J A P A N E S E - A M E R I C A N

T E S T I M O N Y

from

T H E N A T I O N A L D E F E N S E M I G R A T I O N H E A R I N G S

1 9 4 2

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

MR. SPARKMAN: First, will you give your name to the reporter?

MR. MASAOKA: Just to show you how Americanized we are, I have an

English name and Japanese tag-end there. Mike Masaoka, I am the national

secretary and field executive of the Japanese American Citizens League. This

gentleman is Mr. Dave Tatsuno, president of the San Francisco chapter of the

Japanese American Citizens League. And Mr. Henry Tani, the executive

secretary of our group.…

MR. SPARKMAN: Did you ever attend Japanese schools in this country?

MR. MASAOKA: Personally I did not, but frankly—

MR. SPARKMAN (interposing): A great many of your people do?

MR. MASAOKA: Oh, yes. But I did not…

MR. SPARKMAN: What about the membership of your organization? Could

you say what percentage of them have received at least a part of their education

in Japan?

MR. MASAOKA: Those figures are rather hard to get. We estimate

approximately 20 to 30 per cent, which I think is a rather generous estimate.

MR. SPARKMAN: I wonder if you could give us some estimate as to a portion

of your membership who have received a part of their education in Japanese

schools in this country.

MR. MASAOKA: That would be large; say 85 per cent.

MR. SPARKMAN: That is more or less characteristic, is it not, of the Japanese

to have these Japanese schools?

MR. MASAOKA: Yes. It is characteristic, but at the same time I think it is the

same as any other immigrant group. I have correspondence here which we will

file to show that we have attempted from time to time to get the State of

California to include it in their public-school curricula and other evidence of the

sort.…

I feel that I should make this statement at this time: That before Pearl Harbor

many of us had been teaching, or at least attempts had been made to teach,

concerning the honor of Japan as a nation. But I think the attack at Pearl Harbor

demonstrated to those who were on the fence that there wasn’t anything

honorable in that, and I think most of us condemned more than Americans

condemned the dastardly thing that was done there, and I think the first

generation feel that.

MR. SPARKMAN: Do you think you could say with reference to the

membership of your organization that there is not a feeling of a definite

connection and loyalty to the Emperor of Japan?

MR. MASAOKA: No. I don’t think our league subscribes to that. I don’t think

the great membership of our league subscribe to that. In fact, I am quite sure.

MR. SPARKMAN: Do you think you could truthfully and sincerely say that

there is not in your membership a feeling of pride on the accomplishments of

the Japanese Empire?

MR. MASAOKA: Well now, there are a lot of things that I think we ought to

recognize that are fine about Japan, possibly courtesy, and so on. But I think

that the Japan of our parents is certainly not the Japan of today, and I think

there that we may have been misguided as to many things there, too.…

MR. SPARKMAN: Let me ask you this. Of course, you appreciate that the

feeling which you have heard expressed here does exist?

MR. MASAOKA: Yes, I do. I certainly do.

MR. SPARKMAN: You acknowledge that fact. Do I understand that it is your

attitude that the Japanese-American citizens do not protest necessarily against

an evacuation? They simply want to lodge their claims to consideration?

MR. MASAOKA: Yes.

MR. SPARKMAN: But in the event the evacuation is deemed necessary by

those having charge of the defenses, as loyal Americans you are willing to prove

your loyalty by cooperating?

MR. MASAOKA: Yes. I think it should be—

MR. SPARKMAN (interposing): Even at a sacrifice?

MR. MASAOKA: Oh, yes; definitely. I think that all of us are called upon to

make sacrifices. I think that we will be called upon to make greater sacrifices

than any others. But I think sincerely, if the military say “Move out,” we will be

glad to move, because we recognize that even behind evacuation there is not

just national security but also a thought as to our own welfare and security

because we may be subject to mob violence and otherwise if we are permitted

to remain.

MR. SPARKMAN: And it affords you, as a matter of fact, perhaps the best test

of your own loyalty?

MR. MASAOKA: Provided that the military or the people charged with the

responsibility are cognizant of all the facts.…

MR. TANI: …With reference to the line of questioning that you are asking

Mr. Masaoka, about the influence of the Japanese culture in us. We don’t walk

around with our heads bowed because we are Japanese, but we can’t help being

Japanese in features. My mother left Japan over 30 years ago, and the Japan of

which she speaks to us of 30 years ago is not the Japan of today. I feel it is

different from that of my mother’s day. And so in the culture that she instilled

in us, and by “culture” I mean courtesy, loyalty to the State and country in

which we are, obedience to parents, those are cultures of Japan with which

most of us have been brought up. And I don’t think those things are things of

which we should be ashamed, those things which we should ignore.

As for influences upon us today I, as an individual, or as a leader of a group,

have never been approached officially, unofficially, directly, or indirectly in any

respect in all my years.

MR. OMURA: …I am strongly opposed to mass evacuation of American-born

Japanese. It is my honest belief that such an action would not solve the question

of Nisei loyalty. If any such action is taken I believe that we would be only

procrastinating on the question of loyalty, that we are afraid to deal with it, and

that at this, our first opportunity, we are trying to strip the Nisei of their

opportunity to prove their loyalty.

I do not believe there has ever been, or ever could be again, a situation of this

kind where the Nisei can prove their loyalty.

I suppose you understand that I am in some measure opposed to what some

of the other representatives of the Japanese community have said here before

this committee.…

It is doubtlessly rather difficult for Caucasian Americans to properly

comprehend and believe in what we say. Our citizenship has even been attacked

as an evil cloak under which we expect immunity for the nefarious purpose of

conspiring to destroy the American way of life. To us—who have been born,

raised, and educated in American institutions and in our system of public

schools, knowing and owing no other allegiance than to the United States—such

a thought is manifestly unfair and ambiguous.

I would like to ask the committee: Has the Gestapo come to America? Have

we not risen in righteous anger at Hitler’s mistreatments of the Jews? Then, is it

not incongruous that citizen Americans of Japanese descent should be similarly

mistreated and persecuted? I speak from a humanitarian standpoint and from a

realistic and not a theoretical point of view. This view, I believe, does not

endanger the national security of this country nor jeopardize our war efforts.…

We cannot understand why General DeWitt can make exceptions for families

of German and Italian soldiers in the armed forces of the United States while

ignoring the civil rights of the Nisei Americans. Are we to be condemned merely

on the basis of our racial origin? Is citizenship such a light and transient thing

that that which is our inalienable right in normal times can be torn from us in

times of war?