I'll Bet You've Never Heard This Before
My father's step dad is Japanese. Growing up, we never thought anything of having three grandfathers and we never asked any questions. Perhaps we should have, because my grandpa Takashi's story is amazing!
As you might expect, Tak was placed in an internment camp during World War II. He was about nine years old at the time. His story is a little more complicated than Farewell to Manzanar, and I'll never be able to do it justice. But, here it is in a nut shell.
My grandfather wasn't living in the United States before he was interned. His family was Peruvian, as in the South American country, Peru.
A small number of Latin American Japanese were collected by the government during the war, most of them from Peru. The sequence of events that made this all technically legal is unbelievable.
Racial tensions in Peru were high in the 1940's. After a series of riots, the Peruvian government stripped many Peruvian Japanese of their citizenship.
The biggest conflict between the native Peruvians and Peruvian Japanese occurred in May of 1940. At this time riots against the native Japanese broke out in Lima and Callao. Peruvian Japanese businesses and homes were destroyed during the riots. After the riots, many Japanese became worried and some Japanese men even had their families return to Japan. The Peruvian government reacted to the riots by suspending future immigration rights to the Japanese and by taking away the citizenship of native-born Peruvian Japanese.
The Peruvian government worked to convince the US government that the Peruvian Japanese were a security risk. We saw them as potential bargaining chips, to trade for future US hostages. So, through a series of obscure legal loopholes, the US was able to round up a few hundred Peruvians.
An alien in a country does not have many legal rights. Based on International Law, an alien may be subject to expulsion on the vague grounds of "public order or security". Peruvian law eliminates the rights of an alien to almost none.
America justified the decision of interning another countries' people by the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. The act allowed for the apprehension and internment of nationals of states at war with the U.S.
After the war, the Peruvian Japanese faced a new challenge: finding a home. Peru still didn't want them, and neither did the US. Sending them to Japan wasn't in the cards either, because they weren't necessarily from Japan. Our government arranged to find jobs for many of them, while those who chose to worked toward US citizenship.
My grandfather moved from the Crystal City internment camp in Texas to New Jersey. He evenually joined the army to help expedite his citizenship. He has said that the experience in the army was difficult, for obvious reasons. Eventually, he settled in Chicago, where he met my dad's mother and married into our family.
This weekend, grandpa Tak is coming to visit. Seeing him has always been fun for me. Now that I'm old enough to appreciate history, I especially like to pick his brain when I get the chance.
As you might expect, Tak was placed in an internment camp during World War II. He was about nine years old at the time. His story is a little more complicated than Farewell to Manzanar, and I'll never be able to do it justice. But, here it is in a nut shell.
My grandfather wasn't living in the United States before he was interned. His family was Peruvian, as in the South American country, Peru.
A small number of Latin American Japanese were collected by the government during the war, most of them from Peru. The sequence of events that made this all technically legal is unbelievable.
Racial tensions in Peru were high in the 1940's. After a series of riots, the Peruvian government stripped many Peruvian Japanese of their citizenship.
The biggest conflict between the native Peruvians and Peruvian Japanese occurred in May of 1940. At this time riots against the native Japanese broke out in Lima and Callao. Peruvian Japanese businesses and homes were destroyed during the riots. After the riots, many Japanese became worried and some Japanese men even had their families return to Japan. The Peruvian government reacted to the riots by suspending future immigration rights to the Japanese and by taking away the citizenship of native-born Peruvian Japanese.
The Peruvian government worked to convince the US government that the Peruvian Japanese were a security risk. We saw them as potential bargaining chips, to trade for future US hostages. So, through a series of obscure legal loopholes, the US was able to round up a few hundred Peruvians.
An alien in a country does not have many legal rights. Based on International Law, an alien may be subject to expulsion on the vague grounds of "public order or security". Peruvian law eliminates the rights of an alien to almost none.
America justified the decision of interning another countries' people by the Alien Enemy Act of 1798. The act allowed for the apprehension and internment of nationals of states at war with the U.S.
After the war, the Peruvian Japanese faced a new challenge: finding a home. Peru still didn't want them, and neither did the US. Sending them to Japan wasn't in the cards either, because they weren't necessarily from Japan. Our government arranged to find jobs for many of them, while those who chose to worked toward US citizenship.
My grandfather moved from the Crystal City internment camp in Texas to New Jersey. He evenually joined the army to help expedite his citizenship. He has said that the experience in the army was difficult, for obvious reasons. Eventually, he settled in Chicago, where he met my dad's mother and married into our family.
This weekend, grandpa Tak is coming to visit. Seeing him has always been fun for me. Now that I'm old enough to appreciate history, I especially like to pick his brain when I get the chance.
1 Amendments:
Very interesting - I always wondered where former Peruvian president Fujimori came from.
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