The Sonoma County Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) joins with the majority of Americans to denounce all those who harass, intimidate and terrorize minority communities and individuals across the nation.
The most recent events in Charlottesville with white nationalists and the terrorist bombing of the Minnesota mosque just the weekend before are reminders that hate and bigotry continue as a blight in America.
The white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and alt-right groups in Charlottesville, standing near synagogues with semi-automatic rifles and marching in the dark with torches, hands raised in a Sieg Heil salute and shouting “Jews will not replace us!” was more than reminiscent of the Nazis in World War II. The fact that a person was killed and many more injured in a terrorist car attack associated with the event makes it even more heinous and reprehensible.
Just the weekend prior to Charlottesville, a mosque in Minnesota was the target of a terrorist attack when a bomb was thrown through its window. This incident is just one in the rising number of terrorist attacks against mosques and anyone thought to be Muslim in America. This year, 2017, more than any year between 2009 and 2016, is on track to having the greatest number of bias incidents against Muslims in America, that include harassments, intimidations and terrorist attacks against mosques and individuals.
The history of Japanese Americans is just one example of how far prejudice and hatred can go. During World War II, the racial prejudice toward Japanese immigrants in America that had been brewing for decades culminated in the incarceration of 120,000 men, women and children of Japanese descent into concentration camps. More than 70 percent or 84,000 of those incarcerated were American citizens, born in the United States.
The forced removal of any person who was at least one-eighth Japanese meant that everyone from great-grandfathers to infants were imprisoned in concentration camps. What started as resentment, unchecked racial prejudice and derogatory slurs culminated with the government sentencing, without any accusations or trial, innocent people to years of unjust mass incarceration during wartime hysteria with thousands of families losing their life savings, homes and livelihoods.
Locally, Sonoma County Japanese American families were taken and forced to live in the Amache Concentration Camp in the high desert of Colorado. They had to leave behind their beloved Enmanji Buddhist Temple in Sebastopol, which had just been erected eight years earlier. They boarded it up not knowing when they would return.
During the time of the incarceration, the temple was vandalized. The scars of hatchet marks and scorched panels are still evident from the attempt to chop and burn down the building. Luckily, Sonoma County Japanese Americans had many loyal and helpful friends from the greater community; and when the incident of the Enmanji Temple vandalism was reported, a group of local teenagers from the Sebastopol Congregational Church decided to help protect the temple.
They took turns on weekends, throughout the night, to stand vigil against any more threats for several months after the incident. There were no further attempts to vandalize the temple. Some of the teenagers did not know any of the Enmanji congregation, but took a stand to protect the temple because they felt it was the right thing to do.
The Sonoma County Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League joins with the majority of other organizations, communities and individuals across the nation to declare that the United States of America stands for and must safeguard inclusion and equality for all regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, ability, gender or sexual orientation.
Let the Sebastopol teenagers during World War II be an example, both in times of subtle discrimination and in this time of overt hatred and bigotry, to stand up and do the right thing. Lend a voice, step up and show support, either by joining a group or individually, to those who are victimized by injustice and intolerance on a daily basis. Take a stand against racism, bigotry, discrimination and hate crimes.
Marie Sugiyama and Mark Hayashi are co-presidents of the Sonoma County Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League. This commentary was submitted on behalf of the board of directors.
