Letter
to the Editor The Final Word From a Nisei Post by Loren M. Ishii Besides being the commander of Nisei VFW Post 8985, I am also the
newsletter
chair/editor. I am publishing the following column in our May 2002
newsletter Our stance has remained unchanged; however, once the apology ceremony has
been concluded, we as a veterans organization will cease our commentaries
on
the issue, as a whole. However, members are free to continue to respond to
whatever negative letters to the editor as may be published in the various
Japanese American periodicals. My dad, who is a Korean War Veteran, who was interned at Tule Lake and who is a life member of the Sacramento Nisei VFW Post 8985, as well as the Sacramento JACL, made a comment to me recently, that during this controversy over the apology ceremony, that he had never seen any statement from a "resister of conscience" on why they deserved an apology. My answer to him, was that these "draft resisters" had what we in the intelligence field refer to as "plausible denial," where they could always claim that the call for the apology ceremony was not initiated by them and where they could sit by idly, while this divisive issue was splitting the Japanese American community again. If this is true, then that is the only area that the "resisters" and Veterans have in common; i.e., "we did not ask for this fight, it was brought upon us." However, unlike the "resisters," the Nisei veterans have come out and
vocalized their opposition to the process/ceremony. Read Loren Ishii's Commander's Column in Nisei VFW Post 8985 May 2002 newsletter. Return to the News index of other related articles. HOME | DOCUMENTS | STUDY CENTER | NEWS | LINKS | ABOUT US | E-MAIL Updated: May 7, 2002 |