Photography by Dorothea Lange, Courtesy of National Archives
The Mochida Family
A new traveling exhibit is on display at the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum in downtown St. Louis, and it highlights the experience of Japanese Americans who were forced into internment camps during World War II. Righting a Wrong combines the stories of local residents with the overall history of internment camps throughout America. It runs until October 10 in the special exhibit galleries of the lower floor of the memorial.
The effects of Order 9066, which President Franklin Roosevelt signed on February 19, 1942, have reached into present day, not just in St. Louis, but across the country. The exhibit begins with the background of Japanese immigrants in the United States, which began with the arrival of agricultural workers to Hawaii in the 1860s, shortly after the annexation of that island chain by America. For much of the 19th century, anti-Asian prejudice and violence had been directed toward Chinese immigrants who arrived in much greater numbers to the U.S. mainland, which I wrote about in 2019. However, as more Japanese immigrated to Washington, Oregon, and California, in the 20th century, prejudice and laws legalizing discrimination began to appear. One example was Oregon’s 1923 Alien Land Law, passed to specifically prevent the purchase of orchard land by Japanese immigrants. It was spurred by jealousy of the success of Japanese orchard owners in the Hood River Valley.
Then the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, and racism and prejudice toward Japanese Americans came out in full force. Months after the declaration of war and the signing of Order 9066, 75,000 Japanese American citizens and 45,000 non-citizens of Japanese descent were ordered to report to assembly centers. While the government didn’t technically seize any property, Japanese Americans were forced to sell their houses and businesses so quickly—sometimes in a matter of days—that many if not most ended up settling for ridiculously low offers that exploited their desperation. The few lucky ones were sometimes able to get their white neighbors to hold onto their property, not knowing when or if they would ever be able to return to claim it. Chinese Americans were now seen as the allies of the war effort.
Courtesy of Haru Tanaka
A flower corsage created from shells for Haru Tanaka
Perhaps one of my favorite items on display is a cactus wood walking stick. It literally represents the harsh, arid. and inhospitable living conditions of many of the camps located in the desert Southwest. It also figuratively and spiritually symbolizes the ability of Japanese internees to find beauty and purpose in their plight and confinement, held without charges in the United States. Another object consists of a lotus flower made out of shells found by an internee, carefully put together one by one. And as the exhibit explains, life went on, and another object on display is a Bureau of Indian Affairs diploma, but in this case, granted to a Japanese American held in an internment camp.
Out of the forced relocation also came generosity, when Washington University offered a path out of the camps for several talented young men. Gyo Obata was originally from San Francisco, but his family was interned at a camp. Only Washington University was accepting Japanese Americans during World War II, and Obata settled in St. Louis, establishing one of the most prominent architecture firms in the world, HOK. Two of the most elegant designs of Modernist architecture in St. Louis—the Priory and the Planetarium—are works that came out of Obata’s move to the Gateway City. Richard Henmi, who was also held in an internment camp, came to St. Louis at Washington University’s invitation, and we have the “Flying Saucer” building in Grand Center to our benefit.
Courtesy of National Archives
The 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Yet despite the injustices done to Japanese Americans, they remained steadfast in their loyalty to the United States, even in the camps. Tens of thousands of Japanese Americans served in the armed forces in Europe, including the 100th Infantry Battalion in Italy.
Finally, Mitsuyo Endo filed a lawsuit, Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, that traveled all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in October 1944 that the holding of American citizens without charge was unconstitutional. The camps were closed, but the war was now drawing to a close.
Courtesy of Eric Federing
President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties' Act of 1988
The exhibit closes with what happened after the war, as Japanese Americans rebuilt their lives and sought justice from the United States. Government efforts after the war were surprisingly bipartisan, beginning with Gerald Ford formally terminating Order 9066 on February 19, 1976. Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which released a report in 1982, "Personal Justice Denied," officially stating there was no military basis to Order 9066, and that the decision to issue the forced internment of Japanese Americans was based more on prejudice than reasonable fears. Then, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, the Civil Liberties Act was passed, leading to payments of $20,000 during the George Bush administration. But as the decades pass by since the Second World War, and the memory of the injustices inflicted on Japanese Americans fades, we are in need of reminders of a period of American history that wasn’t our proudest.
