From: mike@clubmezz.Berkeley.EDU (Michael T. Itamura)
Subject: Re: American History?
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 04:41:21 GMT

In article <921221.194506.amiller@almaden.ibm.com> amiller@almaden.ibm.com (Alex Miller) writes:
>I agree that the 442nd Battalion was great.  But learning about
>the 442nd, I also want to know about the questionnaires that
>imprisoned Japanese had to answer in January 1943.

  The two questions that you refer to were on what was known as the
"Application for Leave Clearance."  All adults - be they Issei, Nisei,
or Sansei had to fill out the questionare.  Most people were only allowed
to answer Yes-Yes or No-No to questions 27 and 28.  (One being a loyalty
to the US question and the other being a are you willing to serve in the 
military question).  My maternal Grandfather wanted to answer yes to
the loyalty question and no to the "willing to serve" question.  (He
was already a veteran of WWI and was particularly incensed that he was
forced into the camps).   The person filling out the questionare for 
him told my grandfather that he was not allowed to answer Yes-No.  My
grandfather refused to change one of his answers and so his answer was
recorded as No-No.  I have a transcript of the hearing that was held in
Mid 1943 to see if he should be removed to Tule Lake.  You can see
him being rather nice to the hearing board as he convinced them to
change his answer to Yes-Yes.  The hearing must have been a pretty
traumatic event.

>For Nisei over 17 years old:  Selective service Q28.  Do you
>swear uncompromised alliance to foreign powers or the Japanese
>emperor?  (The Japanese government still considered Nisei as
>dual citizens)

  The Japanese Government did not consider all Nisei to be dual Japanese/
American citizens.  This was only true early on - something like those
born before 1915.  After that, the parents had a month or so after the
birth of their child to register that birth at the Japanese Consulate
in order for Japanese Citizenship to be granted.  My father (a Nisei/
Sansei)- was born in the late 20's was not registered and so he did not
have dual citizenship.

>For Issei:  W.R.A. Q28.  Do you forswear allegiance to the
>Emperor and the Japanese government.  (if you answer YES then
>you will have NO country, since Issei are aliens ineligible for
>citizenship.)

>Why did it take until the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 for the
>story of the camps to really come out?
 
  The camps were no big secret - at least out here in California.  
What really never came out until recently was the story of the MIS.
The Military Intelligence Service was composed of many Japanese Americans
from the mainland and Hawaii who served as translators for the Allied
forces in the Pacific War.  The JA's who served in this unit were forced
to serve anonymously as the United States did not want Japan to find
out that they were using Japanese Americans to interrogate enemy prisoners
and translatte of enemy documents.  Spark Matsunaga - the late senator
from Hawaii was a member of the MIS. 

					Truly, I don't want to
>take away from any of the heroism of the 442nd.  Listening to
>Daniel Iouye during the Iran-gate hearings wasn't bad either.
>But to over simplify the significance of the 442 is to
>perpetuate the Model Minority Myth.  The Model Minority stuff,
>which values a minority only in relation to the white "majority"
>is out of date, and doesn't deal with contemporary issues.

  I feel that the Model Minority (myth) is not so much of a pat
on the back of Asian Americans as it is a statement by white America
to the other minorities in America.  The myth implies that if Asian
Americans can 'succeed' in America, why can't other minorities?  I
certainly do not want to be put into the position of being played off
of another ethnic group in America.  It is too easy to go from being 
a model minority one day to being a scapegoat the next.

>Alex
>amiller@almaden.ibm.com

			Mike Itamura