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Somber Memories T
Seventy-five years have passed since Japanese-Americans were sent to camps during World War II. Here’s a look back at the relocations and how a decorated Army unit formed out of one of the camps.
his year marks the 75th anniver- sary of one of the most shameful episodes of World War II — the
forced relocation to internment camps of 117,000 Americans of Japanese descent. Concerned about national security fol-
lowing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an ex- ecutive order in February 1942 requiring the relocation of both citizens and noncitizens of Japanese ancestry. The order was issued ostensibly to protect Japanese-Americans from harm at the hands of zealots. The relocation to desolate regions of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming caused tre- mendous hardship for those affected. Thousands sold their houses, businesses, and possessions because they had no idea whether they would return home. “I remember the tall sentry towers, with the guns pointed down at us,” said actor George Takei at the preview of an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles in February, as reported by CNN. Along with his family, Takei first was incarcerated in Arkansas and later trans- ferred to a camp in California. In an attempt to prove their love of coun-
try, some male internees joined the U.S. Army. The result was the predominantly Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which became one of the most decorated regiments of the war. In 1988, Congress officially acknowl- edged the injustice of the relocation and
PHOTO: CLEM ALBERS/NATIONAL ARCHIVES
paid $20,000 to each person who had been sent away.
Command Module Tour n celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which will occur July
20, 2019, the Smith- sonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., is sending command module Columbia on a tour across the U.S. The craft has been
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on display at the Na- tional Air and Space Museum since 1976. The tour, orga-
nized by the Smithsonian Institution Trav- eling Exhibition Service, also will feature more than 20 one-of-a-kind artifacts from the mission and will stop at four museums: Space Center Houston: Oct. 14, 2017–
March 18, 2018; Saint Louis Science Center: April
14–Sept. 3, 2018; Senator John Heinz History Center,
Pittsburgh: Sept. 29, 2018–Feb. 18, 2019; and Museum of Flight, Seattle: March 16–
Sept. 2, 2019. The Apollo 11 command module will re- turn to Washington, D.C., in 2020.
MO
— Don Vaughan, a North Carolina-based free- lance writer, authors this monthly column.
more info: To learn more about Japanese-American veterans of World War II, visit
www.goforbroke.org. MAY 2017 MILITARY OFFICER 83
A World War I veteran, dressed in his service uniform, enters the Santa Anita, Calif., assembly center for per- sons of Japanese ancestry to be evacuated from the West Coast.
History Lesson On May 28, 1980, the first classes of female cadets and midshipmen graduated from the U.S. Military, Naval, Air Force, and Coast Guard academies.
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