitled.

00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:12.480
It hitches their wagon to the
government, which is very smart.

00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:15.640
And I think at the time,

00:38:15.960 --> 00:38:17.960
I don't see any other way
they could have done it.

00:38:19.040 --> 00:38:22.440
The war's not over when this
petition is going around.

00:38:23.600 --> 00:38:28.440
California, South America,
Brooklyn, Europe, whole world.

00:38:33.400 --> 00:38:35.960
The government is continuing
to keep connected.

00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:39.640
All of the caricatures of the Japanese
military that you see in the press and

00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:40.880
the posters and everything.

00:38:42.840 --> 00:38:44.960
You want people to subscribe to war bonds?

00:38:45.040 --> 00:38:47.760
You want people to continue to
volunteer to go in the army.

00:38:48.520 --> 00:38:52.720
We got some really serious stuff going
on in the Pacific. Bloody, messy,

00:38:53.080 --> 00:38:56.480
awful stuff. We got Iwo Jima, Okinawa.

00:38:57.640 --> 00:39:01.880
People's kids are being shipped
home, dead, right, from the Pacific,

00:39:03.640 --> 00:39:04.560
but it isn't easy.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:10.000
I can't imagine going door to door in
Salinas trying to convince the good

00:39:10.040 --> 00:39:14.560
people of Salinas that their son
was just killed in the Philippines

00:39:15.280 --> 00:39:18.240
by Japanese people who had nothing
to do with the strawberry grower.

00:39:18.640 --> 00:39:21.560
I think they were afraid. I think
they're afraid of what would happen,

00:39:22.600 --> 00:39:25.560
how they would be treated by their
neighbors, by the people they work with.

00:39:25.880 --> 00:39:28.640
I think there was a lot of fear
about it. Fear of retaliation,

00:39:29.240 --> 00:39:34.120
fear of why you supporting these
Japanese folks who were coming back

00:39:34.240 --> 00:39:35.560
and they were our entities.

00:39:36.680 --> 00:39:38.680
I'm sure they got a lot of
doors slammed on their face.

00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:43.200
I'm not signing nothing for
no dirty cap. Go to hell.

00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:48.680
For me, that makes it even braver for
these folks who did sign this petition.

00:39:49.400 --> 00:39:49.720
Yeah.

00:39:49.720 --> 00:39:52.000
I think that they had both

00:39:53.760 --> 00:39:58.760
compassion and courage to do this because
I'm sure they had friends that were

00:39:58.840 --> 00:39:59.673
really against it.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:03.640
Wouldn't it be nice if you could
talk to all the people who signed is

00:40:05.063 --> 00:40:06.623
why? Why'd you do this?

00:40:09.563 --> 00:40:11.843
What gave you the courage to do this?

00:40:12.823 --> 00:40:17.683
And then what we do is we bottle
that and we spread it around the

00:40:17.703 --> 00:40:18.536
country.

00:40:19.663 --> 00:40:24.603
I suspect that each one of these
person had a good reason for wanting to

00:40:24.683 --> 00:40:25.763
sign this.

00:40:25.963 --> 00:40:30.603
I think the reason so many people signed
it is that the Japanese were very much

00:40:30.723 --> 00:40:32.343
integrated into the community.

00:40:32.523 --> 00:40:37.123
I've been to Manzanar
and that's a dreadful

00:40:37.223 --> 00:40:38.056
place.

00:40:38.243 --> 00:40:43.063
I think my dad signed it because he really
honestly believed very strongly that

00:40:43.143 --> 00:40:44.203
what had happened was wrong.

00:40:44.843 --> 00:40:48.883
Going back to this childhood when
he experienced prejudice himself,

00:40:49.763 --> 00:40:52.403
he really felt that there
had been an injustice done.

00:40:53.063 --> 00:40:55.040
I think it had a very
strong impact on him.

00:40:56.583 --> 00:41:00.923
Yeah, I recognize the
signature. He loved people,

00:41:02.063 --> 00:41:06.124
and I think that his
feeling was probably, "Well,

00:41:06.184 --> 00:41:08.644
we were at war with the country of Japan,

00:41:08.764 --> 00:41:11.904
but that doesn't mean we were at
war with all Japanese people. ".

00:41:13.584 --> 00:41:18.144
We know there were maybe 15 or 16 of
these petitions where they were passed all

00:41:18.164 --> 00:41:20.924
around the whole entire Monte
Peninsula, gathering signatures,

00:41:20.984 --> 00:41:23.124
not just from famous people,
but from all the local,

00:41:23.324 --> 00:41:24.784
anybody who would sign these petitions.

00:41:25.104 --> 00:41:28.400
And that resulted in an ad that
appeared in the Herald in May of 1945.

00:41:29.104 --> 00:41:32.384
This is the only place on the
West Coast where this happened.

00:41:34.504 --> 00:41:35.404
We, the undersigned,

00:41:35.524 --> 00:41:39.384
then believe it is the privilege and
responsibility of this community to

00:41:39.444 --> 00:41:43.664
cooperate with the national government
by ensuring the democratic way of life to

00:41:43.884 --> 00:41:45.164
all members of the community.

00:41:46.564 --> 00:41:51.384
And the newspaper was very influential
on anything that was in this

00:41:51.464 --> 00:41:53.084
area. Everybody read The Herald.

00:41:54.484 --> 00:41:56.544
People didn't put their lives to
us in Jeopardy to sign a petition.

00:41:56.680 --> 00:41:59.624
I don't think, but they certainly put
their professional lives in jeopardy.

00:42:00.564 --> 00:42:01.924
A young woman contacted me.

00:42:02.204 --> 00:42:04.484
She said she recognized her
mother's signature on there,

00:42:04.564 --> 00:42:08.544
and she told me her mother was about 18
at the time and was working at the Hogan

00:42:08.624 --> 00:42:11.804
Sergeant Canada, the Maui Akramis
today. She's an Italian woman.

00:42:11.864 --> 00:42:12.844
Her name was DiMaggio.

00:42:13.624 --> 00:42:15.824
She was very strong in her own opinion.

00:42:16.084 --> 00:42:20.284
Didn't really brag about signing that
because she needed the money to go help

00:42:20.344 --> 00:42:21.177
the family.

00:42:21.504 --> 00:42:24.384
And I was just blown away by that.
The fact that she signed this.

00:42:25.084 --> 00:42:29.164
Newthoven was, to put
a good way to say it,

00:42:29.224 --> 00:42:30.584
he was sort of a racious gentleman.

00:42:31.064 --> 00:42:34.864
And so it took a lot of guts on her
end to sign this and keep her job down

00:42:34.904 --> 00:42:36.564
there.

00:42:36.624 --> 00:42:36.884
Oh,

00:42:36.884 --> 00:42:40.644
I think if Mr. Hovedon had found out she
signed the petition and he had a sign

00:42:40.724 --> 00:42:44.704
saying, "Only white people touched
your fish," she would've been fired.

00:42:45.864 --> 00:42:47.264
What makes a person sign a petition?

00:42:48.104 --> 00:42:50.264
Sometimes that requires
a real act of courage,

00:42:50.344 --> 00:42:54.164
like in the case of Mary DiMaggio, but
it requires an act of stepping forward.

00:42:54.564 --> 00:42:58.704
And you step forward because you're
emotionally convinced of the stakes of the

00:42:58.724 --> 00:43:02.984
petition and you believe that if enough
people sign, it can make a difference.

00:43:03.384 --> 00:43:05.544
Once you get people to
think on those two things,

00:43:05.944 --> 00:43:08.464
if they're a yes on both of those,
they're going to sign your petition.

00:43:09.444 --> 00:43:13.384
Oh, this is ... Yeah, that's
my mother's signature.

00:43:14.904 --> 00:43:19.544
The reason she signed it is was
our close relationship with the

00:43:19.604 --> 00:43:20.564
Kadane family.

00:43:22.864 --> 00:43:24.624
When I was a senior in high school,

00:43:25.024 --> 00:43:29.104
they still required you
to memorize the preamble.

00:43:31.364 --> 00:43:35.224
And my father would sit with
me while I was memorizing it.

00:43:35.944 --> 00:43:36.777
He said to me,

00:43:37.384 --> 00:43:41.084
"Now you know the words
that make this country so

00:43:42.670 --> 00:43:44.164
great." That was my death.

00:43:45.324 --> 00:43:49.844
My mother was Democrat. She had been
a social worker before she married,

00:43:51.165 --> 00:43:54.285
had worked with the migrant
laborers in Salinas.

00:43:55.125 --> 00:43:59.365
My father was fairly
conservative. He was a Republican.

00:44:00.345 --> 00:44:03.405
He'd lost his sight when he
was at Stanford Law School,

00:44:04.225 --> 00:44:06.305
but I had never seen him as an activist.

00:44:07.885 --> 00:44:08.605
My father,

00:44:08.605 --> 00:44:13.265
he has a character in the pipe
dreams based on cannery row.

00:44:14.485 --> 00:44:15.880
But here on chapter 37,

00:44:16.325 --> 00:44:19.945
it opens up Dr. Horace
Dorminy hated night calls.

00:44:21.645 --> 00:44:24.825
It brings them back
right back into the room.

00:44:26.185 --> 00:44:30.625
Marie grew up in San Francisco was
a debutante and then did the big

00:44:30.725 --> 00:44:32.605
reverse and became a Bohemian,

00:44:34.605 --> 00:44:36.165
which happened in those days.

00:44:37.005 --> 00:44:41.005
Those 500 people that signed this back
in the 1940s certainly wouldn't have

00:44:41.045 --> 00:44:42.365
known that 80 years from now,

00:44:42.525 --> 00:44:46.705
it might be a teaching tool to
show other students, communities,

00:44:47.545 --> 00:44:51.105
the leaders on how to construct
a petition and make a difference.

00:44:51.605 --> 00:44:53.505
And that is so powerful.

00:44:53.565 --> 00:44:57.285
When I think about the people who will
read this and start their own petition,

00:44:57.765 --> 00:45:01.205
the things that they will change in
their own cities or states or countries,

00:45:01.845 --> 00:45:03.925
it's almost unfathomable.
It could be anything.

00:45:04.925 --> 00:45:09.585
I didn't know at the time, but he
was very special. He understood.

00:45:11.985 --> 00:45:15.585
He didn't take me out and play
catch with me, for instance,

00:45:15.685 --> 00:45:16.605
and we go and fishing.

00:45:16.825 --> 00:45:21.485
It was always talking and
always talking at the lab.

00:45:23.185 --> 00:45:25.345
It's more about being deeply moved.

00:45:25.965 --> 00:45:30.225
It takes courage to take a risk because
you're going against the grain for what

00:45:30.245 --> 00:45:34.445
has arrived. That's much
more than being proud. See,

00:45:34.545 --> 00:45:39.165
she fundamentally was a humanist believing
we're fundamentally good and there's

00:45:39.225 --> 00:45:42.545
other stuff that gets in
the way. I remember once,

00:45:43.185 --> 00:45:45.305
I think there was somebody
murdered somebody or something,

00:45:45.985 --> 00:45:48.345
and it was in the papers.
And I asked her, "Mom,

00:45:48.465 --> 00:45:51.805
why do people do something like that?
" Thinking they're evil, they're bad,

00:45:51.905 --> 00:45:54.405
they're horrible. And she said, "Oh no,

00:45:54.605 --> 00:45:56.785
it's that horrible things
must have happened to them.".

00:45:57.845 --> 00:46:02.185
I think the petition really
was a wonderful support

00:46:02.725 --> 00:46:06.145
for all of us who went through
what we had to do during the war.

00:46:07.625 --> 00:46:09.285
I think we appreciated that.

00:46:10.765 --> 00:46:13.925
We were sure happy to see
the welcoming back ad.

00:46:14.025 --> 00:46:18.165
That was a message really
saying, "We welcome you back.

00:46:19.065 --> 00:46:21.005
Feel safe as long as we are here.".

00:46:21.865 --> 00:46:26.705
And my mom said that she kept that
petition. It was in the Herald,

00:46:26.765 --> 00:46:29.005
right? So it meant a great deal to her.

00:46:30.185 --> 00:46:32.665
Oh, I was very grateful. In fact,

00:46:32.746 --> 00:46:37.185
we got together and put an ad in the paper

00:46:37.506 --> 00:46:39.745
thanking them for all
they had done for us.

00:46:45.240 --> 00:46:46.073
It was

00:46:47.686 --> 00:46:52.546
kind of a hard time to get
back to normal life again

00:46:52.626 --> 00:46:55.606
after spending three
years in a camp like that.

00:46:57.846 --> 00:47:00.366
There were anti-Japanese groups.

00:47:01.006 --> 00:47:04.446
Many of them worked very hard to say,

00:47:05.386 --> 00:47:06.219
"Don't come back.

00:47:07.546 --> 00:47:11.346
We don't want Japs back
in our community.".

00:47:12.186 --> 00:47:16.986
There's always people that
hate people. Yeah. Yeah.

00:47:19.246 --> 00:47:23.826
Approximately 30 cases of violence

00:47:24.226 --> 00:47:27.026
directed against Japanese
living in California.

00:47:27.666 --> 00:47:32.506
So you can imagine as these
stories start buzzing around the

00:47:32.566 --> 00:47:36.246
camps, parents are going to
say, "Do I want to go back?

00:47:38.306 --> 00:47:43.066
Do I really feel safe and
secure? Will I have a job?

00:47:43.406 --> 00:47:44.239
Will our home be.

00:47:45.630 --> 00:47:49.846
There?" The personal loss
that people suffered,

00:47:50.606 --> 00:47:51.846
the family losses.

00:47:52.306 --> 00:47:56.446
The economy really is affected by these
concentration camps because number one,

00:47:56.506 --> 00:48:00.626
that they had to sell all their
businesses pretty much for pending on the

00:48:00.666 --> 00:48:04.086
dollar. If they were lucky,
someone would maintain it for them.

00:48:05.066 --> 00:48:07.806
As California, for example,
prior to World War II,

00:48:07.866 --> 00:48:11.466
there were literally hundreds of
Japanese fishing boats. After War II,

00:48:11.526 --> 00:48:14.186
you can count on one hand
how many own fishing boats.

00:48:15.926 --> 00:48:20.626
Economic greed is such an important factor

00:48:20.946 --> 00:48:24.086
in determining shaping human behavior.

00:48:26.286 --> 00:48:30.806
Approximately 70% of the people who were

00:48:31.206 --> 00:48:32.566
forcibly removed,

00:48:33.060 --> 00:48:37.866
70% of that 120,000 came
back to the West Coast

00:48:37.946 --> 00:48:41.446
eventually. Farmland, real property,

00:48:41.866 --> 00:48:46.446
and business property. $3 billion.

00:48:48.986 --> 00:48:49.826
That's what they lost.

00:48:51.206 --> 00:48:55.486
Dad was Virginia partner and worth about

00:48:56.400 --> 00:48:59.360
$235,000 in 1942,

00:49:01.486 --> 00:49:03.606
and they got $15,000 back.

00:49:05.686 --> 00:49:08.566
And of course, the people
who run this country

00:49:10.586 --> 00:49:14.026
needs to understand what causes
things like that to happen.

00:49:15.587 --> 00:49:20.587
And we were one of the victims
of what happened during World

00:49:20.607 --> 00:49:23.366
War II. We were there for three years.

00:49:28.147 --> 00:49:31.467
He was the man of few
words. He didn't say much,

00:49:32.207 --> 00:49:37.087
but he was in the 442. There was a lot.

00:49:37.147 --> 00:49:41.467
I mean, he didn't talk about what
happened at all really to us. Very little.

00:49:42.687 --> 00:49:45.847
I think he just put that way
in a little box for 50 years.

00:49:49.987 --> 00:49:54.587
Many Isai Nisei parents did
not talk about camp life

00:49:55.007 --> 00:49:55.840
with their kids.

00:49:57.887 --> 00:50:02.887
Kids are pretty smart.
They pick up on cues,

00:50:04.347 --> 00:50:05.877
and I could see the ...

00:50:10.687 --> 00:50:11.520
Almost ...

00:50:13.447 --> 00:50:16.647
It's like life energy
being sapped out of him.

00:50:23.307 --> 00:50:24.467
All this history has passed,

00:50:24.787 --> 00:50:27.447
and we're still wrestling with
some of the same exact issues.

00:50:30.527 --> 00:50:33.347
When people don't believe
in facts or science anymore,

00:50:34.067 --> 00:50:35.527
and demagoguery takes over,

00:50:36.687 --> 00:50:40.507
a lot of the civil liberties we take
for granted will go down the drain.

00:50:42.687 --> 00:50:45.867
That was true then, and
regrettably, that is true now.

00:50:47.947 --> 00:50:51.687
You're asking me if there could be
another internment of a racial or ethnic

00:50:51.747 --> 00:50:54.787
group in this country. First
of all, it takes place today.

00:50:55.687 --> 00:50:59.527
Native American Indian
reservations is a form of that.

00:51:00.487 --> 00:51:05.407
I fear it could happen very
easily the way things are

00:51:05.487 --> 00:51:08.127
now. It could sneak up on.

00:51:08.167 --> 00:51:13.007
This. Can history repeat itself today
with this kind of incarceration?

00:51:13.167 --> 00:51:14.227
Yeah, it's happening today. Yeah.

00:51:14.687 --> 00:51:18.167
So many Asian American communities
are the target of violence, of hate,

00:51:18.627 --> 00:51:22.627
of derogatory language, but there
is also a pathway to address them.

00:51:22.767 --> 00:51:26.567
And I'm thrilled that petitions can
play a part in that because you see real

00:51:26.607 --> 00:51:27.907
tangible change come from them.

00:51:37.747 --> 00:51:42.047
I think it was unfair, but the good thing
is I met my husband there. Otherwise,

00:51:42.147 --> 00:51:45.587
I never would have met him get married.

00:52:01.920 --> 00:52:06.387
Yeah. I always ask my dad why he
named it now. I says, "I don't know.

00:52:06.720 --> 00:52:11.268
" And I look at the building and he's
got two aisles up there on the building

00:52:11.347 --> 00:52:12.180
and

00:52:14.507 --> 00:52:17.848
the guy that's got it
now, he's still using owl.

00:52:26.788 --> 00:52:28.948
I mean, it's frightening
when you think about that.

00:52:29.008 --> 00:52:31.208
It's frightening to me that
it could happen again today.

00:52:31.708 --> 00:52:32.541
I like to think it couldn't.

00:52:33.528 --> 00:52:33.748
Well,

00:52:33.748 --> 00:52:38.468
I think we can work to prevent this from
happening again by educating people.

00:52:39.068 --> 00:52:42.148
Make people aware of what happened in
the past so that hopefully we can avoid

00:52:42.188 --> 00:52:43.488
having it happen again in the future.

00:52:44.868 --> 00:52:48.208
The petition to me is the
very first part of that,

00:52:48.528 --> 00:52:51.308
but it's the most important because if
you can get someone to add your name to

00:52:51.348 --> 00:52:55.008
an online petition today, that's the
way to engage them in deeper action,

00:52:55.108 --> 00:52:57.728
whether it's going to meet
with their legislators,

00:52:57.828 --> 00:52:59.268
getting out in the streets for a march,

00:52:59.628 --> 00:53:02.028
going to a company's headquarters
and delivering their petition.

00:53:02.568 --> 00:53:05.788
It's just like it's the entry point
and it's fueled by compassion.

00:53:09.428 --> 00:53:11.708
It's going to be interesting. I mean,

00:53:11.828 --> 00:53:16.728
this country is resilient and
as bad as we think things are

00:53:16.768 --> 00:53:21.508
today, we're going to overcome
it. The Revolutionary War,

00:53:21.588 --> 00:53:25.628
the Civil War, World War I,
World War II, the Depression.

00:53:26.048 --> 00:53:27.088
And we're still here.

00:53:27.608 --> 00:53:32.568
The Constitution is always interpreted
and it's interpreted by power.

00:53:35.188 --> 00:53:38.888
It's an ongoing discussion that
we'll have to have continually.

00:53:40.288 --> 00:53:44.428
And this month alone have seen
countless petitions asking for

00:53:45.008 --> 00:53:48.808
communities to take violence toward
Asian Americans more seriously or for

00:53:49.188 --> 00:53:53.888
schools to address it with
curriculum or for media outlets to

00:53:54.008 --> 00:53:57.428
write about the stories of Asian
Americans who've experienced hate crimes.

00:53:59.608 --> 00:54:02.968
Americans, as good as they are,

00:54:03.248 --> 00:54:05.188
good comparatively,

00:54:06.148 --> 00:54:11.048
if they could somehow have
more faith in the ability to

00:54:11.148 --> 00:54:14.708
think for themselves, think for yourself.

00:54:17.648 --> 00:54:20.448
Inculturated history is learned,

00:54:21.808 --> 00:54:25.188
parent to child, but we teach them hate.

00:54:26.948 --> 00:54:28.048
We teach them kindness.

00:54:29.628 --> 00:54:34.068
Do whatever you can that you consider best

00:54:35.348 --> 00:54:36.181
for your children.

00:54:38.508 --> 00:54:43.208
We could support acts
that give people rights

00:54:43.648 --> 00:54:47.748
instead of focusing on acts that
take rights away from people.

00:54:48.468 --> 00:54:52.909
We can give more to the people and
expand their opportunities in all manners

00:54:53.608 --> 00:54:58.229
instead of just confining them simply
out of plain fear or unbased ignorance.

00:55:07.549 --> 00:55:12.289
Japanese American internment has been
swept under the rug of American history

00:55:12.729 --> 00:55:13.829
ever since it happened.

00:55:17.969 --> 00:55:22.649
This sort of homogenized notion of
American history where we're this big

00:55:22.729 --> 00:55:27.649
melting pot who all come together is the
big myth and it's only when we demand

00:55:27.689 --> 00:55:30.529
that this history get placed in curricula,

00:55:31.009 --> 00:55:35.869
get placed before young children
growing up in our country that

00:55:35.949 --> 00:55:38.729
they know about it. And if
they don't know about it,

00:55:39.089 --> 00:55:41.629
then they can't understand how
it could happen again. National.

00:55:41.649 --> 00:55:46.569
Government by ensuring the
democratic way of life to all members

00:55:46.709 --> 00:55:47.542
of the community.

00:55:48.489 --> 00:55:53.149
I think petitions are a real lesson in
social history and cultural history and

00:55:53.269 --> 00:55:54.289
civil rights history.

00:55:56.029 --> 00:55:58.869
This is a national story
because it shows us the light.

00:55:59.749 --> 00:56:03.669
That's what this shows us. It
shows us the better part of us,

00:56:04.129 --> 00:56:09.009
not the bad, dark, ugly part of us.
And America's encompassed by both.

00:56:09.969 --> 00:56:12.009
Saying something is the.

00:56:13.109 --> 00:56:18.109
Absolute best thing that we can
do anytime something like this

00:56:18.169 --> 00:56:20.229
happened. That's the model.

00:56:20.589 --> 00:56:23.249
That's the way people
are supposed to behave.

00:56:23.849 --> 00:56:28.829
It gave that wonderful group of
people a wherewithal to say the right

00:56:28.989 --> 00:56:33.369
thing. Just say the right
thing and say it over and over.

00:56:34.309 --> 00:56:35.989
The past is prologue.

00:56:39.489 --> 00:56:42.389
So what do the petitions mean?

00:56:45.309 --> 00:56:48.029
It is past history, an event that happened

00:56:49.609 --> 00:56:54.249
with a ton of significance attached to it,

00:56:55.609 --> 00:57:00.469
which will carry on as prologue
for the future and carry

00:57:00.849 --> 00:57:05.629
a legacy and a story for
all future generations.