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DC: And so I was having to straddle these two worlds, it was quite daunting. And so it's also very enriching, but as a child you don't appreciate that at all, and then you had these parents who were actually abused in your own country, and were alien. And, of course, my mother was not proficient in English, where my father was. So there was this sense in which I wanted to get away from them, I wanted to be more American because that was the impetus, especially after being released from camp, that we needed to prove -- which seems absolutely ridiculous at this point in my life -- that we were just as good as everybody else who was American, that we were just as worthy. But that challenge was, I feel now, very unfair because we were law abiding citizens. It was the fact that we were "yellow," and racism on the part of the power structure that placed us there. It was nothing we had done, but it didn't matter. Because in terms of the power structure, you don't count. And so, from the outset, I think you are given this sense that you are not owed anything, that you owe everything to America because you have to prove that you are worthy of being allowed to stay (here). And I don't think we articulated that, but certainly that's what the Nisei felt who went into the army and sacrificed their lives, oftentimes saving other Americans, white Americans, and being wounded and being sent into the worst possible battles that were devastating.

VY: Is that what happened to Frank Hachiya?

DC: Yeah, so okay, Frank -- thank you for asking. Frank was bilingual because he had studied in Japan, and also he was very bright, so he became a language translator for the army. That was how he was educated, he was not educated to be a fighter, but he was sent into the Philippines and he was in Leyte. Then when he was due to come back, he volunteered for a very dangerous mission to go behind the enemy lines. And these translators, of course, were used to extract information from the Japanese who were captured by the American military. And they were very effective because, of course, they didn't look like Americans, they looked like the Japanese. And so there was probably, it was easier to develop a rapport with the prisoner and to gain their trust, and of course, they give them cigarettes and so on. And so he volunteered to go behind enemy lines because they knew that the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese was eminent, and they had captured, the Americans had captured a Japanese prisoner. They needed someone to go behind enemy lines, and so he took that on. And he received very valuable information from that individual, and he came back and he was shot through the liver, and they believe that was due to friendly fire because he looked like the enemy. And so they tried to save him by blood transfusions, but it was a mortal wound, they called. And so he died at a very young age, I believe he was only twenty-one. And it was also sad not only that he died in this way, where he was reviled at home and he's garnering information from the Japanese to help the Americans, and then his father was not allowed to bring him home for burial in Hood River because Hood River was so anti-Japanese. And the American Legion had stripped the names of a few of the Nisei soldiers who were from that area who had died in combat, they just stripped their names off the honor roll. And this became headline news, and I believe The New York Times picked it up, that these American soldiers who died were stripped from the honor rolls because of their race. And so eventually the national headquarters of the American Legion pressured the Hood River American Legion to put those names back. But given the atmosphere at the time, Mr. Hachiya did not feel that he could bring the body back for burial in Hood River. And I believe Frank died when my family was in Minidoka, but I could be wrong, but they were still imprisoned at the time, so it was quite poignant and dramatic that that would happen. So Frank was buried for three years in Leyte, and once the atmosphere became a bit more open towards receiving Nikkei soldiers, my uncle was able to bury (Frank) in Hood River, and I've gone to see his grave site.

But this story was one of the many stories that have left a permanent impression on me, and to hear this story as a young person, it was just so devastating. Because I would be caught between crying and feeling so angry, and then also feeling, how could I ever measure up to that kind of integrity? It's just an impossibility. And so one feels very burdened by these... there was almost a hidden admonition: "Diana, do you think you can be as good as this person?" It was almost, I don't think that parents necessarily always have a moral (in mind), but there is. It's a teaching moment, and what is that teaching, they are inculcating values. Because they admired Frank because he was intelligent, he was a good student, and yet, the University of (Oregon) threw him out. And then you volunteer to defend a country that has forsaken you, basically, abandoned you. You are a citizen, and what does it mean to be a citizen if they throw you in a camp and you have no civil liberties. So what's the Constitution for? And so all these things, all these conflicts certainly resided in my psyche. And although these stories are very enriching, they are also a burden to carry because they're part of your legacy, they're part of what you know, and they're part of what... you know what honor is, and what it is to lead a virtuous life. And I think about Frank often, and I think sometimes when I see Trump, I think, "Did he die for that to be in office?" And so the equation, the equity, is just not there between white privilege and the degradation that we were forced to live in. So it is very... very, very difficult to rationalize, really. So all you can say is that it was so unfair, but this person really tried to do the right thing.

And William Hohri often told me... although William Hohri, who was my Sunday school teacher in Chicago, he was someone who answered "no-no" on that infamous questionnaire that was trying to test our loyalty when we were in camp. He said, he's often said that if it weren't for the sacrifices of the Nisei soldiers during the Second World War, we would never have achieved the level of acceptance that we have after the war. So there's a certain amount of debt that we owe to these wonderful people, and so I think we owe it to them to try to fight for democracy and fight for the things that are right, but we don't necessarily have to go out and kill people for it, go to war for it, but what we have to do is fight for it at home and make sure that everyone is educated about their rights and so on. So there's much to do domestically, certainly we see that now.

VY: That's very true.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.