Densho Digital Archive - George Yoshinaga Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 26>

AL: Well, it's kind of like I'm talking to you now and in a couple hours we'll be talking to someone with the Hoshidan.

GY: Yeah.

AL: Which is pretty far apart but the point is that every person has reasons why they made the choices they did and that's what we want to get is to capture that. Just one more quick question and I wish we had more time because I would love to talk to you all day. But where were you on September 11th?

GY: September 11th?

AL: Of 2001.

GY: Oh, you mean when the --

AL: Twin towers.

GY: I was in Los Angeles.

AL: And what crossed your mind?

GY: I don't know. As a news man it may sound funny to say this, but I didn't feel the impact of that as much as the general public seemed to have felt, you know. 'Cause I just thought oh, the first thing I thought about when I heard that, I don't know if you remember many years ago when by accident an airplane crashed into the... what's that tall building in New York? Empire State Building?

AL: Oh, Empire State.

GY: Yeah, and funny thing is that's the first thought that came to my mind except the Empire State Building didn't collapse you know.

AL: Right.

GY: Why would you want to... what would you think I would... my response would be to something like that?

AL: I was asking because there are some Japanese Americans who will say, "What's happening to Arab Americans today is just what happened to us," and then there are other people who say, "No, that's nothing like what happened to us because they haven't arrested everybody." There are some Japanese Americans who have had like candlelight vigils with Arab Americans, there's been a number of Arab Americans who come to the Manzanar pilgrimage, and for some people it seems like it sort of intertwined, these experiences of a shared experience of becoming the enemy and then other people will say, "What does that have to do with me?"

GY: Yeah, I see your point.

AL: Yeah, so I was just curious if you had a perspective if you feel any identification with that?

GY: No, I don't think in the history, not only the U.S. but in history I don't think what happened to Japanese Americans happened to anybody else. I don't think there's no comparison between... I don't care how horrible or the situation at that time may be. I just don't agree with that.

AL: So when you see Arab Americans saying that we're going through the same thing you went through?

GY: Yeah, that's another point is that the JACL seems to feel that every time you talk about the Arabs or Muslims or whatever, they always say, "It happened to us, we can't let it happen to them." But when you study the situation closely we didn't have any terrorists in Japanese American community. We didn't have any single person that wanted to blow up this or blow up that. So you can't compare the situation when they say we're going to keep an eye on the Muslims and the Arabs. That's my feeling.

AL: Have you followed any of the political situations like the immigration bill in Arizona or do you get involved at all with current politics?

GY: Well, some people in Arizona have contacted me to want me to make some statements on it. That's another thing is that I don't know what your feelings are, but when you just use the word "illegal" I don't see how we can justify anything illegal, you know. And of course being involved in the Hispanic community quite a bit like I do, I see a different situation than what the general media in California... like the city of Los Angeles boycotting Arizona, I think that's ridiculous.

AL: How come?

GY: Well, I mean, I know now that the federal government's involved, it may change the situation, but I don't know if you've ever been to Arizona, I lived there for a while, and that's a problem because of its proximity to the border.