RAFU SHIMPO, February 20, 1979
(article retyped from microfilm printout)

SO. CALIF. NIKKEI APATHETIC AFTER 37 YEARS…

Only 250 attend ‘Day of Remembrance’ ceremony

Los Angeles’ “Day of Remembrance” ceremonies were held Monday afternoon in front of the old Nishi Hongwangi Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo. The event, organized jointly by the Japanese American Citizens League and the Manzanar Committee, was intended to remind the public at-large about the incarceration of Japanese Americans in “relocation centers” during World War II and to generate interest and support for the JACL push to obtain redress for the wartime injustices.

Scheduled to coincide with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s signing of Executive Order 9066, an action which suspended the civil rights of Nikkei living on the Pacific Coast and led to the infamous detention of nearly 125,000 Japanese ancestry Americans solely on the basis of their ethnic heritage, the L.A. observance attracted a sparse crowd of only 250 people onto Central Ave. near the heart of the nation’s largest Japanesetown.

Those who did attend the local program heard Mayor Tom Bradley read a city resolution, which proclaimed the Feb. 19 “A Day of Remembrance” in L.A.

“I recommend that all our citizens take pause to remember on this anniversary of that sad day in American history what can happen if we allow our mass emotion and fear to override the basic tenants of our nation’s Constitution,” declared Bradley.

Other elected officials present for the L.A. “Day of Remembrance” were 10 th District Councilman David Cunningham and Gardena mayor pro term Masani Fukai who doubles as the senior deputy to County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, also presented a proclamation on behalf of the supervisors.

In his address to the audience, Fukai commented that although he was only a 15-year-old at the time of internment, he remembered vividly the look of disbelief in the eyes of his parents and the other Issei when they were taken off to camp.

“Their eyes seemed to be saying, “Why are they doing this. How can this be happening, and I see that same look in the eyes of many here today,” said Fukui.

Also present at the remembrance ceremony were Japanese Chamber of Commerce president Ken Nakaoka and Japanese American Cultural and Community Center president George Doizaki.

Highlighting the day’s program was a trio of community speakers who presented thoughts about the event and the WWII Nikkei experience from the perspectives of three generations.

Speaking for the Issei was haiku instructor Shisei Tsuneishi. Tsuneishi, who attempted to testify on behalf of the ‘Non-No’ Boys and other JA internees who opposed a government imposed loyalty oath in the camps, recalled his experiences as an inmate at the Heart Mountain, Wyoming relocation center.

Community activist Betty Kozasa, president of the Asian Pacific Coalition on Aging and a member of the mayor’s Advisory Council on Volunteerism, served as the voice of the Nisei. She described the poor living conditions at the Jerome, Arkansas center and recalled her first experiences with chiggers.

Kozasa’s Nisei testimony also pointed up the resentment faced by Japanese Americans who left camp to resettle in inland areas of the country during the war.

“Our neighbors in Wisconsin reported my husband and I to the FBI saying that we were sending secret messages to Japan every morning at 7:30,” she recalled, explaining that her husband’s early-model electric shaver had played havoc with the radio reception of neighbors for miles around and, combined with suspicion and fear, had resulted in the ill-founded charges.

Ironically, the statements of Warren Furutani, a Gardena Sansei who was born after the war, seemed to best sum up Monday’s program.

Guitar in hand, Furutani, one of the leaders of the Asian American Movement of the late-60s gazed out at the thinning crowd from atop the portable stage that had been parked across Central Ave. for the event and declared, “You don’t have to have a Day of Remembrance’ to remember the camps; those who were there can’t forget. They remember in flashbacks while waiting in lines, or every time they see a can of Spam. They probably don’t even eat Spam anymore for all the bad memories it brings up.

Furutani recounted the genesis of the first community pilgrimage to Manzanar, the Inyo County relocation center for more than 10,000 during WWII, adding that the camp issue did not have to be something the community should look back on, but could provide a rallying point from which Japanese Americans could deal with contemporary issues.

By the time L.A.’s “Day of Remembrance” program had wound to a close with traditional Japanese folk dancing fewer than 30 people were standing out in the middle of the street or viewing an exhibit of “camp life” photos. Most of the so-called dignitaries, elected officials and community figures retreated from the stage earlier in the program.

Some of the last to leave were radio and television reporters and their crews. After the media stowed away their gear, they drove away, turned west onto First St., which was crowded with Japanese American shoppers from L.A. suburbs who seemed oblivious to what was being remembered just a few yards away.

When asked if he knew about “L.A.’s Day of Remembrance,” one Nisei man strolling around Little Tokyo’s shiny, new Japanese Village Plaza shopping mall commented, “Is that what they’re doing over there? I thought they were just filming something for television.”

Dwight Chuman

Photo caption
Three generations of the So. Calif. Nikkei community recalled the detention of Japanese Americans by the U.S. government during World War II Monday at the local “Day of Remembrance” observation in Little Tokyo. (above, from left) Issei Shisei Tsuneishi, Nisei Betty Kozasa, and Sansei Warren Furutani speak to the 250 persons who attended the event (photo missing).