I was on night shift at an army transport dock in San Francisco on the night of December 7, 1941—"Pearl Harbor" day. During the morning I heard the news of the Japanese attack over the radio.
One of the first thoughts that occurred to me was about the status of people of Japanese ancestry in the United States in this new situation. I recalled the Hearst "yellow peril" propaganda that poisoned the minds of people against Orientals on the Mainland, particularly on the West Coast. I recalled the stories I had heard and read of ill and brutal treatment of early Japanese and Chinese immigrant labor in the western states. I thought of the racist attitude prevailing among people in power when the Japanese exclusion act was passed in the '20s. I remembered stories of the cruel treatment of German Americans during the first World War, of how they were stoned and chased by mobs of people propagandized with hate.
Will we go on living as we are, making our contributions to the war effort as any other person, or will we be subjected to demands for "proving" our loyalty? During the decade prior to "Pearl Harbor," Japanese Americans were criticized by the press in Hawaii and on the West Coast for not denouncing Japanese aggression in Manchuria and China proper strongly enough. There were some, however, who wanted expressions of loyalty in order to strengthen their defense of the Japanese Americans.
Although the Japanese Americans took this country as their native land and their parents regarded the United States as their adopted country, those white Americans who were prejudiced against us because of color and behaved accordingly in everyday life, questioned our loyalty the most. Racists who discriminated against any non-white were quick to question our loyalty, or doubt our loyalty. This was logical. Ironically, this is the behavior of people who feel they are "the Americans" and because they have not treated non-white people with decency and respect, they could not see how these people could love a country which they call their own. Here are people with a different concept of what America means. One thinks of it in terms of monopoly by a few. while the other believes in the extension of constitutional rights to all—still not obtained.
On December 7. I went through my bags to pick out my selective service card, citizenship certificate, seaman's papers and other identification. These I carried to work with me that night.
I Was the Cause of the Commotion
Shortly after we commenced working there was a great deal of commotion on the dock, with army officers and enlisted men rushing around. We longshoremen commented that war had alerted everyone, particularly the military.
Then, we all learned that I was the cause of the excitement. A man in army uniform grabbed my arm and took me to a major who was all flustered.
The major was intensely infuriated and indignant at me because I did not realize what a serious situation I had created for him by being present on docks where military cargo was handled. "But I am a citizen!" I told him and took out my citizenship paper, birth certificate and other identification.
"You can't work on the docks from now on. Don't ever come back here! Can't you see we are at war with Japan?"
"I'm a longshoreman and a citizen. Even aliens have the right to work cargo on these docks," I said.
Citizenship Treated As Scrap of Paper
The major told a sergeant to take me out of the docks. I pointed at my identification papers and the major shoved them toward me. He said they did not mean a thing to him. He was concerned about our country, he said. I said I was too, when citizenship was a scrap of paper without meaning to him.
Finally the major said,: "Come see me tomorrow at the Presidio. Here's my name and address."
The following day I went to see him. The guard at the gate phoned him. The major could not see me; he was busy. No, not even tomorrow or the next day or the day after. I understood very clearly.
My Lunch Kit Gets a Going Over
Thereafter, the union dispatcher at the hiring hall sent me out to work on private docks which handled non-military cargo. Since army transport docks took only citizens, most of the longshoremen I worked with were aliens. Some were German and Italian, but they were against Fascism and Nazism.
Down on the waterfront, sentry boxes were everywhere. Even as I walked to work on the Embarcadero to my assigned dock, national guard sentries halted me at short intervals. Often I was stopped more than 10 times. The sentries examined my pass and when they saw my Japanese name they became excited. A few of them made telephone calls to their superiors. Every one examined my lunch kit, and for each of them I took out my sandwiches and thermos bottle to show I concealed nothing. When some tried to stall me and I was afraid I would be late for work, I pulled out my citizenship paper. The sentries changed frequently and this made it more difficult for me, as I had to go through the same ritual night after night. The "Free" Press Did a Damnable Job
Some guards made it very unpleasant for me. They were young, inexperienced and I was afraid, trigger-happy. A few told me in no uncertain way that if they had their way, they would shoot me. • The "free" press was then doing a damnable job. The Hearst newspapers were leading the assault against people of Japanese ancestry. Japanese American loyalty was ripped to shreds and painted black as night. Rumors of downed Japanese airmen in Honolulu wearing rings of West Coast universities, Japanese American sabotage and other groundless information were printed as facts day after day, even after government authorities who conducted an investigation, denied such acts. Japanese toy weapons were photographed and printed in West Coast newspapers as actual weapons.
Japanese Stereotyped To Create Hatred for Them
In whipping up war feeling, Japanese Americans became scapegoats. The anti-Oriental press on the West Coast really went to town and they played a great role in creating the sentiment to oust us from the western states. These newspapers showed Japanese in horn-rimmed glasses and with buck teeth. This was propaganda to create hatred for all Japanese. The meaning of Japanese imperialism, the thought control of people in Japan starting with persecution of Communists, trade unionists and liberals in order to stifle criticism of the policy of foreign aggression, the feudalism of the countryside that made peasants serfs of landlords, were not explained to the American people.
The newspapers and radio propagandized that all Japanese were "treacherous." War feeling created through such information was unhealthy. Americans should have been informed about the basic reasons for Japanese aggression and who profited from it, and to fight them, not the Japanese people in general because of their alleged "inherent treachery" or their "horn-rimmed glasses and buck teeth.
White Imperialism Lost Prestige
With time, I was to learn that the war had different meanings for various people. For the white supremacists and western imperialists, the early Japanese victories were a terrific loss of prestige for the white man. For West Coast racists and vested economic interests, it meant the opportunity to wrest cherished properties from Japanese aliens and their children, accumulated through many years of toil, by banishing these people inland. For the workers and democratic minded people, it meant the struggle to defeat fascism at home and abroad, to defeat imperialism and help win freedom for colonial people.
I deeply felt the effect of the white-supremacy and racist propaganda every time the sentries stopped me on the Embarcadero. German and Italian aliens were not stopped, and they did not have to take their sandwiches out to show that eggs of luncheon meat were between slices of bread, and not dangerous weapons. Union Brothers Back Me Up
One night as I started up the gangplank a guard told me to jump down and wait until everyone had gone on the ship. The gangplank was pretty crowded with longshoremen in front and back of me. A great many of them knew of my difficulties and had seen me showing my citizenship paper.
"Tell the Hawaiian brother to show his citizenship paper!" a longshoreman yelled.
"Stop bothering the poor guy. He's a native American and he gets treated worse than us aliens!" came from someone else.
"Show the guy your paper, brother!" another longshoreman yelled.
Up and down the gangplank union brothers swore at the guards. The uncomplimentary remarks directed at them brought laughter. The longshoremen had no love for national guardsmen who had been used by employers to shoot and club them in past) strikes.
The guard on the ship pointed his rifle at me and I finally got out. of the line where I was sandwiched by shoving longshoremen.
After this incident, if I worked in a ship, I had to wait until all the stevedores had climbed the gangplank. Then a special guard with fixed bayonet accompanied me down into the ship's hold where I worked.
I Carried a "Dangerous Weapon"
Several weeks later, I was handling sacks of plaster on a dock. Someone from behind yanked out my cargo hook which I carried in the back pocket and tore my jeans. I whirled around and saw a national guard sergeant.
"What's"the matter?" I asked.
"You're under arrest," he said. Then he turned the hook in his hand to indicate that it was a dangerous weapon.
(This I recalled a few months ago when three FBI agents burst into my home in an early morning raid and rushed into our bedroom. Then they went through our bookshelves and picked up three books from among many and handled them as though they were dangerous items. These books, like the cargo hook, are sold in the open market and are on library shelves.)
The sergeant of the guard would not let me talk to my foreman. I picked up my jacket and lunch kit. I then noticed a lieutenant and five enlisted men besides the sergeant. The sergeant and a private with a fixed bayonet walked behind me, with others in front and on each side.
As I was marched off the dock the longshoremen in my gang milled around the state guards and demanded that they examine my papers. Those I had come to know quite well began protesting. Before we were out of the docks a small demonstration was taking place.
The FBI, army and navy intelligence men questioned me at the Perry building. Why did I leave Hawaii? Why did I go to Georgia? Did I go to the seaport of Savannah? Why didn't I? Etc., etc. There Were Only Two AJA Longshoremen
Twice the state guards picked me up in the same manner, with so much fanfare that the longshoremen gave them a razzing they deserved. I still kept on working and this annoyed the intelligence agencies. There were two of us Japanese Americans working on the San Francisco docks. One day we were called to the waterfront employers' office and told that the army did not want us to work on the docks any more.
Some Japanese families were being evacuated by the government from so-called strategic areas. I considered going on the farms as a migratory laborer. Only One Newspaper Helped Fight "Jap Hunting License"
About this time my Japanese American longshore friend and I learned that a printer was selling a poster saying: "Open Season! Jap Hunting License." We went to the print shop and told the owner that this sort of incitement would stir up race riots.
"Never mind; we don't want the Japs around here," he said, thinking we were Chinese.
We went to the daily newspapers in San Francisco and wrote them letters asking them to discourage such activities. Only one newspaper out of many responded and as I recall it was the Daily People's World whose editors are today on trial under Smith Act indictment for advocating and teaching the overthrow of government by force and violence.