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Nichi Bei Times, May 31, 2000
Controversy over the planned National Japanese American "Memorial to Patriotism" refuses to dissipate, as a grassroots movement opposing the memorial’s inscriptions has steadily gained momentum. Close to 500 signatures have been collected on a resolution urging a formal review of the memorial, JAvoice.com: Committee for a Fair and Accurate Memorial said Tuesday.
The memorial, scheduled to be completed and dedicated on U.S. National Park Service (NPS) land in Washington, D.C. in November, has sparked a widespread controversy.
At the heart of the nationwide debate is the inclusion of an inscription by controversial wartime Japanese American Citizens League leader Mike Masaoka. Also central to the debate is the process by which all inscriptions were approved.
A wide range of community members — including scholars, farmers, clergy, business owners, and veterans — have already signed the resolution. They, along with a number of organizations, submit that portions of the inscriptions are "misleading and inappropriate" and protest the process through which they were approved.
The resolution asks that U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt "oversee the integrity of the Japanese American national memorial and fully investigate the NPS to ensure that it has fulfilled its duties, obligations, and mandates."
William Hohri, author and lead plaintiff in the 1984 class action lawsuit for Japanese American redress, says that the memorial as it is now planned "may be as much a memorial to betrayal and falsified history as it is to patriotism."
Private donors contributed more than $11 million to construct the memorial, many without knowledge of the controversial inscriptions to be included, the grassroots movement argues.
At the center of the dispute is the plan to inscribe a modified portion of a "creed" written by a private individual, Masaoka. It says, "I am proud that I am an American of Japanese ancestry. I believe in this nation’s institutions, ideals, and traditions; I glory in her heritage; I boast of her history; I trust in her future."
"The surface of this quotation does not reveal the boiling controversy underneath it, which has rich and symbolic meaning in terms of accommodation to and cooperation with government officials, despite oppression and repression," a JAvoice spokesperson noted.
Critics of this quotation argue that it is unrepresentative and that the inclusion of Masaoka, whose role in Japanese American history is highly controversial, will only serve to divide the community.
The role Masaoka played during World War II as field secretary for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) has been the subject of debate for 60 years, and it has continued to anger many. His position of complete and full cooperation and collaboration with the government, despite massive civil and constitutional rights violations, led to widespread turmoil, protests and riots while Japanese Americans were still held in U.S. concentration camps, JAvoice said in a statement.
Despite the passage of time and Masaoka’s death in 1991, this dissension and resentment are very much alive today, as witnessed by numerous letters in the Nikkei vernaculars arguing for and against the omission of his quotation.
"This memorial will be marred by continuous and vociferous controversy long after the memorial’s dedication if the inscriptions remain as approved by the NPS," says Rita Takahashi, a professor at San Francisco State University and a dissenting board member of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF). This organization has been overseeing the overall construction of the memorial, including submitting the inscriptions to the NPS for approval.
"The memorial should unify people, not split and divide them," Takahashi added. "Therefore, Masaoka’s quotation and attribution should be deleted." Don Matsuda, president of Club 100 veterans group in Hawaii, further suggested that, "It would be wrong to build a monument that is rife with controversy, dredges up bad memories, and causes anger and hurt."
Masaoka himself was never incarcerated in a concentration camp. Yet, as leader of an organization that claimed to represent the West Coast Japanese American population, he testified during the Tolan U.S. Congressional hearings in 1942 that Japanese Americans would willingly sacrifice their constitutional rights to show their "loyalty" by cooperating and going into concentration camps. He added, "I think sincerely, if the military says ‘Move out,’ we will be glad to move..."
His position, however, was shared by few of the tens of thousands who were actually uprooted and detained "without a shred of due process," the JAvoice spokesperson said.
Masaoka’s stance went beyond mere words. According to the spokesperson, Masaoka admitted that, "JACL did cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Naval Intelligence, and other agencies by furnishing them with all the information which we might have had at our disposal regarding the suspects the agencies questioned us about. This is the duty of every American."
Ron Takaki, a noted professor and historian at UC Berkeley, says, "Many Japanese Americans are very troubled by Masaoka’s super zealousness in cooperating and even supporting the unconstitutional policies of the federal government."
Adding to this sentiment, film producer and businesswoman Chizu Omori says, "It is almost an insult to the rest of us who don’t feel that we have to be 200 percent ‘American’ to show that we deserve to be here."
Former National JACL President Clifford Uyeda takes exception to such zealousness at the expense of rights. He said, "Americans admire those who live up to the principles of our nation. Not those who ‘make excuses’ to being treated as non-Americans...The true creed is to honor the promises contained in our Constitution."
Further, he said, "It would be an everlasting disgrace to have the ‘JACL Creed’ inscribed in stone for perpetuity. Unless it is changed...this monument will split the JA community forever."
Steve Yoda, historian for Stanford University Nikkei (SUN), a student organization, is troubled by the implications of including Masaoka’s "creed." He says this "blindly patriotic oath fans the model minority myth." In addition, he says "To inscribe any portion of [this creed] upon this memorial is to enshrine passivity — even when faced with civil rights violations. What an embarrassment."
The process used to approve Masaoka’s quotation has also come under fire. Critics point out that the NJAMF board failed to follow its own procedural guidelines and approved the names of persons whose quotes were to be inscribed without even knowing the actual text to be engraved. Moreover, the NPS, responsible for historical accuracy of national monuments, approved the proposed quotation "despite being made aware of its contentiousness and misleading and incorrect nature through hundreds of letters of protest," JAvoice said.
In a joint letter dated Dec. 22, 1999, a minority of eight dissenting NJAMF board members had this to say about the NJAMF: "Decision making processes frequently reflect a blatant disregard for following proper process. Ignoring, side-stepping and violating procedures are improper, disrespectful, and dangerous (if not illegal)."
NJAMF Executive Director Cherry Tsutsumida argues that there was ample opportunity to comment on the memorial.
"To talk as if they were closed out is nonsense," she argued. "They were at the table like anyone else."
Tsutsumida noted that the NJAMF board "acted at least five times" on the Masaoka issue.
The JAvoice grassroots group, however, noted that "A motion to add quotations to the memorial inscription was made without disclosure of the specific quotations. Only names of individuals were identified (including one by Mike Masaoka...). Immediate action on this motion was allowed, and the board passed the motion without knowledge of what was to be included." The eight NJAMF board members (Harry Fukuhara, Phil Ishio, Kelly Kuwayama, Jun Mori, Don Nakanishi, Frank Sogi, Turk Suzuki, and Rita Takahashi) also took exception with lack of information to the community. They said, "The NJAMF has neither disseminated important information to the community (e.g. the proposed inscriptions) nor encouraged or invited public comment."
The resolution states that "The NJAMF, supported by the NPS, imposed their will on the public without proper notice to the community and ample opportunities for public response, using similar processes to the ones enacted by certain Japanese American ‘leaders’ during World War II..."
Reaction From NJAMF The Website and resolution has left NJAMF Executive Director Tsutsumida "very distressed." According to Tsutsumida, this latest action has the potential to "severely damage" the scheduled production of the memorial. Some donors, Tsutsumida admits, have asked for their donations back. However, she also noted that she could count such donors "on one hand," signifying continued support for the NJAMF.
"Our real community is voting with their checkbooks," she said.
Reconsidering the Masaoka quote, Tsutsumida claimed, may have an even greater adverse fundraising effect, as she argues that the pro-Masaoka faction is the "backbone" of fundraising efforts for the memorial. As the memorial is in the process of being laid out — Tsutsumida could not say whether the engraving process has begun — she was planning to talk to NJAMF board Chair Melvin Chiogioji Tuesday afternoon.
"I really understand a lot about what is going on," Tsutsumida explained. "But I do think much of it lacks a (historical) context...It’s a generational problem. The Nisei love Mike. The Issei love Mike. But the Sansei have a problem with him."
The next NJAMF board meeting is scheduled for the first week of July at the Radisson Miyako Hotel in San Francisco.
The Website JAvoice.com: Committee for a Fair and Accurate Memorial was formed by "a broad-based group of concerned individuals." It has launched a Website, http://www.JAvoice.com, which provides background information and advocates for a representative and historically accurate national Japanese American memorial. The Website features the resolution, names of those who have signed the resolution, full text of the inscriptions, letters from resolution supporters, background news articles, historical documents and commentary. Visitors can also take action by signing the resolution online. Aside from many prominent individuals, the following organizations have also signed onto the resolution: Honolulu chapter of the Japanese Americans Citizens League, Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California, Manzanar Committee, San Francisco State University Asian American studies faculty and Stanford University Nikkei. To sign the resolution and for further information, visit http://www.JAvoice.com on the World Wide Web.