This educational supplement
commemorates the 70th
anniversary of Japanese
Americans being removed
from Seattle during World War
II. It is created in the spirit of
promoting a strong and vibrant
democracy, ongoing questioning
and deliberation of issues from
a diversity of perspectives, and
the importance of an active and
participatory citizenry.
I
t was the spring of 1942 when young Norman, his parents, three sisters and older brother were forced from their homes in San
Jose, California, and incarcerated in Wyoming. “Murderers, arsonists, even assassins and spies get trials. But not young boys
born and raised in San Jose who happen to have odd sounding last names. Is that what this country is about?” he wondered. The
government even took away his baseball bat, fearing it could be used as a weapon.
What led up to this event was a surprise attack by Japan on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which caused the
United States to enter World War II. Norman’s parents had emigrated from Japan 40 years earlier. And although Norman was born
in America, was a U.S. citizen, and knew no other country, he looked like the enemy.
Many Americans believed people like Norman and his family were the enemy. Wartime hysteria had swept the country and within
a few months, 110,000 Japanese Americans living in Washington, Oregon, California and parts of Arizona — two-thirds who were
American citizens — were forcibly removed from their homes and businesses. Most were held in desolate, inland concentration
camps for the duration of the war.
Fast-forward
to the fall of 2002, Chloe was eight years old and in the second grade when a book on the anniversary of the 9/11
tragedy inadvertently turned her classmates against her. She and her family were practicing Muslims in a community where there
were few Muslims, something that the family had enjoyed because they wanted to be in a place where many different kinds of
people lived together …
(Continued on page 2)
“What did I do to scare the government?”
— asked ten-year-old Norman
American Infamy #5
Courtesy of Roger Shimonura
Newspapers In Education and Densho Present
