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OPINION 6A Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2015 Words like Trump’s have consequences for the innocent SOUTHERN EXPOSURE JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager B Y R.J. M ARX HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager The elephant in our living room PERS will shortly be devouring school districts and city governments When Seaside’s ‘lone Japanese national’ was sent away F or a preview of what our country might look like if magine that the school your child attends is paying one-third of Donald Trump had his way, let’s its payroll to people who are not there. Imagine that the city you go back to 1942 Oregon. I In Seaside, the Signal report- pay taxes suddenly must dedicate one-third of its payroll to people ed in April 1942: “Seaside’s Lone who are not on the job. Japanese leaves for Hood River.” That will happen in Oregon in a couple years, because of the state’s expensive Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). At the Oregon Leadership Summit last week, a panel of economists “urged lawmakers not to ignore the problem: an $18 billion-and-grow- LQJ IXQGLQJ GH¿FLW LQ WKH 3XEOLF Employees Retirement System. In order to bail it out, required payments from government em- ployers will go up by 20 percent in each of the next three budget cy- cles, said Steve Rodeman, PERS executive director,” reported Ted Sickinger of The Oregonian. “By 2021, that means schools, municipalities and government agencies will be dedicating almost one-third of their payroll dollars to the retirement system,” noted Sickinger. If left uncorrected, PERS truly is the pension system that will de- vour our school systems and our city governments. Jordan Poyer, left, tries to strip the ball from Clay Key- ser, 11, right, during drills at the Jordan Poyer football camp at CMH Field in June. Daily Astorian File Photo 7KHPRVWREYLRXV¿[WR3(56 as one panelist suggested, is to require current public employees to contribute to their pensions. Oregon is the only state that does not require employees to make such a contribution. In other words, our PERS system is unre- al within the context of America’s public and private employment. The most disturbing thing that Sickinger reported is that Gov. Kate Brown and House Speaker Tina Kotek would not go near the PERS discussion. That is the im- mense drawback of our one-party government, in which the public employee unions call the shots in the statehouse. Republican Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend will introduce legislation that includes legitimate PERS reforms. We urge Sen. Betsy Johnson and Rep. Debby Boone to help make their chambers face the urgency of the voracious PERS machine. “Mason Akiyama, Seaside’s lone Japanese national and a resident of Seaside for the past 20 years, left with his family late Saturday night for Hood River, where he will meet other members of his family and join them as evacuees under the order evacuating enemy aliens from the 3DFL¿FFRDVW´WKHSignal reported. Akiyama was the proprietor of the Red Gate Curio shop. He had been in the United States for about 20 years, according to the Signal. “His father has been in the United States for about 35 years and his mother for nearly as long. Mrs. Akiyama was born in the Unit- ed States. Their children were born there and attended Seaside schools.” Akiyama’s wife and two children had already left Seaside to live with his parents, who ran an orchard near the Hood River. “Eventually, however they will have to move still further inland and he had made no plans for the sec- ond move, anticipated within a few weeks,” the Signal reported. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roo- sevelt had ordered the evacuation of all Japanese Americans to intern- ment camps. Hood River not only had a sizable Japanese population, but when internment of Japanese Americans began, became a hub for UDLO WUDI¿F WR FDPSV WKURXJKRXW WKH West. Evacuation of 111,000 people was completed by Aug. 12, 1942, to 10 inland camps. Each block con- tained about 20 barracks, and each EDUUDFN KRXVHG ¿YH WR VHYHQ IDP- ilies. There was a shortage of toi- lets, showers, curfews, 100-degree temperatures and biting scorpions. Sentries in towers held watch with searchlights over families. In the weeks in Seaside before Akiyama was sent to Mount Hood and points beyond, he was busy packing up stock, storing some goods in Portland, while former competitors and shop owners in Sea- side purchased additional items. Not until Dec. 18, 1944, did the It cannot have always been a U.S. Supreme Court rule that loyal smooth path for a young man of citizens cannot be held in detention color — even a handsome and camps against their will. The Mount Hood Cultural Cen- successful one — in our decided- ter and Museum has a monument to ly rural, white culture. But Poyer these Japanese Americans, and an clearly didn’t let racial identity exhibit in their honor. After the war, become a handicap on his path to in 1945, Hood River Valley Japanese a successful career. And he contin- $PHULFDQVZHUH¿QDOO\SHUPLWWHGWR return to their farms and homes. But ues to give back to our area, in the only 186 out of 462 pre-war Japa- form of summer football camps nese Americans returned to the Hood that must be a real thrill for their River Valley by the following year. As for Mason Akiyama, from re- young participants. cords at the Mount Hood Historical Poyer is just one of many ex- Museum, it does not appear that he amples of how it’s feasible for a ever returned to Seaside. There is a record of a Mason Aki- person educated here to rise to the yama who died in Salt Lake City in top of their profession. The NFL 1985 at the age of 81. is a sternly Darwinian organiza- In years to come, the internment tion, with most players active for of Japanese Americans became a only a few seasons before they are source of national shame. Even while many were in camps, many supplanted. The ultimate test of others served our nation valiantly, individual success for players is including the formation of a com- what they do with their lives after bat team by FDR himself. Despite IRRWEDOO 7KH ODWH 3DFL¿F &RXQW\ the incongruity of his order on the camps, Roosevelt said, “The princi- Sheriff John Didion, who played ple on which this country was found- for the New Orleans Saints, is a ed and by which it has always been prime example of someone who governed is that Americanism is a of mind and heart. American- found new productive outlets for matter ism is not, and never was, a matter of his talents. race or ancestry.” By the end of the war, 2,355 sec- Positive, respectful, improved, ond-generation Japanese, or Nisei, dependable and encouraging con- from the camps entered the U.S. tinue to be Poyer’s guiding prin- armed forces. They served with ciples. It’s possible to foresee him Military Intelligence Service as lin- living a great life long after his guists, translators and interrogators NFL days are over. His young fans and, “would become the eyes and ears of the Allied forces.” By the should aspire to the same values. end of the war, Nisei linguists in the R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Proclamation ordering the evacuation of Japanese Americans from their homes during World War II. Exhibit casts light on internment CANNON BEACH — Elaine Trucke of the Cannon Beach Museum and History Center said historians have determined more than 100 Japanese Ameri- cans lived in Clatsop County in 1940. Of those, 60 people were LQWHUQHG ¿UVW DW WKH 3RUWODQG$V- sembly Center, and then sent on to interment camps in Tule Lake, California or Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho. The center has been hard at work chronicling local experi- ences. The museum is hosting art- ist Cathy Erickson’s solo show, “What Remains: Japanese Amer- icans in Internment Camps,” an exhibit on display through Feb- ruary. For more than a decade, Er- ickson has focused her artwork on the hardships that Japanese Americans faced when they were interned in camps during World War II. Much of the work was done in collaboration with Mar- garet Chula, an internationally known haiku poet. Photographs, letters, and historical documents were used as background infor- mation, as well as visiting with people who took part in this piece of American history. The exhibit is part of a series of events relating to the “World War II on the Oregon Coast” ex- hibit through February. The museum is located at 1387 South Spruce St. in Cannon Beach; www.cbhistory.org; 503- 436-9301. Jordan Poyer sets a good example H aving a professional football player as a hero is virtually a requirement for middle school stu- dents, nowadays, of either gender. Following the National Football League is a badge of membership in our society, but one that too often comes with heartburn when players, coaches and owners mis- behave. How fortunate we are at the mouth of the Columbia River to have in Jordan Poyer a home- grown NFL player who appears to relish being a role model for young people. His team, the Cleveland Browns, is now 3-11 after losing to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. But Poyer himself is distinctly a winner in ways that matter. 3R\HU PDGH KLV ¿UVW DSSHDU- ance in local newsprint on May 31, 2000, as a third grader re- ceiving a PRIDE Award (for Positive, Respectful, Improved, Dependable and Encouraging) at Naselle Elementary School in Washington. Later in 2000, he was playing on the Long Beach Peninsula’s Little League Football team, scoring touchdowns and contributing in other noticeable ways. Poyer went on to become a highly valued three-sport athlete at Astoria High School. R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Belongings of Japanese Americans are on display at the Mount Hood Cultural Center and Museum. Japanese Americans were forced from their homes to internment camps with limits on how many personal items they could transport. 6RXWK 3DFL¿F KDG WUDQVODWHG PLO- lion documents with more than 20 million pages, interrogated 14,000 Japanese prisoners, and worked with IURQWOLQH WURRSV LQ HYHU\ 3DFL¿F campaign.” General Charles Willoughby, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s chief of staff for intelligence, said these soldiers “shortened the war by two years.” “Never before in history,” Gen. MacArthur said, “did one army know so much concerning its enemy prior to actual engagement as did the American army during most of the 3DFL¿FFDPSDLJQ´ If Republican president candi- date Donald Trump’s words on the segregation and isolation of Ameri- cans of Islamic faith chill us today, it is because they resonate with the worst of human instincts throughout history. Mason Akiyama had done no wrong, committed no crime. Substi- tute “Muslims” for Japanese and we ZLOOVRRQ¿QGRXUVHOYHVFDVWLQJRXW our neighbors, including those who valiantly served their nation. If 9/11 should have taught us anything, it is that blind national rage is far worse than sound international policy. Perhaps the hardening of our hearts is the ultimate goal of our na- tion’s enemies. R.J. Marx is the South County reporter for The Daily Astorian and the editor of the Cannon Beach Ga- zette and Seaside Signal.
