Rage Greets Japanese-American Memorial
Thought you might be interested in this news story about
a planned memorial to be erected at the former site of
the Justice Department run camp at Santa Fe, New Mexico:
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Rage greets vote on Japanese memorial
SANTA FE, New Mexico, Oct. 28, 1999 (UPI) - Santa Fe's mayor prepared Thursday to leave
for Japan on a sister cities visit with the echoes of angry denunciations and a
near fight at City Hall over a vote to erect a memorial to Japanese Americans
interned there in World War II.
After Mayor Larry Delgado cast the tie-breaking vote Wednesday night, former
City Councilor Clarence Lithgow exploded in anger and shouted "You just kicked
the Bataan veterans in the teeth, in the twilight of their years."
Lithgow who is a son-in-law of a soldier who survived the infamous Bataan Death
March, in which Japanese victors brutalized the American and Filipino defenders
of the Philippines in the opening months of World War II, told the mayor: "I
wish you well on your trip to Japan. They ought to treat you like royalty after
your vote."
When someone behind Lithgow told him to sit down, Lithgow spun around and
challenged him to a fight, prompting Deputy Police Chief Beverly Lennen to jump
in between the pair.
Another person present at the raucous meeting vowed to smear excrement on the
memorial if it is built.
Not mentioned was an earlier unanimous vote to create a mayor's committee that
will begin preparations for the design and funding for a monument to Sante Fe
war veterans.
The memorial is an attempt to address the period in U.S. history when the civil
rights of free, law abiding Americans were suspended based on their race.
Thousands of Japanese Americans were rounded up on the U.S. West Coast in the
early months after Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on Dec. 7, 1941, and
shipped to internment camps as "enemy aliens."
They lost their homes and businesses, yet still sent their sons to fight the
Nazis in some of the bloodiest battles in Europe.
A total of 4,555 Japanese American men were sent to the Justice Department
internment camp in Santa Fe without a trial.
A draft of the text to be included on a stone marker at Ortiz park reads in
part:
"The U.S. government (during World War II) was concerned that people of
Japanese ancestry might be disloyal in its war efforts against Japan. However,
the honorable service by the children and relatives of the internees, as
American armed forces, demonstrated their loyalty to our country. This marker is
placed here as a reminder that history can be a valuable teacher only if we do
not forget or deny our past."
Re: Rage Greets Japanese-American Memorial
After reading the article, and now sitting here with the left over traces of
tears in my eyes, I wish I could let go of my dream for an America free of
bigotry and racism. But, I can't. Today I must pull myself out of bed and
prepare for a murder trial next week that, were it not for the fact that the
victim and defendant are not the same color, would not be necessary.
Lithgow's outburst and the remarks of other opponents to the monument
demonstrate how little we have learned from the internment and how tenuous
is our grasp on freedoms many now take for granted. Perhaps it is a good
thing that we remember that fact to remind us that we must remain vigilant.
I think I'll hold on to my dream for today...
Re: Rage Greets Japanese-American Memorial
Mr. Mayor and all Sante Fe City Council Members:
This was the Headline of the UPI news story on your recent City Council action. Let me make
it clear that I wholeheartedly support the majority vote to set up a memorial for those
Americans of Japanese ancestry who were unjustly incarcerated at the Justice Departments
INS Center in Sante Fe during WWII.
This World War II Veteran emphatically disagrees with Mr. Lithgow's remarks! I would
suggest to Mr. Lithgow that there is a better way to honor his father-in-law and the other
victims of the Bataan Death March than to condemn this overdue Memorial.
It is a small, but positive way to recognize the grievous wrong that was committed by our
own Government when it incarcerated over 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry two
thirds of whom were American born and the other one third were deprived of the opportunity
to become Citizens.
My own family was swept up in the winds of war, as well. In 1942, within a 6 month period my
3 brothers & I all went into the Service. We were eager to bring an end to the worldwide terror
that had been launched by Hitler's Germany , Mussolini's Italy & Tojo's Japan. At the same
time we also felt strongly that there was a terrible contradiction between this necessary "battle
for democracy" we were committed to and the incarceration of Japanese
Americans as well as the total segregation of Black Soldiers in the Service.
3 of the 4 of us brothers saw duty in the Pacific against the Japanese Imperial Forces. My
brother Ernest was killed when his plane was shot down by Enemy antiaircraft in an attack on a
Japanese Installation on New Britain Island. My oldest brother Frank was totally disabled for
the rest of his life. Arpad & I survived relatively unscathed. Did I hate these Enemies & the
destruction they had wrought? Yes, I did, with a rage that cannot even be described.
But they were not the ones who forcibly removed every man, woman and child of Japanese
descent on the West Coast from their homes and put them behind barbed wire under armed
guard. It was solely our Government the United States of America, Land of the Free, that
was responsible for this unwarranted Policy.
The act of Internment itself smacked of the same type of racist ideology that fueled the furnaces
at Buchenwald and the rape of Nanking and the Bataan Death March. It also laid the basis for
the Loyalty Oaths which started immediately after the War and expanded into the full blown
attack on democracy of the McCarthy Era. The demonization had shifted from the Japanese
Americans to the "Reds" [defined as anyone who believed and worked for Peace and Civil
Liberties and Rights for Black and Hispanic Veterans who came back from the victorious Battle
for Democracy looking for a little bit of the same thing for themselves and their families].
We all know about the Hollywood 10. What most of us don't realize is that thousands of people
lost their jobs; blue collar workers and University Professors alike who refused to be
intimidated by McCarthyism. But worse of all, the American people were
being cowed & conned into silence. These events were cut from the same undemocratic cloth
that created the Internment Camps. It has taken many years to overcome the ill effects of that
era and, in fact, much still remains to be done to understand and undo the injustices of the past
so we don't have to re-live them.
The Sante Fe City Council has taken a positive step in that direction.
Democracy is indivisible. Guard it well!
Please pass this message on to Mr. Lithgow since I don't have an address for him. I would
welcome correspondence from him or from any of you on this matter.
Sincerely,
Robert N. Balla
Re: Rage Greets Japanese-American Memorial
Some other local articles on this story:
Santa Fe OKs plaque on WWII internees
http://www.abqtrib.com/news/102899_bataan.shtml
Opinion: Beneath their eyes and skin, their blood was American
http://www.abqtrib.com/opinions/102399_kate.shtml
and why the naysayers are invoking the memory of Bataan in particular:
Bataan Memorial Military Museum and Library - Santa Fe NM
http://members.aol.com/BCMFofNM/militarymuseum.html
Re: Rage Greets Japanese-American Memorial
The camp in Santa Fe housed (as far as I know) mostly the various
business, community and religious issei leaders from up and down
the North American west coast and Hawaii. My grandfather was also
interned there after being transferred from various other Justice
Dept. run camps in Montana and Louisiana.
Because this camp housed mostly issei, most of the information that
I have been able to find on this internment camp has been in Japanese.
I have been told many interesting recollections of that time by my
grandfather and have found many interesting documents and letters
from that era in his trunk.
Several years ago, while searching for other information,
I stumbled upon a set of English language documents in the Japan
which was an official Spanish Government report of the their
Counsul's visit to investigate on living conditions (food,
sleeping quarters, recreational facilities, etc.) and see
if conformed to the rules set regarding the treatment of POWs
according to the Geneva Accord. On the various lists
of internee names and petitions, I noticed the names of some of
my friends' grandfathers on it. It was quite a detailed report.
Re: Rage Greets Japanese-American Memorial
I'd like to hear about the memorial dedication if there is
anyone out there who will be attending.
This past summer we went to the Regional National Archives
office to look up information on the young men from Amache
who were sent to the prison camp in Arizona. Everyone assumes
that the only men who were sent to prison were the FairPlay
committee members out of Heart Mountain and it was a surprise to
find that 41 went from Amache.
For anyone interested, the National Archives has a lot of
information, actual court documents and artifacts that were
supoenaed as evidence that is very interesting and helps understand
some of the things that actually went on that the average person
was never aware of ...
Last updated 05 November 1999