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Failure of Government to Protect Rights-Failure of Due Process
February 19, 1942 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. In response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor 120,000 Japanese Americans were relocated to internment camps. Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1 from the Western Defense Command ordered the evacuation of all persons of Japanese descent March 23, 1942.
A Deafening Silence
This American government---what is it but a tradition, though a recent one,
endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing
some of its integrity? . . . . It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves:
and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will
surely split. (Henry David Thoreau)
March 23, 1942
“Everyone else is so brave. I don’t know why I think I can make any difference here.” Sister Crawford stood quietly in the crowded street, the excitement of those around her creating tension, the tension building on itself and teetering on the edge between euphoria and violence. She was there to protect the property of Brother and Sister Takai who were being gathered up and sent away. No one knew exactly where or for how long but the church members were determined not to let the Takai’s home be gutted and vandalized as many others had been.
February 19, 1942 JAPANESE RELOCATION ORDER was the death knell for freedom, democracy and all the honor her country had stood for. If Sister Elizabeth Crawford was disillusioned with America she wondered how Sister Takai felt. Sister Makiko, (Maki) Takai who had been born here, gone to school and church with Elizabeth, had her children here, farmed here, buried both her mother and father at the town cemetery. Maki had given so much to the community during the depression that had ended just eight years ago. Her farm had thrived and she shared with neighbors and...