The journey was special. I had never traveled so far or in such luxury. We had that compartment all to ourselves. Along the way, I saw people in the fields and at the stations just being themselves. Usual- ly, they would take the time to wave. Of course, we waved back. Once, I waved to some- one who did not wave back. Staring more intently, it turned out I was waving at a scarecrow.
from their homes and busi- nesses by the irrational fear of a few people in power within the government. Regardless of the intern- ment, or maybe because of it, 20,000 Japanese-Ameri- can men and women served honorably in the U.S. Army during World War II. It wasn’t until 1980 that Pres- ident Jimmy Carter opened an investigation to determine
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whether the decision to put Japanese-Amer- icans into internment camps had been justi- fied. The Commission’s report titled Personal Justice Denied , found little evidence of disloy- alty, and concluded that the incarceration had been the product of racism, recommending that the government pay reparations to the survivors. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Civil Liberties Act, which apologized for the internment on behalf of the U.S. Government and authorized a payment of $20,000 to each of them.
We reached the end of the line, arriving in California a few days before I turned 19. Our first stop was an empty Japanese-Amer- ican internment camp. We moved in. It was a completely fenced in area that was more like a prison than a barracks. The buildings were quickly built wooden tar-papered shacks. After the war, I learned that between 110,000 and 120,000 American citizens of Japanese heritage suffered an enormous indignity in those camps. They were torn
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Herman during Basic Training. 1943
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