“On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment, allowing local military commanders to designate military areas as exclusion zones from which "any and all persons may be excluded”... As a result, about 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese were relocated to War Relocation Camps, though the policy was applied unequally.” And still we could not escape humiliation, discrimination, even internment. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, martial law was declared in the Islands and some 1,500 Japanese, mostly aliens, were rounded up and confined in special compounds.” |
Honouliuli Internment Camp surrounded with barbed wire. (Sato, 2016)
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“The bewilderment and anger resulting from being imprisoned for no crime committed… the resilience and resourcefulness of people struggling to survive. The belief in and practice of ganbare (persistence under duress) that is at the core of the Japanese ethic… the indomitable spirit of men and women, who maintain their dignity in the midsts of unimaginable adversity.” |
In 1942, my great grandfather, Joichi Tahara, was taken from his wife and 9 children on the Big Island of Hawaii to the Honouliuli Internment Camp on Oahu, where he quietly endured the hardship life and remained loyal to his family and America. He died there in 1943 at age 55.
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Joichi and Tomeyo Tahara, their children and Tahara Store. His two eldest sons took a stand by joining the U.S. Army to prove their loyalty. (Tahara, 1920s-2015)
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“I was 13 years old when one FBI man and one policeman came to get my dad. They made him pack now. The men were looking around our house for things from Japan. They found letters that were his correspondence with his parent. We were looking at him and he was busy because he was packing his things. My mother helped pack his suitcase because he was going to be interned. I did not get to say goodbye. I was sad and I was insecure when he was taken away.” |
“I conclude my life as a Japanese with no shame. In fact, I am quietly happy to be waiting for my destiny… I am happy to be one of the small stones to follow the National Purpose to create eternal peace.” |
“I am the youngest of 9 children and was only 3 years old when my dad was placed in the internment camp. Since he did not return, I have no recollection of my dad... Although the government took my dad away from me, I feel fortunate to live in this great country… I retired from the National Guard with 35 years of service. ” |
“Well, the mere fact that you will hire an attorney does not mean that you will be released… Well, quite frankly, I don’t think you do. To be quite blunt about it, I don’t think you do. You can tell us yourself about yourself better than any attorney can question you, if you want my own private opinion about the matter… the attorney to be employed at your own expense.”
-Frank McLaughlin, President of Board, In The Case of Joichi Hide Tahara, 4/20/1942 |
(In The Case Of Joichi Hide Tahara, 4/20/1942)
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“On the mainland it was a mass internment because they wanted all Isei and Nisei to be off the west coast. In Hawaii, they interned people that they thought would be a problem like Japanese language teachers and priests… The Hawaii population was 37% Japanese from Japan or born here. Japanese were brought in to do labor work on the sugar and pineapple plantations. If they were all interned, it would ruin the economy of Hawaii.” |
“In fact, during World War II, no Japanese American in the U.S., Hawaii or Alaska, citizen or immigrant, was ever convicted of espionage or sabotage.”
-About the Incarceration, 2016