When the Japanese were the Enemy

George Takei; famous for playing Sulu on Star Trek, remembers when the Japanese were the object of fear and oppression.

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He was five years old when soldiers;  “marched up our driveway in a Los Angeles residential neighborhood, bayonets in hand, and pounded on our front door, ordering us out. We were permitted only what we could carry, no bedding, no pets.”

This was in 1942 after the President,  Franklin D. Roosevelt, issued an executive order, No. 9066.

This set the internment of Japanese- Americans in motion. The Order was, on first reading, somewhat “neutral.” It gave the military the authorisation to designate areas as military zones, and remove people who were there.

But that wasn’t real. That wasn’t the truth.

The purpose of the Order was to move One Hundred and twenty thousand (120,000) innocent Japanese-Americans from their homes along the West Coast to be placed in one of ten prison camps.

It didn’t matter that most were United States citizens who had never even been to Japan. They were of Japanese ancestry which was enough for incarceration.

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“We were presumed guilty, and held without charge for four years… we lost our homes, our livelihoods and our freedoms.”

Every year, on February 19 Japanese-Americans recognise the date as Remembrance Day, and pledge to insure what happened  to to them does not happen again.

But it seems America might be poised to repeat that chapter.