Our family went skiing this past weekend. On the way back we stopped at Manzanar. I happened to stumble across the site several years ago when it was just some abandoned foundations in the middle of nowhere. Since my last stop, the U.S. government has put up a very impressive visitor's center.
This was a reflective visit and, as I walked around, I pondered the icon of one of the most extreme episodes of injustice in U.S. history, surpassed only by our treatment of the Indian populations and slavery. The concept of American concentration camps is hard to fathom.
The visitor’s center describes how different groups of Japanese Americans handled this terrible injustice. Many young men enlisted in the U.S. armed forces during World War II while their relatives were interned in the Manzanar concentration camp. The most famous of these Japanese American units were the 442nd, the “Go for Broke” division, and the 100th Infantry “Purple Heart Battalion." Not trusted to fight in the Pacific theater, these units suffered heavy casualties in the Italian campaign. Our country owes a huge debt of gratitude for the bravery of these men fighting against fascism.
I am in awe of these men who sacrificed their lives for their country that was incarcerating their families. I’m afraid bitterness would have overcome me. Still, their combat bravery highlighted the awful injustice being done.
Others reacted differently and refused to be relocated to the camps. These Japanese Americans took a different tack against injustice.
Yet in many ways they achieved just as much. Fred Korematsu refused to be relocated and went to jail for standing up for justice, just as Martin Luther King and Gandhi did. As a result of his personal integrity, he lent his name to a Supreme Court case synonymous with injustice, the Dred Scott decision of the twentieth century. His own denunciation of authority with dignity made him a hero as much as the brave members of the 442nd.
The different roads to justice undertaken by the Japanese Americans in World War II allow all of us today to reflect on our own approach to justice today.
How do we seek justice for those around us? How do we prevent injustice? The Church has a lot to say about justice.
Along with most other people, I struggle with how to prevent injustice and mostly how to handle injustice in my own life. We all have one example of handling personal injustice, but I doubt I would be brave enough to emulate that example. My personal failures only add to the injustice in the world today.
It's one of our favorite stops on the way to the LA region too! We usually stop there (and at Mono Lake Visitor Center)...my first archaeological excavations were in the Owens Valley area and I've always had a fondness for the natural and cultural history of the region.
(Thanks also for noticing my blog in your comments over at Shea's website!)
Posted by: Christopher O'Brien | March 07, 2006 at 08:21 PM