Never Again Is Now!
February 2025
by Lisa
My Japanese father, Kintaro Washio, was born in Walnut Grove, California, on May 2, 1925. When he was a child, he and his family returned to Japan. However, when my dad turned 16, he and his older brother Zentaro returned to the United States in order to avoid conscription in Japan’s war with China. U.S. birthright citizenship may have saved their lives.
On February 19, 1942, when my dad had only been in the U.S. for eight months, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and mass incarceration of 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were living on the West Coast. Deemed a threat to national security, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was invoked to detain and incarcerate Japanese Americans (two-thirds of whom were American citizens) in camps throughout the country. My dad and uncle were sent to Gila River in Arizona and later to Tule Lake in northern California. They were released four years later.
Barracks for detainees.
Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement, spoke out forcefully about this injustice done to the Japanese American community. She wrote an article in the Catholic Worker newspaper titled “Grave Injustice Done Japanese On West Coast” in June of 1942. Dorothy actually visited Portland, Oregon, and witnessed the early detention of thousands of Japanese people held at “a stockyard where cattle shows have been held” (what is now the Portland Expo Center). She concluded by saying, “They are the first victims of war in this country, and if we did not cry out against this injustice to them, if we did not try to test it, we would be failing in two works of mercy, which are to visit the prisoner, and to ransom the captive.” This article is one reason why Dorothy was put on the FBI’s watch list—she compared what she saw to German concentration camps. Sometimes speaking out gets you in trouble!
The striking parallels with our past are alarming.
Dorothy raised the concern about how we, as a nation, could treat our fellow human beings with so little regard. Now I fear that we are doing the same thing toward undocumented immigrants. When people hold up signs that say, “Deport Them All” (as seen at Trump rallies prior to the election), and do not care about the incredible harm that such actions inflict, I believe we are losing our humanity. This is not justice. This is not patriotism. This is cruelty.
Lisa’s father and uncle at a detention center for Japanese Americans
The striking parallels with our past are alarming. The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) recently put out a response to President Trump’s inaugural executive orders: “The declaration of a ‘national emergency’ at our Southern border, with plans to use ‘detention centers’ resulting in possibly ‘family separation’ directly parallels the trumped-up threat of national security from Japanese Americans during WWII resulting in the mass incarceration of 125,000 people, who were never convicted of a crime or given due process protected under the law.” I have learned about the inhumane conditions at the ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington—poor food, lack of medical care, the use of solitary confinement—which mirror accounts of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated. We must stop repeating history!
Growing up, my dad remained silent (as many of his generation did) about what happened to him, unless I asked questions (I wish I could talk to him now, but he passed away ten years ago). I don’t think he was able to fully accept what his own government had done to him and his community during WWII. As a sansei, or third generation Japanese American, I feel compelled to be his voice now and speak out against racial injustice and hatred. We must face our nation’s shadow, our long history of racism, and move toward healing and repair. I, along with other Japanese Americans, stand in solidarity with immigrants who are being targeted by inhumane policies (just like we were). May we, like Dorothy Day, not be silent, and may we be a people who uphold the value of all human and creaturely life with hearts of compassion.