It was in March 1942 and my school chum and family had been interned in a Civilian Assembly Center at the race track and stables at the Los Angeles County Fair. They were to stay there until the Relocation Centers for the 120,000 West Coast citizens of Japanese descent could be built. My friend and I had often walked to school together starting in the sixth grade. I can remember being at his home. My friend was a Nisei (first generation Japanese American). His family were truck farmers in southeast Pomona.
My brother in law Butch had a new job as a guard at the Center. I suspect that I was visiting Butch when my visit through the wire took place but I am not sure.
The visit has stayed vividly in my memory. I remember my friend's face through the wire and the temporary tar paper housing behind him. I wish that I could see him again. I have a feeling that he fought in Italy in the 442nd and was killed in the service of the USA.
I do not recall any deep thoughts about the rightness or wrongness of my friend and his family being put behind a fence. I guess that I just believed that it was just the way things were. Since then every interned Japanese has received an apology from the government and some money. This was after a government committee had determined that we had done them wrong for no good reason. I guess even our government can make a mistake. You think?
My mother grew up in Pasadena and had just turned 17 when Pearl Harbor happened. News was much less reliable and complete back then. The radio was the best source of information, and even the radio reported out of date and inaccurate news. In addition, things did not go well for us in the early months of the war in the Pacific. In early 1942, many people concluded the Japanese were going to invade California. My grandfather sent the family to live in Tennessee with his sisters because he feared invasion.
ReplyDeleteWhile the internment was wrong, it's easy to understand how it happened.
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You are so right. I can remember troops guarding the bridges on the Ridge Route at Gorman shortly after Pearl Harbor. I am sure that I was spooked too. That is probably why I was not upset at my friends predicament.
DeleteDaddy, you are a piece of history and I love your stories.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Nancy. I have often thought about that visit through the fence.
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