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street roots
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April 29,2011
‘FBI: Taken' exhibit resonates
with Portland filmmaker
Neil H. Sim on’s documentary looks inside the
daily life o f a unique internment camp that was
the destination of Portland’s Japanese residents
BY LEAH INGRAM
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
Z I ^h e Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center is
I home to the remnants and artifacts of
J L Japanese Americans who lived
through the legal arrests and internment
camps following the ratification of Executive
Order 9066 in February of 1942. The halls
of their museum on SW 2nd Avenue shows
photographs, maps and life size replicas of
the living arrangements at the internment
camps, as well as a
portion dedicated to
the lesser known FBI
arrests of Japanese
community leaders
mere hours after the
1941 bombing of Pearl
Harbor. Award-winning
filmmaker and
journalist Neil Simon
N©il H. Simon partnered with the
“FBI: Taken” exhibit in
the Oregon Nikkei
ilegacyC ente^to^edTigm o r m e s e *
obscure arrests and the following years of
internment in the “special” camp in Santa
Fe through his new documentary “Prisoners
and Patriots: The Untold Story of Japanese
American Internment in Santa Fe, New
Mexico.”
Simon’s documentary depicts the
confusion and feelings of helplessness which
Japanese Americans faced after the sudden
arrests, as described through interviews
with former detainees and their children.
The arrests were swift and without warning,
but illustrated an element of premeditation
on the part of the U.S. government The
Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center reveals that
President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to
the Chief of Naval Operations in 1936 “that
every Japanese citizen or non-citizen on the
Island of O’ahu who meets these Japanese
ships ... should be secretly but definitely
identified and his or her name be placed on
a special list of those who would be the first
to be placed in a concentration camp in the
event of trouble.”
Former detainees express exasperationat
the hitherto unspoken caveats of citizenship
as they were forced to undergo loyalty tests
and sham trials. Many of the men who were
arrested had sons in the American Aimed
Forces, and yet, when these soldiers visited
their fathers, they were allowed to converse
only in the presence of armed guards.
Simon’s documentary explores the daily life
inside the internment camps as well as the
intricacies of what it meant to be a citizen as
well as an immigrant during World War II.
Leah Ingram: The only remaining
physical indication of the Santa Fe camp is a
small memorial marker in the middle of what
is now a housing development. Do you believe
that the camps have largely been forgotten?
What do you hope to achieve through renewed
attention to these camps?
Neil H. Simon: This film is being
produced so that we always remember the
type of discrimination our Japanese and
Japanese-American friends and neighbors
faced during World War II. I hope recalling
the story of the war time hysteria and the
creation of the Santa Fe Internment Camp
will give viewers pause to think about how
they can work to encourage policies and
actions that promote tolerance and drive
our country away from repeating any
practice like that aimed at the Japanese in
the 1940s.
L.I.: Your film shows an emphasis on the
good treatment that the detainees received in
the Santa Fe camp. Why was this the case and
why did you highlight it in your film? ,
N.S.: “Prisoners and Patriots” reflects the
true story of what happened in Santa Fe, as
told to me through first-hand accounts and
as recorded in family letters and previously
unpublished documents. My original
research and interviews show that the day-
to-day experience in the camp was diverse.
There was censorship. There were
But there were also a lot pf routine good
times that included Japanese cultural
activities, sporty* and other recreation. It
would be dishonest to make a film about the
Santy Fe Camp and exclude these memories
relayed from the men who were imprisoned
there.
L.I.: State Representatives were insistent bn
endorsing Executive Order 9066 (which stated
all Japanese immigrants and citizens must
report to officials for detainment). This law
was not passed until Feb. 19, whereas the FBI
arrests began the very night o f the bombing of
Pearl Harbor. What was the public reaction to
these early arrests?
N.S.: The public reaction to the FBI
arrests that occurred on Dec. 7,1941 or
shortly thereafter was by and large
supportive of the government action. The
United States was at war with Japan, and
the government targeted men for arrest who
had either dealt directly with Japanese
embassy officials, worked for Japanese
embassy officials or were in positions of
perceived power from where they could
exercise any loyalty to Japan. Therefore, the
Japanese had precious few people standing
up for them in 1941 amid the rush to
judgment that found them confined in jails
and later Department of Justice-rim camps,
like Santa Fe.
L.I.: Do you think that public opinion
concerning the rights of immigrants has
shifted since World War I I or that the Japanese
internment camps have swayed public practice
concerning immigrants either positively or
negatively?
N.S.: Considering the loss of life our
country suffered on December 7,1941 and
September 11, 2001, we as a nation have an
extremely sensitive balancing act to perform
when it comes to protecting our security
and protecting the civil rights and human
rights of our people.
Thankfully, the government does seem to
Japanese American community leader Sadiji Shiogi is lead away by F B I the day after the
attack on Pearl Harbor. Top left, a composite o f three photos showing the Sante Fe camp. Photo
Courtesy Prisoners and Patriots
Matsujiro Otani, while imprisoned in the
Santa Fe Internment Camp, is visited by his
son, Akira Otani, home on leave from the
U.S. Army.
FAMILY PHOTO .
have learned some lessons from the
xenophobic roundup of Japanese-Americans
and Japanese nationals during World War II.
Such an incarceration has not been
repeated. However, sometimes pur policies
have been overtaken by a hysteria that has
had the similar result of marginalizing
peaceful people simply because of their
minority backgrounds. When a Muslim
woman is arrested for praying alongside a
highway or a Sikh is pulled over for wearing
a turban on his head, we are reminded of
the tremendous work we still need to do to
promote a society of greater tolerance.
L.I.: Prisoners and Patriots focuses on the
internment camps in New Mexico, yet you
chose to hold its premiere in Oregon. What
affected your choice to show your film in
Portland?
N.S.: Portland is my hometown. My
friends of all backgrounds who I grew up
with here shaped my views of the world and
how we aU relate with one another,
regardless of our backgrounds. While
researching our country’s history of
internment I could not Help but think had I
been bom a few decades earlier, I would
have had to see my own friends taken away
simply because of the birthplace of their
parents. The Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center
and its leadership in holding ground
breaking events like this screening, and
focusing attention on a range of issues
surrounding the Japanese-American
experience, seemed like the perfect
partnership and platform for the premier of
this film. Considering so many men were
arrested in Oregon, including the eventual
head doctor of the Santa Fe Internment
Camp, I’m glad to see this movie get its first
audience on the West Coast
L.I.: What lessons can viewers ofyour film
take away for modem immigration issues and
debates?
N.S.: The story of internment goes well
beyond immigration. It is a question of how
we treat minorities in our own nation who
look like our enemies from abroad. If
someone sees in this film the fathers behind
barbed wire being visited by their own sons
in U.S. military uniforms, I hope they will
think there are better ways for us to defend
our nation than conducting mass-round ups
based on religious practice or skin color. In
short, I hope students and young people will
see our own history and know this is a
course of action we never want to repeat.
I also hope viewers will find their own
meaning and own lessons from our shared
history. If someone hears a former internee
talk about why he remained an optimistic
person even after all the U.S. government
took from him, I hope the viewer will find
reason to be positive in the face of adversity
as well.
/
To learn more about this and other exhibits
at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, visit
www.oregonnikkei.org
M issedyourstory? Check out wwwstreetroots.wordpress.com fo r past articles