President Roosevelt's authorization of Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942, sent my maternal great-grandparents and their two young daughters lives into a spiral. My great-grnadmother was Nissei while my great-grandfather was Issei. My great-grandmother was twenty-two, my great grandfather was twenty-four, my aunty Sally was two, and my grandmother was all of a year old. Their lives, disrupted in the after math of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Forced by their government to enter an internment camp justified by "military necessity." Within a matter of a few days after the passing of Executive Order 9066, they were expected to pack their lives up in "as much as they could carry." They were then sent to the Tule Lake internment camps located in California. While in the internment camp, my great-grandmother gave birth to my uncle in January of 1945. Later that year, the war ended and by the end of 1945 my family was released from Tule Lake. With three young children, one of them being an infant, my great-grandparents were on the road to rebuild the lives that had been destroyed largely in part to the United States government. There was not one Japanese-American found guilty of espionage. Three years after the conclusion of the war, the redress process began. Initially, the Japanese-Americans were given ten-cents for every dollar that they lost. The Redress Bill was signed by President Reagan in 1988, however it was not until two years later, in 1990, fifty years after the Japanese-Americans had been interned, that the first redress payments of $20,000 were received. All five of my family members that were interned received their redress check. Although my family was content with the redress, they said that no amount of money would be able to compensate for the three years they spent in the internment camps.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Effects of Pearl Harbor Hits Home (literally and figuratively)
As we have seen in our reading from Takaki and the video we watched in class today, the repercussions of December 7th, 1941, had on our nation and more specifically, those of Japanese ancestry were huge. The effects of December 7th, 1941, can be seen on both sides of my family. My paternal grandmother was five years old the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She lived in the town of Waipahu located in the central/ leeward side of O'ahu with her mother and nine siblings. For those of you who don't know, Waipahu is about 5 miles or so from Pearl Harbor. On Sunday, December 7th, 1941, my grandmother and her family were awaken to the shaking of their house. Their initial thought was an earthquake had shaken their house, but after a few moments, the sounds of bombs exploding quickly made them realize this was no earthquake. Within minutes, stray bullets found their way onto my family's property. As any child would react, my grandmother and her siblings were driven to tears. Being that my family had 11 members, they were always tight with their money. Ice cream was something hard to come by for them and was rarely indulged in. You may be wondering where I am going with this. Anyways, my great-grandmother took all of her ten children out to eat ice cream because they literally thought they were going to die that very day. Fortunately, my family did not suffer any casualties or physical injury, however, the emotional and mental damage did it's damage. Although the events of Pearl Harbor took place a little over seventy-one years ago, my grandmother still has nightmares of December 7th, 1941.
President Roosevelt's authorization of Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942, sent my maternal great-grandparents and their two young daughters lives into a spiral. My great-grnadmother was Nissei while my great-grandfather was Issei. My great-grandmother was twenty-two, my great grandfather was twenty-four, my aunty Sally was two, and my grandmother was all of a year old. Their lives, disrupted in the after math of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Forced by their government to enter an internment camp justified by "military necessity." Within a matter of a few days after the passing of Executive Order 9066, they were expected to pack their lives up in "as much as they could carry." They were then sent to the Tule Lake internment camps located in California. While in the internment camp, my great-grandmother gave birth to my uncle in January of 1945. Later that year, the war ended and by the end of 1945 my family was released from Tule Lake. With three young children, one of them being an infant, my great-grandparents were on the road to rebuild the lives that had been destroyed largely in part to the United States government. There was not one Japanese-American found guilty of espionage. Three years after the conclusion of the war, the redress process began. Initially, the Japanese-Americans were given ten-cents for every dollar that they lost. The Redress Bill was signed by President Reagan in 1988, however it was not until two years later, in 1990, fifty years after the Japanese-Americans had been interned, that the first redress payments of $20,000 were received. All five of my family members that were interned received their redress check. Although my family was content with the redress, they said that no amount of money would be able to compensate for the three years they spent in the internment camps.
President Roosevelt's authorization of Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942, sent my maternal great-grandparents and their two young daughters lives into a spiral. My great-grnadmother was Nissei while my great-grandfather was Issei. My great-grandmother was twenty-two, my great grandfather was twenty-four, my aunty Sally was two, and my grandmother was all of a year old. Their lives, disrupted in the after math of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Forced by their government to enter an internment camp justified by "military necessity." Within a matter of a few days after the passing of Executive Order 9066, they were expected to pack their lives up in "as much as they could carry." They were then sent to the Tule Lake internment camps located in California. While in the internment camp, my great-grandmother gave birth to my uncle in January of 1945. Later that year, the war ended and by the end of 1945 my family was released from Tule Lake. With three young children, one of them being an infant, my great-grandparents were on the road to rebuild the lives that had been destroyed largely in part to the United States government. There was not one Japanese-American found guilty of espionage. Three years after the conclusion of the war, the redress process began. Initially, the Japanese-Americans were given ten-cents for every dollar that they lost. The Redress Bill was signed by President Reagan in 1988, however it was not until two years later, in 1990, fifty years after the Japanese-Americans had been interned, that the first redress payments of $20,000 were received. All five of my family members that were interned received their redress check. Although my family was content with the redress, they said that no amount of money would be able to compensate for the three years they spent in the internment camps.
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Dane,
ReplyDeleteNice post. It is hard to discuss these things w/ family, but really good. As much as my parents hated talking about internment, I could tell that they really did want to share.