My entire extended Japanese American family was interned for over 3 years during WWII. I remember when I first learned about this from my grandfather, I was taken aback by his matter-of-fact tone as he told me how he dressed in his Sunday-best suit with his suitcase in hand and his family of 4 in tow, as he waited at the gates at the Manzanar Relocation Center. Listening to how he lost his home, his business, and his dignity, infuriated me.
Even when then-president Ronald Reagan paid $20,000 reparations to the living Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII (most had died by then), I felt that it was a day late and a dollar short… And now, USC just formally apologized for refusing to release transcripts of the 120 Japanese American college students (who were forced to drop out of college) so they could study elsewhere. For those who wanted to re-enroll at USC after the war, they were told that they would have to start over and that none of their credits would be honored. Disgraceful.
I realize that times were different back then, and so I take a deep breath and think that I am glad that they are offering posthumous degrees to all of their USC students who weren’t given the opportunity to gain that coveted college degree. It took almost 90 years to right the wrong, but I guess it’s never too late for an apology.
My entire extended Japanese American family was interned for over 3 years during WWII. I remember when I first learned about this from my grandfather, I was taken aback by his matter-of-fact tone as he told me how he dressed in his Sunday-best suit with his suitcase in hand and his family of 4 in tow, as he waited at the gates at the Manzanar Relocation Center. Listening to how he lost his home, his business, and his dignity, infuriated me.
Even when then-president Ronald Reagan paid $20,000 reparations to the living Japanese Americans who were interned during WWII (most had died by then), I felt that it was a day late and a dollar short… And now, USC just formally apologized for refusing to release transcripts of the 120 Japanese American college students (who were forced to drop out of college) so they could study elsewhere. For those who wanted to re-enroll at USC after the war, they were told that they would have to start over and that none of their credits would be honored. Disgraceful.
I realize that times were different back then, and so I take a deep breath and think that I am glad that they are offering posthumous degrees to all of their USC students who weren’t given the opportunity to gain that coveted college degree. It took almost 90 years to right the wrong, but I guess it’s never too late for an apology.
I vividly remember Shozun, my cousin’s husband, telling me about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on his home town of Hiroshima. My father’s family lived on the other side of the mountain from Hiroshima, which shielded them from the atomic bomb explosion that instantly vaporized 66,000 people. Many of my family members died that day and others died later from radiation poisoning.
On that fateful day, Shozun was taking the train from Tokyo back to Hiroshima after work. All of a sudden the train stopped and the doors opened. Everyone disembarked and Shozun, carrying his black briefcase, started walking towards Hiroshima. At the time, he didn’t know that an atomic bomb had destroyed the entire city and 80,000 people at the hypocenter. As he walked through the city, he saw people with melted body parts crying for help and others seeking water in the radiation-filled waterways. He was an engineer and couldn’t understand why the US would drop the atomic bomb on civilians.
When I was 11 years old, I visited Hiroshima for the first time. Walking through the Peace Memorial Museum sent chills through my body as I saw black and white photographs of people burned by the 4,000-degrees Celsius blast. I remember seeing a woman with burns on her face in the shape of a metal grate. As I walked around the Peace Park, I wondered why a human being would engineer an atomic bomb and why President Truman would order the Enola Gay to actually drop them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It’s been 75 years since the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Not one president or leader in the world has used a nuclear bomb since Truman. Understanding what we know now about nuclear bombs, world leaders have resisted using them because life on this planet is much too delicate to withstand nuclear wars. I hope that we remember the devastation that ensued when the atom bombs were released on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and find peaceful negotiations to solve political and economic problems.