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 75TH
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 75th 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 7th 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:
