Where No One is Quite Sure Where They Belong - a Blog Tour and Book Excerpt for "Unbelonging"

BOOK EXCERPT

To help clear the way, Frank Sasaki obtained permission to return to Seattle in April to check on the status of their restaurant and their home on Fourteenth and Yesler. He was relieved to learn about a drop-off in violence against Japanese. But with war still raging in Asia at that time, anti-Japanese sentiment was ever present. At the invitation of his pastor at the Japanese Congregational Church, he’d attended a public hearing at Seattle City Hall on resettlement. Seattle Mayor William Devin and Washington Governor Mon C. Wallgren presided. They sat behind a table on the stage flanked by three members of the city council.

Organizations opposed to allowing Japanese to return before war’s end dominated the discussion early. Frank sat quietly in the back. Fallacious accusations and groundless speculation alarmed him. Particularly offensive was the Remember Pearl Harbor League. They represented the interests of white farmers in the Kent Valley who took possession of fields once leased to Japanese. The speaker was the League’s president, Ed Phelan, who appeared to be about fifty. He stood and looked at the crowd of two hundred.

“From my experience, you can’t trust these Japs,” he declared. As he spoke, he seemed to zero in on Frank, one of the few Japanese present. “During the Depression, they worked for a buck fifty a day in the fields and turned around and gave twenty-five cents of that to some Jap who is now a captain in the Japanese army. Those two-bit pieces are now punching holes in our boys.”

A member of the equally despicable Japanese Exclusion League stood and called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to deport all Japanese who were noncitizens. Another criticized the court ruling that only “loyal” Japanese were to be freed. “Sure, most Japanese are loyal, but one out of a hundred may not be. You can’t tell if a Jap is loyal just by looking at him. The only way to be sure is keep them all out. Let them go back to Japan or move off the coast.”

“If they’re not American citizens, throw them out,” one woman demanded. “The only people who will benefit are the social reformers with their impossible aims.”

The barrage of hate speech droned on.

“The Japanese have been indoctrinated with sadistic philosophy of emperor worship.”

“For every Japanese our soldiers destroy, you shield and protect the fanatically dangerous

here at home.”

“Humanitarian gestures in behalf of the Japs is parallel to the historical Trojan horse.”

“My grandfather fought to take away this land from the Indians, and now the Japs are trying to take it away from us.”

Suddenly a man seated in the front stood and raised his right hand. “Mr. Mayor and Governor how long do we have to listen to this nonsense?” The speaker was Arthur Barnett, an attorney with the Seattle Council of Churches. The Council and multiple other civic organizations vigorously opposed internment. Since then the council remained a constant source of support for the Japanese. They traveled to Minidoka repeatedly to deliver supplies and offer legal services. He looked directly at Mayor Devin and Governor Wallgren, both of whom showed only lukewarm support for resettlement.

“I ask you, sirs, what other group on the home front has suffered more than the Japanese?” He looked around the suddenly quiet hall. “They’ve been deprived of their civil and constitutional rights. They’ve been socially and economically ostracized, and treated with unwarranted suspicion. They’ve lost their homes and businesses. The least we can do is help them to get back to normal.”

The crowd appeared split on this notion. Some nodded in agreement, others shook their heads, shifted in their seats.

“You bring them back, we won’t be responsible for how many are hanging from lamp posts,” yelled a man from the back.

“Where is your decency sir?” Barnett pleaded, looking back at the man. He turned to face the men on the stage. “Have we not learned anything from the atrocities in Europe? he asked. “The thing most lacking in the early days of Hitlerism was civic righteousness.” He stretched the word into three syllables, right-eous-ness. “The atrocities committed against the Jews were tolerated for years by groups that feared to speak out until it was too late. Where is our civic righteousness? We must speak out now on behalf of our fellow citizens and Christians before it’s too late. Surely, Mr. Mayor,” Barnett concluded, “Seattle will respond as a truly American city. They will grant the returning American-Japanese citizens all the rights to which they are legally entitled.”