Japanese-Americans in war and peace: Fighting racist fears after 9/11
In the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Japanese-Americans wondered if history would repeat itself but with Arab-Americans.
Many Japanese-Americans had to face questions about their loyalty to the United States after the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Norman Mineta was one Japanese-American who had such thoughts on his mind in the immediate hours after four passenger jets were hijacked by terrorists and three were crashed into the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon.
Mineta was transportation secretary under U.S. President George W. Bush. A Democrat, Mineta became the first Asian-American Cabinet member when he was appointed by President Bill Clinton as commerce secretary in 2000. Bush asked him to serve as transportation secretary even after the change of administration.
Mineta’s first concern was to get all passenger jets still flying back on the ground.
However, because he and his family were moved into an internment camp during World War II, Mineta was also concerned about the suspicions that would be raised toward Arab-Americans by the general U.S. population.
He subsequently sent out a letter to airline companies instructing them not to resort to racial profiling under the name of airplane safety.
Others were also worried about what would befall Arab-Americans in the wake of 9/11.
Irene Hirano Inouye, who was then president of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, had previously received inquiries from Arab-American groups that were interested in learning how Japanese-Americans overcame racial discrimination to carve out an important position in U.S. society after World War II.
Those groups turned to Hirano Inouye because the museum she led played a central role in passing on the history of Japanese-Americans.
When she contacted some Arab-Americans after 9/11, the concerns she had held turned out to be true.
Some Arab-Americans became the targets of insults and even rocks. Many had to live in fear and anxiety.
In late September 2001, a few weeks after the terrorist attacks, the Japanese American National Museum held a candlelight vigil with several hundred participants. They gathered not only to mourn the victims of 9/11, but also to call for a prevention of hate crimes aimed at Arab-Americans.
As one means of further spreading what Japanese-Americans went through during World War II, the museum decided to hold its next board meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, which has a large Arab population. Arab-Americans were invited to speak to the board members about what they went through after 9/11.
The Japanese American National Museum strengthened its message that the rights of all citizens were important, and in 2004, it held a special exhibition on 9/11.
“9/11 was the first opportunity I had where I felt the possibility that history could repeat itself, because it made me realize how a society that has been attacked and is covered in fear can easily ignore human rights,” Hirano Inouye recalled.
The attention that once again focused on the experience of Japanese-Americans during World War II was not just because of concerns about a recurrence of discrimination based on race or religion. As the U.S. government pushed onward with its war on terror and asked the public and foreign governments to choose whose side they were on, recognition was once again given toward the importance of exercising one’s right to speak up, even against the state.
“What happened to Japanese-Americans during World War II did not occur to just one group of people, but also served as a lesson for all other groups as well,” Hirano Inouye said.
Source: ajw.asahi.com