Tag Archives: Japanese Internment

Emil Guillermo: New Amok podcast, “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” on the kidnapping claims of the forgotten people of the Japanese Internment during WWII, Japanese from Latin America

You can call it “The Other Roundup.”
Art Shibayama will tell you exactly what it meant to him and why all Americans need to be ashamed.

Shibayama was just a 12-year-old boy in Lima,Peru. A Peruvian citizen.
His whole family was taken by the U.S. government and incarcerated in America.

If you don’t know about the Japanese Latin American part of the World War II internment story, you’re not alone.

When Executive Order 9066 cleared the way for the round-up of Japanese and Japanese Americans in the U.S. at the start of World War II, a different kind  of roundup was taking place in Latin America, especially Peru.

The U.S. government was taking Latin American citizens of Japanese descent, what the victims call kidnappings. Those taken were of all ages, and often, whole families were rounded-up. They were placed on U.S. ships and took a long boat ride to America.  They lived in camps like one set up in Crystal City, Texas.

Art Shibayama says they were kidnapped to provide the U.S. a supply of pawns to trade for U.S. GIs held by the Japanese.

His story on my podcast, “Emil Amok’s Takeout.”

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The most liberal thing Ronald Reagan ever did…

was his progressive use of hair color.

Now that was the kind of black he really could get into.

He also passed the Civil Liberties Act of  1988, 25 years ago this month.

How can we forget it?  Easy. Do you remember what the Act even did?

But Stop and Frisk policies will help jog your memory. Stop and Frisk is like the internment—without the housing. 

Read my blog at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund website.

 

Linceblog: 442nd hero Lawson Sakai honored at San Francisco Giants Japanese Heritage Night; Then Cliff Lee and Phils end the Giants’ win streak with 6-2 beatdown; UPDATE-Giants doppleganged 6-2, by right-handed Lee clone

Lawson Sakai, 442 vet and Congressional Gold Medal awardee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throwing out the first pitch on this night was a man who was playing third base for his college baseball team during the Pearl Harbor attack.

Lawson Sakai was a student at Compton College in Los Angeles,  but when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during the war, his family was sent to live in Manzanar. While in camp, he volunteered for the Army where he served with the celebrated 442nd. The late Senator Dan Inouye was one of his company mates.

Sakai said he was saddened when his close friend died last year in December.  “He said Hawaii would lose so much if he retired,” said Sakai. “So he died with his boots on.”

 

left to right: Col. Brian Shiroyama; USAF Capt Kiyo Sato; Asa Hanamoto; Sakai; Terry Nakanishi, Women’s Army Corps, MIS; Dr.Howard Kline, physician to Nisei vets.

 

 

Sakai, 90 in October, is  retired and living in the South Bay, where he is a Giants fan and often reflects on what the 442nd accomplished.

“We were really outcasts, in 1943,” said Sakai. “If the Nisei didn’t join the 442nd and fight the Germans, we (Japanese Americans)  would not be here today.”

 

89-year-old Sakai throws out the first pitch

 

Now for the other pitches of the night in the actual game.

Oh yeah, the game.

This was supposed to be a pitching duel between the Phillies’ Cliff Lee, and the Giants’ best pitcher of the season, Madison Bumgarner.

In addition, the Giants came into this game euphoric with a six-game streak after sweeping the Dodgers.  The Giants are now also the official comeback kids of the National League, tied with the Orioles in the Majors with 11  late rally victories.

That’s a lot of drama.

So you know it was OK to spot the Philadelphia Phillies for 3 runs in the 2nd.

They would come back, right? Even with Cliff Lee, who’s been 3-0 with a 0.51 ERA at AT&T Park?

Big question marks.

For the Giants, only Hunter Pence stayed streaky hot. He homered in the bottom of the 2nd, and scored  the Giants second run after a double in the 8th.

He was the lone offensive spark on a night the other Giants couldn’t get on base.

So there was no drama. This was more an informercial for Phillies starter Cliff Lee.

The night belonged to Lee, who scattered five hits (including the Pence HR), and kept the Giants at bay with 6 strikeouts.

Bumgarner had 7 strikeouts, but the Phillies were hitting him hard all night.

S’not his night, you might say. 

Bum’s line: 8 hits, 5 runs, one homer run, 2 wild pitches, 100 pitches in all.

That really might have been enough to win if the Giants were hitting like they did in the Dodger series.

No such luck with the Phillies, not when Cliff Lee is on his game to shut down the drama.

UPDATE-5-8-2013  Giants doppleganged as Phils win again 6-2 

 On the anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants’ arrival to the U.S. (May 7, 1843), the coincidence of having a Filipino American starting pitcher may have seemed like the stars were aligned for the Giants on Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

But Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick doesn’t know much about history—as Sam Cook would say.

He created his own history against the Giants, facing them for the first time and making them look foolish at the plate

In 7 innings, Kendrick gave up just 6 hits, 2 runs, and posted six  strikeouts, with no walks.

He had it going.

And Giants hero Tim Lincecum didn’t.

Lince’s line: 7 innings, 9 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts, 1 HR.

Getting to be a similar story each Lince-start.  Signs of brilliance, but it takes a while for it to show in a game. If he’s not on right away, he starts losing it. Runs score, maybe a big inning. And then he settles, is good. And then it’s up to the hitters. That’s the pattern.

Pitching wise, Lincecum doesn’t talk mechanics so much as his “rhythm.”  His rhythm is like a dancer’s. If he’s out of step, he’s all left feet.  In ballet, in baseball, it’s subtle but noticeable. 

Still, it may have been a good enough effort to win, if the Giants’ batters were able to solve Kendrick.

They weren’t.

The Giants were out-pitched,  out-hit, 12-7, and with  2 errors, out-played.

This early in the season, all you can say is, “Next.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You didn’t miss it…Fred T. Korematsu Day officially is on Wednesday, Jan 30

Korematsu, who passed away in 2010, would have been 94 on Jan. 30.  And the state of Hawaii is set to celebrate his birthday  in style as the 3rd state to honor Korematsu with an official day.

Karen Korematsu called it her life mission to have every state proclaim an FTK day commemorating freedom, diversity and civil liberties until it’s recognized nationally.

I saw Karen on Sunday at the San Francisco celebration for her father. It was special because it brought together a diverse group of Asian American heroes.

It was like an Asian American Hall of Fame for Civil Rights. Three years after the intial FTK Day, the Korematsu Institute wisely chose to spread the love.

Read my post on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog.