THE RUINED 75TH BIRTHDAY

One of the most egregious violations of civil rights in the United States was the shutting away in internment camps of innocent American citizens of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Efforts have been made by subsequent Administrations and Congresses toward atonement through reversals of discriminatory policies and monetary reparations. The historical record of this catastrophic period spans a wide range of books and films and other instruments of documentation. As I often do when I am stumped as to my own approach to a topic, I sent a prayer out to my Muse. 78 years to the day following the signing of Executive Order 9066, which set the internment camp system in place officially, my storyline materialized from the ethers as a weary voice in my head identifying itself as a 75 year old Japanese-American grandmother of San Francisco, an entity that came through to me all the way from early 1942. -Linda Lee Greene, Columbus, Ohio USA, February 19, 2020

THE RUINED 75^TH BIRTHDAY

By Linda Lee Greene, Author & Artist

“On this date 75 years ago my mother squatted down in a field of a Japanese Farm Colony in California in which she cleared rows of dead strawberry vines. With the help of other women field workers around her, my mother grunted and groaned and soon gave birth to me right there on the ground. In that way, I joined the distinct world of my parents and my six brothers and sisters. My mother refused to go to their marriage bed with my father on any night in the many years thereafter, and so I was always the baby of our family. All the members of my family of birth have been gone for more years than I can count, but I am not alone. I married a nice man of a good Japanese family of whom my extremely traditional Japanese father approved. My husband and I had four children of our own. Not only am I a mother, but also a grandmother, one and two and now, three times removed.

            “My Japanese ancestors migrated to California from Hawaii at the end of the American Civil War. They had relocated to Hawaii from Japan to flee turmoil in the mother country. In Hawaii, the separate branches of my family took up lives as fishermen and workers in sugarcane fields. Opportunities were limited and their lives hard in Hawaii, however. Seeking greater prospects, my parents packed their meager belongings and hopped a ship that sailed to the Harbor of San Francisco. Upon arrival, their spirits were greatly challenged by open discrimination by some aggressively racist Americans. They faced a system of bigotry that prevented all the members of the immigrant group of which my family was a part ownership of land, participation in government and civic affairs, and even of citizenship. Nevertheless, they created self-contained communities with schools, food markets, and all manner of businesses of their own. They attained remarkable success in a particular method of cultivating and marketing of fruits and vegetables. Their agricultural achievements caused enormous envy among white farmers, which only heightened the resentment against my people.     

“Among my siblings, I was the only one designated officially as a Japanese-American. The American part of my nationality is due to the fact that I was born in the United States, which gave me automatic citizenship. All my siblings were born to my parents while they were still in Hawaii. My parents worked in the fields of the Japanese Farm Colony from the first days of their arrival in California. It was not until my smart and determined eldest brother saved enough money for me to purchase a restaurant in San Francisco that all the members of my family were able to stop the backbreaking field work and go to work in our new enterprise.

            “All through this past year leading to my 75^th birthday, my three daughters have planned the celebration of this day. They have tried to hide their arrangements from me, but in their excitement, they have chattered among themselves so loudly that I couldn’t help but overhear much of it. In this way I know they were putting together a birthday party for me so big and elaborate you’d think I was a queen. The entire community was going to be involved. I say ‘was going to be involved,’ because my birthday celebration has been canceled. It has been canceled because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor by forces of Imperial Japan on the morning of Sunday, December 7^th of last year—less than three months ago, but in those few weeks, our lives have been turned upsidedown.

            “The very evening of that infamous Sunday, prominent members and religious leaders of our Japanese-American neighborhood were herded like cattle into official looking vehicles right under our noses and hauled away, never to be seen again. And each day since then, many more of our people, most of whom are American citizens just like me, have disappeared to imprisonment in camps thrown up in out-of-the-way areas of the nation for reasons of ‘preventing espionage on American shores,’ according to people at the head of the government. Our assets are frozen and our properties seized. Even though there is no credible evidence of spies for Imperial Japan among us, or of any other wrongdoing against the United States, still we are labeled as ‘dangerous,’ and shut away. We are loyal Americans, and like my son, are ready to fight any and all enemies of the country we love. This is the only home we have ever known, and we are good and productive citizens of the United States.

            “My son was informed yesterday by the authorities that all members of our family will be relocated by the end of the week. We are permitted to carry with us only one suitcase each of personal belongings. I have lived in my home since the day of my marriage 57 years ago. My husband and I made many memories here. It is the home of my children’s childhoods; the place in which my husband lived out his final days. Our restaurant has provided us a good living for three generations. Now we will lose all of it: our home, our business, our community, our friends, our way of life. My children, grandchildren, and I have no idea where we will end up, or if we will be allowed to stay together.

“I recognize that death will dog me when I am pushed out of my home and dropped into a remote and unfriendly compound closed-in by barbed-wire and patrolled by men lugging big and frightening guns. I must not give in to despair, which is death’s partner. I must go back and retrieve the lessons of my ancestors, people who endured treacheries far greater than this. I must evoke the example of my devout mother, a woman whose reverence for the Devine was complete, who lacked any capacity for wrongdoing or even for envisioning it. Her goodness was her strength. It was she who taught me to go within; to solace myself in the embrace of my soul; to bask in the peace that lies there; to bring forth the righteousness that is woven into every fiber of my being from the very first of my ancient ancestors—righteousness so strong it will break any tie that binds me, and might even influence my oppressors toward a fuller sense of humanity.”©  

#Japanese-Americans, #Japanese Farm Colony, #Internment Camps, #World War II, #Immigrants, #Executive Order 9066, #Pearl Harbor Bombing, #Hawaii, #San Francisco, #California, #Imperial Japan, #United States of America

The above essay is a work of historical fiction based on true events.

Images: A Japanese American family designated for removal to an American Internment Camp, circa 1942 to 1945, and Japanese immigrant farmers.

Multi-award-winning author, Linda Lee Greene’s paperbacks and eBooks are available for purchase worldwide through Amazon. An overview of her latest novel, A CHANCE AT THE MOON is below:

Amid the seductions of Las Vegas, Nevada and an idyllic coffee plantation on Hawai’i’s Big Island, a sextet of opposites converge within a shared fate: a glamorous movie-star courting distractions from her troubled past; her shell-shocked bodyguards clutching handholds out of their hardscrabble lives; a dropout Hawaiian nuclear physicist gambling his way back home; a Navajo rancher seeking cleansing for harming Mother Earth; and from its lofty perch, the Hawaiian’s guardian spirit conjured as his pet raven, conducting this symphony of soul odysseys.

Was it chance or destiny’s hand behind the movie-star and gambler’s curious encounter at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas? The cards fold, their hearts open, and a match strikes, flames that sizzle their hearts and souls. Can they have the moon and the stars, too? Or is she too dangerous? Is he? Can their love withstand betrayal? Can it endure murder?

While the cards at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas fail to distract them from their troubled pasts, on the side, the actress and the gambler play a game of ‘will they won’t they’ romance. Meanwhile, an otherworldly hand also has a big stake in the game. Unexpected secrets unfold brimming with dangerous consequences, and finally, a strange brand of salvation.

#Las Vegas, #Nevada, #Hawaii, #Big Island, #Coffee Plantation, #Caesars Palace, #A CHANCE AT THE MOON, #Linda Lee Greene, #Multi-award-winning Author, #Multi-award-winning Artist

Amazon Buy Links:

https://www.amazon.com/CHANCE-AT-MOON-Betrayal-Murder-ebook/dp/B07Z44YN9X/  - EBOOK

https://www.amazon.com/CHANCE-AT-MOON-Betrayal-Murder/dp/169984402X/ - PAPERBACK