Being Raised in an Internment Camp Instilled in Me My Commitment to Protect the Voiceless
When I was less than a year old, my family and I were deemed a national security threat and imprisoned with over 120,000 other people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were natural-born citizens. Today marks the closure of that internment camp, Amache. Even after we were freed from Amache, I remember my classmates bullied me and called me derogatory names because of my heritage – and they were encouraged to do so by their parents. My father helped me understand that this was a failure of leadership of the U.S. Government, and instilled in me a commitment to standing up for those who have no voice, and promote constitutional protections for all people. I am reminded that we must continue to fight for fairness, equality and justice for all people. This anniversary reminds me of the need to preserve this history to teach the new generation not to avoid reporting the same mistakes. This has long been something I have championed, going back to my California State Assembly days when I introduced the Civil Liberties Public Education Act to ensure that our young people are educated about that part of our history. Today is a bittersweet reminder of a misstep in our history during a time of racial hysteria; a reminder of the importance of learning from our experiences and the conditions that led us to that point in our nation’s history. We must be observant and diligent to prevent repeating such mistakes and be true leaders in the efforts to end prejudice or bias worldwide. As George Santayana said, ‘Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'