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58-YEAR SMOLDERING ISSUE IGNITES OVER JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MEMORIAL

By: Rita Takahashi
2 August 2000

Submitted to Bob Berger, Op-Ed Editor, and Cherry Gee, Los Angeles Times

A Japanese American national memorial will be dedicated in Washington, D.C., on November 9, 2000. Any fanfare for this event will be overshadowed by a nationwide protest over the words that are etched in the stones of this memorial. The inscriptions compromise the credibility of the whole memorial, and the historical inaccuracies are an embarrassment of monumental proportions.

Scholars, researchers, historians, and concerned individuals from throughout the nation wrote letters to the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation (NJAMF) and the National Park Service (NPS), asking that changes be made to make the inscriptions historically accurate. Both failed to make necessary corrections, despite a deluge of letters pinpointing specific inaccuracies and documenting sources to justify the need for revisions.

Many are incensed with the National Park Service because they shirked their oversight responsibilities for memorials located on their land. More than a thousand individuals, organizations, and groups signed a resolution identifying the wrongs and "objecting to the NPS's failure to fulfill its mandate to ensure accuracy and integrity of the memorial, and protesting the NJAMF's lack of respect for and sensitivity to the rich diversity of the Japanese American community."

The resolution to Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, calls on him to "oversee the integrity" of the memorial and to "fully investigate the NPS to ensure that it has fulfilled its duties, obligations, and mandates."

Further, the nationwide resolution asks that the "misquoted controversial 'creed,'" written by Mike Masaoka, be deleted. To many, what Masaoka represents is the opposite of what the memorial is supposed to convey - vigilance for human, civil and constitutional rights. At a critical policy making period during World War II, Masaoka and the organization he represented, the Japanese American Citizens League, advocated "constructive cooperation" with all government policies.

They actively encouraged and pressured people to comply, even if it meant that they would be rounded up, forcefully removed from Western states, and incarcerated in concentration camps based solely on their ancestry. Masaoka testified before Congress that ". . . if the military says "Move out," we will be glad to move. . ." Further, official documents reveal that they supplied information to intelligence sources, which adversely affected many, and they recommended their own set of oppressive and discriminatory policies.

Recognizing community resentment against him, Masaoka testified before a federal commission on July 16, 1981:

"You will hear about me because I was 'Moses' Masaoka, the only Christian who ever led his people out of civilized communities into desert camps, and I know what it means to have people of my own race make little effigies of me and defecate and urinate on them."

The anger and pain caused by Masaoka and JACL's words and deeds have smoldered in the Japanese American community for fifty-eight years. A grassroots movement ignited when the NJAMF decided to inscribe Masaoka's words on the memorial, to attribute his name, and to label him a "civil rights advocate." Many who researched and experienced that historical period were angered by the revisionist history and propelled to take action. One visitor to the protest movement's website posted the message, "if people are planning to demonstrate against the CHIQUITA [BANANA] MEMORIAL dedication . . . I'd be willing to come."

A 21-member committee named after its website, JAvoice.com, indicates that it will carry on its work for historical accuracy, per the mandates of resolution signers who continue to log onto the website and sign on everyday. Now, Congressional committees having oversight responsibility over the NPS and U.S. Department of Interior must address issues of public accountability, duty, and trust .