Wednesday,
April 15, 2009 Grace Kubota Ybarra let us know of the memorial service this
Saturday in San Jose for Kiyoto “Kay” Kawasaki (right),
one of the original 63 defendants in the largest mass trial in Wyoming
history, who was among those who chose to stay private after the war
about their resistance and did not talk much about it with his family.
He sat in the front row at the trial and he’s one of those who
catches your eye as you scan the photo of the resisters in court.
Here are the details in the .
Also
catching up on the Japanese American press coverage of the memorial
service for Mits Koshiyama, which I was deeply sorry not to be able
to attend. Talked to folks on the phone during the reception and
sounded
like a great reunion of family and friends. Yosh Kuromiya, and Momo
Yashima flew up from LA, Frank Chin drove up, and our composer,
Alan Koshiyama, Mits’
nephew, came from Sacramento. It is still unbelievable to me that
the best, most talented, most qualified person to score our film
was
the nephew of one of our subjects. Listen again to how his themes
frame the story and move it along. Here is the coverage from the and . Thanks to J.K. Yamamoto for quoting this site in
his article.
I want
to thank my brother Steve for delivering this message from me at Mit's
service:
IN MEMORY OF MITS: Were it not for the work I am doing today to
honor Mits and the other Heart Mountain resisters, I would be with
you to remember Mits and all the things he stood for.
Mits was the heart and
soul of the resistance to our unjust incarceration. He was just
a boy when he was called upon to take a stand as a man.
He was willing to go to court and risk years in prison to fight for
his rights, but he was still able to see the humor when their attorney
suggested the 63 boys all cut their hair short so they would all
look alike and not be identified in court … or when the prosecutor
rocked back and forth in his chair and flipped over backwards. It's
no coincidence that in the iconic photo of the resisters in court,
Mits is front and center. He said, “Being young guys, we all
sat in the front row, to see what all the action was, y’know?”
Today I am listening to
Mits’ words as I edit his stories
into extra features for the film to which he contributed, and as
I hear his voice, it’s like he’s here in the room with
me, remembering the visits from grocer Kozie Sakai or complaining
about the JACL putting good publicity over good law. He was unlike
any Nisei I have ever known, and he is going to be missed. But we
were lucky to have known him, and we will all keep his spirit alive
for generations to come, so that all Americans can know and understand
his particular brand of principle and courage.
Here
is the
in the San Jose Mercury-News. I encourage all
readers to post a message to the family.
Kenji Taguma of the Nichi Bei Times captures what was special
about Mits Koshiyama:
It is with deep sadness that I report the death of Heart Mountain
Nisei draft resister Mits Koshiyama, who passed away on Friday, Feb.
6, at 4 p.m. in his home in Mountain View. He was 84.
His service will
be held on Saturday, Feb. 14, 1 p.m. at the Wesley United Methodist
Church,
566 North 5th Street in San Jose’s
Japantown.
To me, Mits had always represented the emotional core of the resistance,
particularly as it pertained to their coming out in the 1990s. He
generously spoke at numerous panels, especially in Northern California,
telling countless numbers of community members and students about
the story of the principled resistance of young Nisei men during
World War II.
He was brutally
honest in his words, which he didn’t mince,
and was unafraid to tell the truth. His voice at times trembled with
anger at the treatment of resisters, by both veterans and the Japanese
American Citizens League.
He was unapologetic
in his telling of the truth, and in some ways, I think his conveyance
of the resisters’ story of standing
for constitutional principle helped to further validate — and
perhaps gave courage to — other resisters to come out to tell
their own stories. He was the public face of Nisei resisters in Northern
California.
I first met Mits
as the resisters story — and my whirlwind
involvement in it — started to unfold in about 1992. I had
helped put together the Nisei resisters portion of an exhibit on
the Japanese American experience, an assignment given to me by my
Asian American studies professor, Wayne Maeda — the curator
of the landmark exhibit at the Sacramento History Museum. After the
exhibit opened, and this new world of knowledge of my own father’s
wartime resistance descended upon me, I put together a reunion of
the Tucsonians, a name some resisters sentenced to the federal labor
camp near Tucson gave themselves.
Granada (Amache)
resister Joe Norikane, now deceased, had met Mits at a Tule Lake
Pilgrimage,
where Mits had spoke of his resistance.
We contacted Mits about joining the reunion, and he and three other
Heart Mountain resisters from the Bay Area — I believe they
were George Nozawa, Tom Kawahara and Dave Kawamoto — joined
us at Futami Restaurant in Sacramento. It was the beginning of a
lasting camaraderie between the Heart Mountain and the Tucsonian
resisters, who were mostly from the Granada camp. We went over to
the exhibit after the fellowship, and the story ran in the Sacramento
Bee.
Over the years,
I’ve kind of served as his agent of sorts.
Sometimes I was asked to “find a resister” to do this
or that, or a resister for the mainstream press to interview, and
Mits was naturally the first one to come to mind. I’ve also
helped to place him on many panels, many of which that I had organized
myself — a San Francisco Japantown screening of Frank Abe’s “Conscience
and the Constitution,” a panel in conjunction with Eric Muller’s
book “Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese
American Draft Resisters in World War II,” and a panel in conjunction
with Professor Yukio Morita’s Japanese-language book on Nisei
draft resistance. That latter panel, held on Nov. 3, 2007, was actually
the last time I had seen Mits and his wife. He was slowing down,
but still able to generously and unflinchingly share his story with
others.
The first panel
I had Mits sit on was actually the first of some two dozen programs
I
would organize as a student activist at California
State University, Sacramento: a Nisei draft resisters forum featuring
Mits, Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee leader Frank Emi, writer/historian
Frank Chin, and my professor Wayne Maeda. Dr. Clifford Uyeda, a leading
human rights activist and supporter of the resisters, attended and
spoke from the audience, as did a sympathetic veteran from the Military
Intelligence Service. That panel would have a lasting impact, it
seems, as also in attendance was Andy Noguchi, a Sansei activist
with the Florin JACL. A year later, Andy and I would work together
as the Florin JACL honored the local resisters at their Time of Remembrance
program, and in 2000 he would go on to spearhead a National JACL
effort to finally recognize the principled stand of the resisters,
seeking to atone for years of ostracism by JACL leaders. As he explained
in the opening of the National JACL’s resisters reconciliation
ceremony in 2002, it was that 1993 panel — where Mits shared
his story of standing for constitutional rights — that first
exposed Andy to the resisters’ story.
I remember one
time when Mits was on a panel with former internees in Japantown,
and one
panelist recalled the pain and shame he endured
during the war. In walking with Mits afterward, he was noticeably
irritated. He said something to the extent of: “What was that
guy crying about? We weren’t all victims!” Brute honesty.
Is was Mits’ honesty that was one of his greatest strengths,
I believe. His ability to tell it like it is while clearly articulating
his position — not in academic speak, but in laymen’s
terms — made his story of resistance accessible. While a landscape
gardener at San Jose’s Willow Glen High School in 1989, he
was asked by students to write an article for the school newspaper,
which was titled “Is the Constitution Just a Piece of Paper?” In
it, he wrote: “I really want to blame my internment on racist ‘White
America,’ but Japanese Americans were just as guilty. We just
didn’t have the courage to fight racism and to fight for our
constitutional rights.
“But not all Japanese Americans acted in this manner,” he
continued. “Some acted like Americans and fought for their
rights. When the government tried to draft the internees into a segregated
infantry unit, some had the courage to say that they wouldn’t
serve without the return of their constitutional rights. They explained
that they couldn’t fight for a free world when their families
were interned in a concentration camp.
He was steadfastly
critical of the past JACL leaders. “Our
leaders branded these resisters as troublemakers and said that they
were trying to ruin the ‘proper image’ of the Japanese
Americans,” he wrote.
“The reason that I am writing this article is to awaken all
minorities to the importance of the Constitution,” he warned. “You
must fight for your rights when they are violated. Never, NEVER surrender
your rights as citizens of the United States — like we did.”
Mits Koshiyama
may have been a simple gardener, but he was also a true epitome
of how ordinary people can do extraordinary things
under times of duress. In the tradition of Rosa Parks, Mits Koshiyama
stood steadfastly against injustice. And while at the time it
may have been a lonely undertaking, rest assured, Mits, that
your act
of heroism will never be lost upon us. You have left us with
a lesson that we will always cherish, a lesson that will help
us to be continually
vigilant, and a legacy that we can be proud of.
-- Kenji Taguma
To learn
more about Mits, read his .
In his memory I'm posting the column he wrote in 1989 for Ram
Pages, the student newspaper at Willow Glen High School where
he once worked as a landscape gardener, the article that got him speaking
out and telling his story in public after decades of no one wanting
to hear about Nisei resistance in WW2. Here is "Is
the Constitution Just a Piece of Paper?"
Thanks
for visiting if you've come here after viewing "Watada, Resister"
on
or ,
or followed the link from Amerasia Journal. Watch the video
below to see the first part of what's billed as "The historic
meeting of young Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to deploy to Iraq,
and WW2 resisters."
It was
shot in Seattle and edited by filmmaker Curtis
Choy on Jan. 27, 2007, as a way of connecting Lt. Watada with the
Nisei draft resisters who he describes as an "inspiration" and
who in this video express their pride in him and their support
for Watada's
own principled stand. You will see and hear Heart Mountain resistance
leader Frank
Emi, draft resister Yosh Kuromiya, and their friend Paul Tsuneishi.
If you look carefully you can see our poster for Conscience
and the Constitution in Frank Emi's living room behind Yosh.
Click
on the second screen to see Part 2 of their conversation. Listen
in particular to Watada's measured and thoughtful challenge to
all Americans to decide where they
stand on the war, and one's moral obligation to act if you do
have a stand. He emerges in the video as a remarkable young man.
Give it a listen.
As
Yosh says in his prepared statement, the judge in his case in 1944
ruled that the 63
young
Heart Mountain
boys
could
not
raise the
unconstitutionality
of mass incarceration as a
defense in their trial
for draft resistance. The jury could only rule on whether
or not they
failed to report for induction, and convicted the lot.
In 2007,
although the cases are different, a military judge at Fort Lewis
south of Seattle ruled in January that Army 1st Lt. Ehren
Watada could not
raise the legality of the war in Iraq as a defense for his refusal to deploy
there. The article has links to court documents in
Watada's court-martial trial. See also the .
The
case of Watada, who has in principled protest against what he
believes is an illegal war of occupation, has led many to compare
his stand
to that of the WW2 Nisei draft resisters. He himself made the
link in his comments to Ben Hamamoto of the :
As a Japanese
American, Watada sees historical parallels between himself and those
who resisted the World War II incarceration. “(The
resisters) said ‘we’re Japanese American’ and we
are part of this country no matter what the president says. They faced
ostracization and imprisonment, but it was shown many years later
that they were correct… What I’m doing is no different.”
.
The
parallel is not precise. The Heart Mountain resisters did not object
to fighting
in WW2, only to the unconstitutionality of the forced incarceration
of themselves and their families. But as I talked last year
with John Iwasaki when he called from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
it
hit
me that the resisters and Lt. Watada do share this one similarity:
both put themselves on the line to object to actions by their government.
Iwasaki was localizing a wire story, "," reporting from 9 Japanese American veterans groups
to publicly denounce Watada for disrespecting "a legacy
of military service by Japanese American soldiers dating back
to World War II."
"No Japanese
Americans did anything like that, and that is why Japanese Americans
are so upset," (Robert) Wada said, (a charter president of
the Japanese American Korean War Veterans). "He is doing something
that has never been done by Japanese Americans."
That's not exactly
the case, said Seattle resident Frank Abe. He produced "Conscience
and the Constitution," a documentary about Japanese Americans
who resisted the World War II draft because they and their families
were held in internment camps for years after Japan attacked Pearl
Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Wada is "overlooking
the fact that 315 Japanese Americans in World War II resisted the
draft as a means of protesting the forced incarceration of their
families," Abe said Wednesday. .
Our film
continues to provide different points of entry and different perspectives
for audiences across the country, including university students in
Minnesota, a humanities program in a town north of Denver, a Chicana/o
cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary art organization in San Diego,
and the
screened it during a brown bag luncheon, as a supplement
to their reading of Julie Otuska's fine novel, When The Emperor
Was Divine:
"There
were audible gasps during the showing --and many sat in silence
long after its completion. I'm so impressed with that work, Frank.
It's a great piece that will endlessly inform and educate. It impressively
communicates that there were heros fighting for freedoms on our
own soil when the nation was at war ostensibly to defend freedom!
I believe the ultimate outcome of their struggle was to reveal that
the fight for justice against oppression will always be necessary.
Your piece effectively shows the almost overwhelming challenge these
gentle people bravely faced when they stepped forward with commitment
to ethically respond to their oppression with honesty. It's a simple
story really, but powerful. Thanks, so much Frank. I hope you know
what you've contributed. It's a great piece of work. Much admiration."
-- Jackie O'Ryan, Communications Specialist, The Seattle City Council
"I
am writing to request permission to screen Conscience and the
Constitution at the non-profit artspace as part of a series I am curating there called … Because San Diego is a jumping off point
for the Marines and also the site of a growing resistance movement
(see the case of Pable Paredes, Ali Wassaf Hassoun, the Ya No project,
Guerreroazteca project), I feel that Conscience and the Constitution
has a very important message for people here. In addition, as a
subtext to the video, as you know, there is a distinct parallel
between the climate surrounding Japanese-Americans and Japanese
residents during WWII and that facing Middle Eastern Americans today,
and with San Diego as the location of a large Middle Eastern population,
as well as a decidedly red slice of California, it would behoove
us to think carefully abut what national paranoia and political
manipulation are capable of … I am curating this series in
an effort to get people to think about issues of civil liberty,
race, media representation, and national conscience."
-- Rebecca Romani, Arabs Anonymous/No Hay Moros
"I
am the co-advisor for a student organization called Asian Students
in Action at St. Cloud State University. They are organizing a week-long
on-campus event in April called Social Activism in Asian America.
As part of the event, I wanted to show your film on April 21 for
a campus wide audience... I thought your film was important in discussing
not only the issue of what constitutes an American and what it means
to be loyal, but also the difficulties of social activism especially
when it creates a division within the community. Moreover, your
film itself is a perfect example of social activism – the
use of documentaries to educate people."
-- Dr. Kyoko Kishimoto, Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic
Studies
"Just
wanted to let you know that Conscience and the Constitution
is a unit of a seven part series that the Foundation will be presenting this summer.
The Foundation has a We the People Grant from the Colorado Endowment
for the Humanities that is titled "Pivotal Events in American
Constitutional Hisotry: Their Impact on We the People." The
video will be presented on July 30th"
-- Catherine K. Speer, Estes Park Public Library Foundation
The Seattle
Times last year published a of our film, in advance of our screening at the Seattle
Public Library as part of the "Seattle Reads" program for
Julie Otsuka's 2002 novel, . You can read the full article
but this is book reviewer Michael Upchurch's take on our film:
First up is
Frank Abe's Conscience and the Constitution (2000),
about a group of draft-age internees who refused to volunteer for
military service or, later, to be drafted, until their and their
families' civil rights were restored. Abe, a former senior reporter
for KIRO Newsradio and KIRO-TV, does a fine job of tracing how this
draft-resistance arose, and how it became such a bitterly divisive
issue within the Japanese-American community. The Japanese American
Citizens League — which adapted more of a "my country
right or wrong" attitude to internment and military service
— was particularly harsh in its judgment of the draft resisters.
It would be
more than 50 years before any reconciliation between the JACL and
the draft resisters was effected. The eyewitnesses in this hourlong
film are eloquent, wry and level-headed as they make their case
about the constitutional principles at stake. Abe has done an admirable
job of illuminating the issues behind the divisiveness.
My
review
of Frank Chin's book on the resistance, Born in the USA, is
published in the special "A Tribute to Miné Okubo"
issue of Amerasia Journal, Volume 30:2, 2004. It is available
for $13 per issue plus tax and $4 handling from: UCLA Asian American
Studies Center Press, 3230 Campbell Hall, Box 951546, Los Angeles,
CA 90095-1546. For more information, call (310) 825-2968, e-mail aascpress@aasc.ucla.edu
or visit the . However, by special permission, you can also read it here:
... Despite
its classification, this is not a dispassionate history without
an agenda. The author was unable to convince his publisher to market
the book as a “documentary novel” in the Dos Passos
mode. It does him no disservice to say that Frank Chin despises
JACL for betraying the Nisei Dream as much as he despises Kingston,
Tan, and Hwang for passing off faked Chinese folktales as real.
With his powers as a novelist, Chin shapes his material to fit a
single vision, with JACL as antagonist, so readers should be aware
of pieces that get left on the cutting room floor .... Read
the entire review....
Chin
dismisses the danger of Malkin's
new book, In Defense of Internment, and the traction it has
gained among Fox News Channel devotees and historical revisionists
eager for a means to inflame racial and cultural fears. For a full-bodied
critique of the Malkin book, see Professor Eric Muller's revealing the flaws in her work. Read
the recent Seattle Times, "," to see how
the ghost of Lillian Baker lives on in Malkin, her sleek new clone,
in the Bainbridge school system. Walt and Millie Woodward would be
ashamed.
See
our full page devoted to the JACL
apology to the Heart Mountain resistersand watch a 70-second
video clip of Heart Mountain resistance leader Frank
Emi's remarks on May 11, 2002. Even as the Japanese American Citizens
League was apologizing to Emi and others for its suppression of wartime
resistance, he was challenging the group to go further and address
the question of its wartime collaboration with incarceration [requires
free Quicktime Player].
For
homework help, please see our PBS Online site at
for online documents and an online Classroom Guide, and send a comment,
compliment or complaint via the PBS
page. To preview the tape, see a QuickTime
Preview or see two short video clips from our film now online
in our STUDY CENTER. Teachers can download
our newly-updated Classroom Guide as a 328
KB Word document.
PBS
SYNOPSIS: CONSCIENCE AND THE CONSTITUTION: This award-winning
and controversial documentary reveals the untold story of the largest
organized resistance to the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans,
and the suppression of that resistance by Japanese-American leaders.
(CC, Stereo, one hour)
In World
War II a handful of young Americans refused to be drafted from the
American concentration camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Organized
under the banner of the Fair Play Committee, they were ready to fight
for their country, but not before the government restored their rights
as U.S. citizens and released their families from camp.
It was
the largest organized resistance to incarceration, leading to the
largest trial for draft resistance in U.S. history. The government
prosecuted them as criminals; Japanese American leaders and veterans
ostracized them as traitors. The resisters served two years in prison,
and for the next 50 were written out of the official history of Japanese
America. Only recently have we rediscovered the resisters and restored
them to the community. Through their eyes we delve into the heart
of the Japanese American conscience and a public debate that is still
alive today.
AWARDS:
BEST FEATURE FILM: VC FilmFest 2000, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film
& Video Festival
BEST DOCUMENTARY: San Luis Obispo International Film Festival
BEST DOCUMENTARY: New York International Independent Film & Video
Festival
BEST OF FESTIVAL: Vermont International Film Festival (War and Peace
category)
BEST MUSIC SCORE: Emerald City Awards, Seattle
NATIONAL JOURNALISM AWARD: Asian American Journalists Association
AMERICAN SCENE AWARD: American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists
DARUMA CIVIL RIGHTS AWARD: Sacramento Asian American community
"Conscience
and the Constitution" is produced by Frank Abe in association
with the ,
with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and
the , created by Congress to sponsor research on the
wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans. Additional funding is
provided by the Motoda Foundation of Seattle, the , Brooks and Sumi Iwakiri, and 45 individual Friends
of the Fair Play Committee.
This
Web site and the companion are made possible by a grant from the , created by the California
State Legislature and administered by the California State Library.
Additional support provided by Michi and Walter Weglyn.
Wednesday,
April 15, 2009
See
our full page devoted to the 
For
homework help, please see our PBS Online site at
for online documents and an online Classroom Guide, and send a comment,
compliment or complaint via the PBS
page. To preview the tape, see a