 |
  |
|
 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
Forced
Journeys In a quiet corner of the White Lotus Gallery, a watercolor in grays and browns stands on an easel. Tiny, dark-haired figures clutch hands in the shadow of a looming guard tower behind a fence of barbed wire. Rows of barracks extend to the horizon. A signature scrawled in the bottom corner reads: "Kenge Kobayashi. Interned at Tule Lake, 1943 to 1945." Next to the painting, bold letters on yellowing newsprint, dated May 1942, announce that all persons of Japanese ancestry from Lane, Douglas, Coos, Curry, Josephine, Jackson and Klamath counties are required to report to the local Civil Control Center under Civilian Exclusion Order #87.
This small tribute to Oregon's Japanese Americans interned during World War II is located less than one block from the former Civil Control Center, where roughly 3,700 Japanese Americans in Oregon were forced to register for removal to wartime camps throughout the rural West. That site today is the home of the Hult Center. In February 2007, an official memorial commemorating the Japanese American internees and World War II veterans will be erected on its grounds. The memorial will feature a statue of a young Japanese girl sitting on a pile of suitcases, reaching for a butterfly as she awaits deportation. Three paintings by Kenge Kobayashi will illustrate the concepts of justice, perseverance and honor with informational plaques about Japanese American history. The Eugene Japanese American Art Memorial committee has been planning this since 2003 and found along the way an unanticipated group of supporters; the memorial is in part possible due to a $50,000 contribution from the Spirit Mountain Foundation, a charitable venture funded by proceeds from the popular Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde. These funds were donated in the form of a challenge grant from the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, who donate a percentage of all annual casino earnings to charitable causes outside the reservation. The EJAAM committee was able to match and surpass that amount, bringing the current available capital for the memorial to approximately $142,000. But beyond financial considerations, this endowment comes as the result of nearly a year of cooperation and camaraderie between local Native American tribes and former internees — a relationship forged through parallel historical experiences and common cultural ties. What these groups have found in the last year of working together is that stories of Native Americans and the Japanese Americans do not only tell of hardship, government betrayal, denial of civil liberties and racism, but also (and some would say more importantly) of community, cultural preservation and perseverance.
REMEMBERING THE PAST For the last six years, the local Japanese American community has presented an annual "Day of Remembrance" on Feb. 19 to coincide with the signing of the executive order that led to their incarceration during World War II. These presentations began to foster discussion about an official memorial to the Japanese Americans in Eugene. The Day of Remembrance committee has now taken on the completion of the memorial as its primary function.
This year's Day of Remembrance was held at the Many Nations Longhouse on campus. The committee invited members of the Grand Ronde to participate as well, and the presentation, entitled "Forced Journeys," featured both Japanese American and Native American speakers sharing the experience of their peoples at the hands of the U.S. federal government. Bob Tom, an elder of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, was present. In hearing the accounts of Japanese American internees who left camp to volunteer for U.S. military service (and went on to become the most decorated unit in military history), he thought to honor them at the annual veterans' pow wow in Grand Ronde. In July, former internees, veterans and members of the EJAAM committee joined the tribes in Grand Ronde and were honored at their pow wow. Circuit Court Judge Cindy Carlson, who co-chairs the EJAAM committee, attended. "It was such a stunning event to go to the pow wow and see the effect on the people from both communities," she says. "I was sitting right behind the Japanese Americans who were asked to stand and be recognized; they were presented with medals, they were being hugged and welcomed, people were in tears. It was just such a powerfully healing moment." Tom agrees, but he thinks the event stopped short of being enough. "What we did at the pow wow was good for both of us," he says. "The drummers that sang for the veterans said it was an honor. The Japanese people that came were honored as well, but it wasn't a setting where we could tell more of the true story about what happened to a people here in a free country. We needed to establish a forum where we could give a more in-depth education about those days and what happened here at that time because Indian history and Japanese history isn't available in the school systems." George Katagiri of Portland, who was interned at Tule Lake as a boy, echoes this sentiment. "I think everyone concerned feels it's important we understand how our rights were denied us in the past and how we can educate the public so that similar events won't happen to other groups," he says. Not only are these two communities united in educating the public about their histories, but they have come together to learn more about one another. "I'm learning a lot about Indian history," says Katagiri, who first learned of the Modoc tribe while at Tule Lake and was stunned to learn that there were multiple Trails of Tears throughout Native American history beyond the notorious 1838 trek. Katagiri was interned at 15 with his parents and two siblings. He ultimately left camp and became a member of the top-secret U.S. Military Intelligence Service. Today, as a soft-spoken, white-haired man, he reminisces about losing his bicycle — his dearest possession at the time — when those interned could only bring with them to camp what they could carry from their homes. Although he was compensated in 1988 with a $20,000 check from the government, the payment was bittersweet, "To a boy who only lost his bicycle, it was quite a prize," he says. "But for our parents who had worked hard for 20 years, you couldn't pay them enough for what they lost."
HOMELESS IN THEIR OWN LAND The spirit of camaraderie between these communities is not new in Oregon. Gordon Bettles is the steward of the Longhouse and a member of the Klamath Tribe. He lived on the Klamath reservation until the tribe was terminated by Congress in 1954. As a child, his parents took him to visit the internment center at Tule Lake, 32 miles south of Klamath Falls. Although there were no longer Japanese interned there when he visited, the lesson was nonetheless poignant. "They told us about the internment," he says of his parents. "They said [the Japanese Americans] were treated like animals; they said this is exactly what happened to the Modoc tribe when they were forced off their cultural property and placed on the Klamath reservation. If you think about it, the reservation they kept us in was like internment. We couldn't leave unless we had passes, we couldn't communicate with other tribes. There was a commonality there. The Klamath used to go down to the fences and see if there was anything they could do [for the Japanese Americans]. They would go slip food in there just to help." Today, Hiroto Zakoji, a former internee at Tule Lake, has become the general manager of the reinstated Klamath Tribe and director of the Klamath Adult Indian Education and Training program.
The type of interaction described by Bettles was not uncommon. Chosen for their remote locations and undesirable terrain, reservations and internment camps were often located in close proximity to one another. Bob Tom recalls a similar encounter as child. "There was a camp at a hop yard out of Salem called Lakebrook. They had barbed wire, towers with guns, with Japanese people inside. There were little boys my age inside there and we just stared at each other through the fence." While there is no record of a camp existing there, the memory remains indelible to Tom.
LOOKING FORWARD Nowhere is the commonality between these distinct cultural groups more evident than in their attitude toward the future of their communities. When asked if they harbor any resentment for the injustice of their experience, the resounding answer is no. Bob Tom explains, "We have a common history in terms of inequities, civil rights violations and discrimination. It's a common question, 'Why aren't you bitter?' I think for that you have to look at what Japanese communities and what Indian communities are. We look at the health of the whole, we look at the past and the future. Bitterness and hatred aren't part of the original instructions of our community. It's unhealthy to be bitter although you can have reasons to be. We can't afford to dwell on inequities and bitterness. We have future generations to prepare and care for."
So why then erect a monument to past injustices? The monument is intended to be a teaching memorial. "What happened once can happen again," he says. Gordon Bettles agrees. "My mom's reason for showing us Tule Lake was because it shouldn't have happened and it shouldn't happen again. It makes you scared to think about what's happening now at Guantanamo Bay. The lesson my mom was trying to teach was that it was wrong then, which makes our generation say, 'Is it happening again?'"
What's Next? The common experiences of forced journeys will bring three communities together on Nov. 19. Temple Beth Israel is hosting a free event from 3 to 5 pm at the synagogue, 2550 Portland St. in Eugene. The wider community is invited. The event will honor the creation of the Eugene Japanese American Art Memorial and the support given for the memorial by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The program will feature Japanese American, Native American and Jewish American speakers sharing their experiences. Special guests will include Robert Kono, Bob Tom and Kenneth Helphand. Music and refreshments will follow. For more information contact Joan Bayliss at 344-5052.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
