The Struggles and Triumphs of Japanese Americans during WWII

Asian Americans Episode 2: A Question of Loyalty《亚裔美国人》第二集《忠诚问题》（PBS授权）

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

The second episode of the PBS documentary series "Asian Americans" explores the complex and emotional topic of loyalty among Japanese Americans during World War II. This episode delves into the experiences of individuals and families torn apart by wartime events and their varied responses to these challenges. It captures the struggles of Japanese Americans facing discrimination, internment, and the difficult choices of allegiance. The narrative is richly told through personal stories, highlighting both the hardships endured and the resilience demonstrated by the community. The episode also touches upon the broader impacts of wartime policies and the eventual redress efforts that followed, asking poignant questions about identity, loyalty, and justice.

Highlights

A Japanese American, Buddy Uno, chooses to work for Japan during the war, causing conflict within his family. 🌏
Susan Ahn becomes the first Asian woman in the US Navy, breaking barriers and challenging stereotypes. 🚺
Filipino Americans enlist in large numbers to fight for both the US and Filipino freedom from Japanese occupation. 🇵🇭
380,000 Japanese Americans were interned, with significant impacts on families and community structures. ⛺
Efforts for justice and reparations were led by Japanese Americans, resulting in the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. 🌟

Key Takeaways

Japanese Americans faced intense discrimination and were unjustly interned during WWII. 🚫
Many Japanese Americans enlisted in the US military to prove their loyalty, despite their families being held in camps. 🇺🇸
Some Asian American families were torn apart due to conflicting allegiances during the war. 💔
Post-war efforts eventually led to an official apology and reparations for those interned. 🏛️
Asian Americans continue to draw parallels between past injustices and modern-day issues, emphasizing the importance of resistance. ✊

Overview

The episode opens with the challenging backdrop of WWII and how it forced Japanese Americans into impossible situations. Facing the reality of internment, many families were split across camps, holding onto hope and resilience as ways to cope. The personal stories shared highlight the emotional turmoil of choosing between identities and loyalties, showcasing the community's steadfastness.

Amidst the chaos, individuals like Susan Ahn emerge, shattering societal boundaries by becoming the first Asian woman in the US Navy. Her story represents the determination and patriotism found within the community, even as they face systemic discrimination. Meanwhile, Buddy Uno's controversial choice to align with Japan underscores the complex nature of identity and allegiance during wartime.

As the war ends, the narrative shifts towards healing and justice, leading to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This landmark decision offered a formal apology and reparations to those interned, validating decades of advocacy by leaders who fought tirelessly for recognition and redress. The episode closes by drawing connections to current issues, urging vigilance and activism to prevent history from repeating itself.

Chapters

00:00 - 01:00: Introduction: The American Dream and Asian Immigrants The chapter opens with an examination of the American Dream and its perception among Asian immigrants. It notes the contradiction between the ideal of this dream and the historical reality for Asian immigrants, who faced significant legal and social barriers. Specifically, it acknowledges that laws barred Asian immigrants from gaining naturalized citizenship, and with the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese immigrants became the first to be undocumented. Despite these challenges, the allure of the American Dream remained strong. This aspiration is further exemplified by the struggles and sacrifices immigrants endured, demonstrated by Japanese Americans who still fought for the U.S. during times of conflict.
02:30 - 04:30: Japanese American Incarceration during WWII The chapter discusses the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II, focusing on the incarceration of families and the legal challenges they faced. Despite lacking political power, individuals fought to assert their rights, signifying both tragedy and the enduring spirit of possibility. The narrative highlights the emergence of young Asian voices advocating for change in the face of adversity.
08:00 - 10:00: Discrimination Faced by Japanese Americans The chapter titled 'Discrimination Faced by Japanese Americans' delves into the historical and personal narratives of Japanese Americans, focusing on resilience and transformation in the face of discrimination. It highlights the emergence of the Asian-American movement, which seeks to create a more just system for all. The context suggests that the struggle and resilience of Japanese Americans served as a catalyst for this broader movement, underpinned by the hope for systemic change.
11:00 - 15:00: Uno Family Journey and Legacy The chapter titled 'Uno Family Journey and Legacy' highlights various philanthropic organizations such as the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, JustFilms, Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, Freeman Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation of New York. It suggests these organizations are contributing to exploring human endeavors and investing in our common future. However, no specific details about the Uno family journey or legacy are mentioned in the provided transcript.
55:00 - 59:00: Conclusion: Protests and Resistance The chapter titled 'Conclusion: Protests and Resistance' seems to focus on the support and contributions of various foundations and organizations, including the K Family Foundation, Long Family Foundation, Spring Wang, and California Humanities. It also highlights the support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and individual viewers of PBS. This indicates a broad base of support for the themes discussed, possibly relating to public resistance and protest movements, though specific details of the protests and resistance are not provided in the excerpt.

Asian Americans Episode 2: A Question of Loyalty《亚裔美国人》第二集《忠诚问题》（PBS授权） Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 [Music] i grew up with the american dream but all asian immigrants were denied the right of naturalized citizenship and with the exclusion act the chinese became the first undocumented immigrant the american dream is a lovely dream to have and so people continue to aspire enduring whatever it is that they've got to do as immigrants japanese americans fought on the side of
00:30 - 01:00 the united states while the rest of their family was incarcerated legal challenges were so important because they did not have political power and as much as tragedy is a part of our heritage here so is possibility the asian voices are coming out you've got these young people fighting to make change happen they had to assert their rights it was like a genie
01:00 - 01:30 coming out of the bottle you couldn't put us back in these are stories about what it meant to be human what it meant to be resilient to transform the system into something more just for everyone that's the hope from which the asian-american movement was born major funding for asian americans was provided by
01:30 - 02:00 the wallace h culter foundation justfilms ford foundation national endowment for the humanities exploring the human endeavor the arthur vining davis foundations investing in our common future the freeman foundation carnegie corporation of new york
02:00 - 02:30 k family foundation long family foundation spring wang and california humanities this program is made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and from contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you thank you
02:30 - 03:00 this is the metal box that i found after my mother passed away i was surprised to see my mother's actual uh identification number that she was assigned number one four nine one one
03:00 - 03:30 i was surprised i found her pin with her her mug shot and this was the beginning of the dehumanization for her my parents didn't know how long they
03:30 - 04:00 would be incarcerated it's been heart-rending to know the suffering that they endured during that time [Music] japanese have attacked pearl harbor by air [Music] as the united states enters world war ii many american-born asians are forced to
04:00 - 04:30 make agonizing decisions this is the story of how families are torn apart and how their actions will affect them for generations one family in particular is shattered by conflicting allegiances and accusations of treason [Music] everyone will be impacted in radically different ways but each faces the same question what does it mean to be a loyal american
04:30 - 05:00 at the beginning of a new century immigrants are seeking opportunity one of them is george kumemaru uno who arrives from japan in 1905 raised as a christian he speaks english
05:00 - 05:30 and is eager to start life as an american he changed his name to george after george washington but what he found here didn't exactly measure up to the ideals of democracy because he couldn't own land become a citizen intermarry with a caucasian had he wanted to and yet he really believed in this country asians were deemed not eligible to become naturalized u.s citizens
05:30 - 06:00 japanese immigrants were always unable to vote and they were politically powerless and that's kind of easy to victimize easy to scapegoat despite these limitations asian immigrants are planting roots across the country little tokyos chinese and filipino towns alongside south asian communities provide places for asian americans to flourish in a language and culture they
06:00 - 06:30 understand george and his wife riki eventually settle in los angeles where they have 10 children when i was growing up we heard these stories how the uno house on broadway and 38th and la was just this place where all the young people wanted to be there was music uno boys were all great dancers they would just have a lot of fun and our grandparents were so welcoming to
06:30 - 07:00 everybody we were raised with the full american way of living we always said mom and dad where everybody else was saying otosan okaasan my father used to always say we must be americans but this is our adopted home parents george and riki are part of the
07:00 - 07:30 first generation of immigrants the issei their american-born children are the second generation the nisei the nisei are in many ways just typical americans the all-american tom sawyer boyhood girlhood having the same kind of dreams and aspirations of any other american youth at the time the oldest child of the family is buddy
07:30 - 08:00 uno in many ways he is a typical nisei but will prove later to be a controversial figure body's like a mystery to us my sister and i always used to look at our family albums and see this very handsome distinguished looking man who reminded us so much of our father and our uncles and we knew them all so well but we didn't know buddy
08:00 - 08:30 what i knew about it was very limited nothing too serious never about the war or never about this sort of bit of a controversy around him there was a tremendous amount of anti-japanese discrimination ironically in many cases was led by
08:30 - 09:00 other immigrants who were white that combined with stereotypes that immediately came into play created this large-scale anti-japanese agitation no matter how long they'd been in america asians are turned away from certain restaurants swimming pools and movie theaters in addition restrictive covenants ban asians from living in white neighborhoods
09:00 - 09:30 as for buddy he is rejected from his boy scout troop at age 12 because he is japanese it is a humiliation he will carry with him for the rest of his life in high school he finds an outlet to express himself a column for a japanese-american newspaper where he writes about the dilemma of the nisei generation despite his ambitions buddy can never
09:30 - 10:00 dream of getting a job in the mainstream press because of his race the classic story of nisei coming of age of the 30s was ones who would go to the best schools in the country come back with degrees from ucla or stanford and no one would hire them they could not get a job with the government no corporation would hire them so they ended up typically working in their parents market or their parents business or their parents farm but across the pacific
10:00 - 10:30 asia is an attractive draw especially for nisei with limited opportunities [Music] if you are japanese you are associated with modernization and power [Applause] japan has started its campaign of
10:30 - 11:00 conquest in asia beginning with manchuria and china their propaganda message is this idea of asia for asians for many nisei that was attractive people like buddy who felt like their occupational dreams were sorted in the us because of discrimination saw that as a place where there were greater opportunities
11:00 - 11:30 [Music] but other asian communities in the us are incensed by japanese imperialism chinese communities are especially aggrieved by the occupation of manchuria like a streak of lightning out of a clear sky japan attacked and occupied material the japanese army has overrun the whole country babadi is willing to overlook japan's transgressions in 1937 bariuno takes a freighter to
11:30 - 12:00 japan in hopes of fulfilling his dreams of becoming a foreign correspondent in an interview a year later he explains his motivations i was treated like a yellow skibby not an american citizen so i decided to hell with the u.s i'd go to japan where my knowledge of the states would be appreciated the 1930s are shaped profoundly by the
12:00 - 12:30 great depression the uno family with so many mouths to feed struggles to make ends meet amy uno at age 12 moves in with the caucasian family to become their domestic help i decided after talking to my mother that this would alleviate a lot of the hardships so i work for this family for eight dollars a month she started working in service um
12:30 - 13:00 living with various families taking care of their children then taking the streetcar to school then coming back and preparing dinner and giving what little money she made to her mom to help with family expenses [Music] in asia buddy is able to achieve what he couldn't in the us work as a mainstream reporter [Music] he sets out to cover the sino-japanese war [Music]
13:00 - 13:30 caught up in the thrill of battle but he writes glowing dispatches from the chinese front many believe japan to be fanatical and mad but whatever she is she faces the world with a clear conscience and the world looks at her with wonderment fear and suspicion though his japanese is limited but he finds a job with the japanese army he works as a liaison with the foreign press he was very pro-japan i wanted to
13:30 - 14:00 affirm that belief that he comes from a great country and japan is a great country when i look back at buddy i think not only the issue of his response to american racism but then the response that so many of us have when we go to our countries of home origin of our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents he probably had that feeling of being
14:00 - 14:30 in a setting where he was no longer a marginalized person or a minority but that pride he feels colors how he views the japanese army he writes numerous articles extolling its strengths while minimizing the violence and death committed by its soldiers many of the nisei because they had been treated so badly in the united states i think there was a greater openness to overlook some of the
14:30 - 15:00 atrocities the japanese were committing tamiko ishidate is buddy uno's granddaughter she was born in japan but has lived in the states for almost 30 years she's talking to relatives for the first time to understand why the family was split during the war she visits her uncle joe uno
15:00 - 15:30 he's helped collect some of the family archive so i hope this is the box these are the photos that um auntie kay gave to me to bring back this whole box is that is that but it's muddy yeah wow is that your grandmother and must be 38. and they're in
15:30 - 16:00 shanghai there yeah [Music] 1940 shanghai is a bustling international metropolis it is while working there that buddy falls in love with the japanese national my grandmother tomoko was working at the japanese confectionary company my grandmother told me many times how he
16:00 - 16:30 came back for a bag of peanuts almost every day i don't think they communicated that much that's partly limitation of buddy's language skills you know his japanese was limited to conversational there's a lot of very nice photos of them group dating going out picnics seems like a really very joyous time in their life [Music] they marry in 1941 a few months before
16:30 - 17:00 the world will turn upside down december 1941 a date which will live in infamy hours and days after the attack on pearl harbor federal officials with the aid of local police forces were able to swoop in and arrest a couple of thousand mostly
17:00 - 17:30 japanese male immigrant community leaders my own grandfather who was a newspaper editor in honolulu was arrested on the night of december 7. soon after george uno but his father is one of the first japanese to be rounded up by the authorities his fbi records describe how buddy his son is employed by the japanese military has grounds for his arrest
17:30 - 18:00 by the time i got home the fbi was at our house and they tore the the siding out of our house to see if we were hiding things in between the walls and under the floorboards when they left they took my father with them [Music] for days the uno family lives in dread unsure of their father's whereabouts one day they learn he is being held at a camp in griffith park
18:00 - 18:30 in los angeles we all jumped in the car and we took toothpaste and soap and wash paws and all kinds of things with us and sure enough as we got way into griffith park we found this military police all around this and we yelled dad if you recognize us put your hands up and of course my father recognized immediately his bunch of kids so then all of us took turns pitching we
18:30 - 19:00 took the soap and we took the toothpaste and we took his shaving kit and things and we just pitched it as far as we could over into this thing amy and her siblings will not reunite with their father for two years [Music] for months the family lives under the strict curfew imposed on all japanese people they have to be inside by five o'clock pm and can only travel a few miles from home
19:00 - 19:30 you had newspaper columnists opportunistic politicians such as the attorney general of california earl warren who were really agitating for further action against japanese americans they wanted to remove every man woman and child from the west coast it's a really difficult and challenging time for asian americans because people don't always distinguish between them very carefully you see koreans wearing badges that say
19:30 - 20:00 i am korean sometimes they'll wear korean flags on their shirts and chinese americans do something similar that distinguish them as non-japanese they want to distance themselves from the anti-japanese hysteria on february 19 1942 franklin roosevelt passes executive order 9066 authorizing the incarceration of more than 110
20:00 - 20:30 000 japanese-americans two-thirds of whom were born in the united states a few weeks later the unos are instructed to assemble at a nearby church bringing only their personal belongings like thousands of others they have no idea what will happen next you typically have a week to dispose of everything and show up at a particular place by a
20:30 - 21:00 particular date many people lose everything they have houses they have positions they have businesses they now have to dispose of them very quickly at los angeles 36 000 jeff see the handwriting on the wall and sell out their goods before their voluntary departure despite propaganda at the time the evacuation is anything but voluntary
21:00 - 21:30 japanese americans are transferred to 10 newly constructed detention camps in remote areas an additional 10 department of justice camps are built in places such as bismarck north dakota and crystal city texas that's where people who were considered dangerous enemy aliens were sent as opposed the department of interior camps which were concentration camps for kind of everybody else for families etc and even still
21:30 - 22:00 people were split up amy uno is sent with her husband to a camp in wyoming the rest of the family is sent to colorado they still have no idea where their father is being held there was no due process the government framed it as an issue of loyalty um but there there had never been a question of
22:00 - 22:30 loyalty in the japanese-american community nobody asked about loyalty before they were incarcerated satsuki ina's parents were born in the united states but partly educated in japan my mother kept a diary from the day that she married it's kind of heart-wrenching she starts out with all this hopefulness finding the love of her life and looking forward to having a family nine months later they find themselves
22:30 - 23:00 imprisoned [Music] they were removed to the tanfran racetrack which was a temporary detention facility if you had 1 16th japanese blood even if you were a baby in an orphanage you were put in an orphanage in one of the camps this was based on race
23:00 - 23:30 there is a photograph of my mother standing in line in san francisco in front of a community hall that was taken by dorothea lang that photo captured the moment before she was assigned to be number one four nine one one it's really clear the anxious look on her face the beginning of the unknown for her my mother had morning sickness and
23:30 - 24:00 placed in a horse table where they could still smell the manure and she wrote in her diary that she was sick every day and unable to eat she was concerned about what was happening to the baby that was growing inside of her from there they were sent to topaz utah [Music] there my brother was born there was so much turmoil inside the
24:00 - 24:30 camp there were factions those that were supportive of the administration and then there was a growing resistance that resistance movement gave them a place where they could feel some personal dignity by opposing the oppressive conditions of the terrible food there was not enough milk for the children there was a limit on how much coal you could have to heat the rooms
24:30 - 25:00 [Music] it was 1943 by then and they were required to answer what was called the loyalty questionnaire asking them if they were one willing to bear arms against the enemy and to if they would be willing to disavow any loyalty to the emperor which they never had in the first place though the vast majority of inmates answer yes to both questions satsuki's parents answer no
25:00 - 25:30 by then they had already decided that they would have a better life in japan and eventually they would renounce their american citizenship out of despair people who answered no to those two questions were considered disloyal by the government and then transferred to the maximum security tule lake segregation center in northern california and this is where i was born
25:30 - 26:00 we tend to frame these things in terms of loyalty are you for us or against us and it's just in the situation they're in it's just not clear it's that loyalty is really the right framework to be talking about it you know it's a matter of survival it's a matter of having family in both places it's a matter of thinking about what your own situation and future is going to be and there are no good answers in a lot of cases
26:00 - 26:30 i asked my mother why would you have another child in a prison camp and she said well there were rumors that if you had more children they wouldn't separate the family which turned out not to be true because eventually my father was separated from us and sent to a different prison camp satsuki's father is eventually sent to fort lincoln in bismarck north dakota a high security camp for so-called enemy aliens buddy's father george uno is also held
26:30 - 27:00 there for the next few years the government attempts to deport him to japan but he maintains his allegiance to the united states now that japan is america's wartime enemy other asian communities react in different ways koreans in the united states see
27:00 - 27:30 american victory as also a korean victory because what they want is they want japan to be kicked out of korea in 1910 japan established korea as a colony suppressing any trace of korean culture or identity this loss of country shapes how all koreans see themselves susan ahn born in los angeles in 1915 is part of the first generation of
27:30 - 28:00 koreans born on american soil one of five siblings susan loves sports and is head of her college baseball team i played basketball field hockey badminton i enjoyed playing sports more than anything like yes and my brother was unhappy he wanted me to be genteel ladylike though they live
28:00 - 28:30 all american lives susan and her siblings have an unusual family background their father is an activist who leads the movement for korean independence from japan his name is an changmo but he goes by the pen name dosan is a doting father but is largely absent during susan's youth his work takes him around the world organizing support for a free korea i grew up with people
28:30 - 29:00 saying to me your father is not your father he's the country's father every house that the family lived in was not just the family house it was the community house it was the independence movement activity house one thing he always said be grateful you're living in america and try to be good americans but don't forget your heritage
29:00 - 29:30 in 1932 dosan is arrested in china by japanese agents and sent back to korea there he is jailed and tortured and dies of his injuries in 1938 the family is devastated my mom's biggest thing was waiting for him to come back home so when this happened she was angry hurt you know her biggest dream was over
29:30 - 30:00 [Music] when you're a korean you have no country and the japanese are the predators you have a father who gave up his life for it you go fight my mom felt that she could go to office or training school but because she was asian they rejected her she said i don't care about being an officer i'm going to join this fight
30:00 - 30:30 there was no doubt in the whole family's minds that we were loyal to united states america it was just an opportunity you know to do something for korea the country that your father and mother gave up their lives for she joined the navy and was assigned to be a gunnery officer which meant she had to learn how to shoot a 50 caliber machine gun which was pretty interesting for a five foot asian
30:30 - 31:00 lady susan ahn becomes the first asian woman to enlist in the united states navy and its first female gunnery officer i was teaching them how you should shoot up the japanese when they're in the sky in a japanese fighter pilot one time when commander said to me i'm not shooting till i see the lights of those jab's eyes and i said i don't care what you do up there you do what i tell you to down here
31:00 - 31:30 susan's older brother philip contributes to the war effort in his own way he is one of the first asian actors in hollywood when world war ii happened my uncle's uh movie career was taking off and then the american government starts running the movie industry you know they're censoring they're suggesting to rko and paramount to make these patriotic movies about war and so philip starts playing these japanese roles
31:30 - 32:00 america will be crushed never to rise again he was thrilled to play a bad japanese and to you know play a japanese character that then everybody who saw the movie would hate he thought that was wonderful [Music] the war provided asian communities a
32:00 - 32:30 chance to prove their patriotism chinese and filipino americans enlist in droves before the war filipinos were barred from enlisting in the u.s military after pearl harbor almost half the male filipino population in california signs up [Music] they create two all filipino regiments in small patrols they quickly learn the tactics of modern warfare
32:30 - 33:00 i volunteered for the first filipino infantry regiment and lo and behold i didn't see any soldiers that wasn't my age these uh soldiers that i did see were at least oh in the mid 30s i'd even say in the 40s there were some people that lied about their age just to stay in the army swinging the dreaded bolo knives of the philippine
33:00 - 33:30 jungle they work for the day when they will help free their homeland from the invader [Music] japanese americans have different motives they join the military to fight for their own freedom from the prison camps tens of thousands enlist including three of the uno brothers i think what's so interesting about the uno family those 10 siblings is that you have the range from
33:30 - 34:00 a very controversial figure like my uncle buddy and then you have my other uncles who joined the united states army who volunteered out of internment camp and fought on the side of the united states while the rest of their family was incarcerated they knew this was their birth country and they're americans and they should join the service the war department and others begin to realize
34:00 - 34:30 that you know probably be good to allow a japanese american to serve in the armed forces not only because you need the manpower but it's also an answer to japanese access propaganda saying that the us is a racist society if we have japanese americans who are serving in the military that's a rebuke to them but no we're not racist howard and stanley uno enlist as military intelligence
34:30 - 35:00 to serve in the pacific war their brother ernest signs up to fight with the segregated 442nd battalion in europe he had to voluntarily enlist we put our lives on the line you didn't have to be drafted from overseas comes one of the most amazing fighting outfits of the war it's the famous 442nd combat team mainly nisei americans of japanese descent the 442nd is the most decorated military
35:00 - 35:30 battalion in american history they embarked on a series of extremely difficult and dangerous military missions including the rescue of a battalion of texas soldiers called the lost battalion it was seen as a suicide mission but the 442nd managed to save hundreds of texas soldiers from behind enemy lines in france
35:30 - 36:00 but back home the families of these soldiers are still prisoners in 1944 the unos reunite in crystal city texas at a special camp designed for families when ernest uno visits them he is met with a harsh reality my homecoming was somewhat of a painful one my parents were in a an internment camp
36:00 - 36:30 i went up to the fence touched their hands mother said okay she said i knew you'd come home it wasn't like in the wra camps where they could go in and stay with the families you know
36:30 - 37:00 we had a visiting room and they it was just like any prison in which they were on one side of a table and you were on the other side and go in the visitor's cottage and sit at a couch with an armed guard standing behind us you know we had a pistol on his side and you know just daniel overseeing us as we had this family reunion and yet darn it you know
37:00 - 37:30 forever the loyal americanists this is something we had to take part we always take aunt k buddy's youngest sister
37:30 - 38:00 she's the last remaining of the 10 uno siblings imprisoned at age nine she spent two years in amachi colorado before moving to crystal city with her family
38:00 - 38:30 okay do you remember about buddy here's my big brother and he was so nice and i loved him but he also was put into a very difficult position what do you remember about him what did you hear no i wouldn't say
38:30 - 39:00 i told myself i wouldn't ever say anything i just loved him in april 1942 japanese forces invade the
39:00 - 39:30 philippines an american colony as they battle for control of the islands japan humiliates the us first in bataan and then in the battle of corgador [Music] these make up the largest surrender of u.s troops in american history during the pacific war 1.1 million filipino civilians and soldiers die
39:30 - 40:00 during the fight to defend their country buddy blames this defeat on the delusions of american imperialism he continues to champion japan's dominance of asia buddy uno originally came to japan to be a war correspondent but he has evolved into an unapologetic propagandist he begins producing broadcasts in english aimed to weaken the morale of u.s troops
40:00 - 40:30 buddy's brother howard uno is stationed in australia in 1943 serving as a personal translator to general macarthur one day he tunes into a radio program and immediately recognizes his brother's voice speaking on behalf of the enemy he was considered a traitor and i think
40:30 - 41:00 my uncles especially because they were having to prove their loyalty my uncles felt compelled to renounce their brother they made statements like they would have killed him if they could we wish to inform you that the job officer our brother is a traitor to the american way of life we have pledged the destruction of him and all those like him but that issue became much more
41:00 - 41:30 complicated within the family because they still were brothers so in many ways it was almost like a classic civil war story since 1988 i had stopped at the smithsonian because they had this exhibit about the incarceration of the japanese americans i turned the corner there's a giant photo
41:30 - 42:00 of a man in a jail and instantly i knew it was my father and at that time i had no idea he had been inside that jail this was the thule lake jail prisoners were beaten with bats and clubbed my parents were writing back and forth to each other trying to really struggling to
42:00 - 42:30 communicate about their decisions about the future but the letters were severely censored so my father would actually strip his bed sheet and write letters to her and then roll it up and he'd stick it inside the belt lining of the pants sew it back up and he'd send the pants to my mother in tule lake and say that the the waist was too tight uh so could she please adjust
42:30 - 43:00 and mend it for him and so she writes in her diary today she found the letter from ina so then they began this exchange there she's go i feel more and more disheartened when i think about our children i can't help but worry dearie tattoo these days nothing gives me more strength than your letters [Music]
43:00 - 43:30 in 1944 in the philippines buddy develops an unusual friendship carl maidens is an american photojournalist locked up in a japanese prisoner of war camp as the tide turns against japan but he regularly visits maidans budi uno was one of the most tortured souls i have ever known he was an american in a japanese uniform despite his guarded and sometimes crude cover-up
43:30 - 44:00 i came to realize that uno deeply loved the country of his birth he needed desperately to talk to someone and to justify himself to himself as america re-takes the philippines but he escapes to the mountains after weeks of near starvation he is finally captured by filipino gorillas that day they took me will be the last
44:00 - 44:30 thing i remember when i die i came out with my hands up and something strange happened to me i had a smile on my face and i recall a voice shouting look at that [ __ ] son of a [ __ ] laughing but inside me i was crying as i've never cried in my life it was as though i was bleeding in there but he is placed in a prisoner of war camp there he has an unexpected reunion
44:30 - 45:00 my brother howard happened to go to where this camp was where they had all the pows and lo and behold he saw his own brother they saw each other with a fence between them you can imagine the emotional upheaval in a machi camp mother and i slept
45:00 - 45:30 together one incident that i remember she woke up and she seemed very calm and she seemed you know kind of happy and she said oh everything's going to be all right with buddy and and howard that they're going they have met and this was before we even knew that they had met but she had dreamt that somehow they had
45:30 - 46:00 met in a peaceful way the war is over but the death toll is staggering conservative estimates bring the total to 70 million dead worldwide [Music]
46:00 - 46:30 buddy uno will never return to the united [Music] he dies of st of tuberculosis at age 47. two of his children are still alive katsumaro and emiko tamiko's mother
46:30 - 47:00 [Music] my mother and uncle are among the last to see buddy as he was dying they were so young and like me i have a lot of questions about his time during the war
47:00 - 47:30 foreign [Music]
47:30 - 48:00 the
48:00 - 48:30 foreign
48:30 - 49:00 [Music]
49:00 - 49:30 foreign [Music] me wow
49:30 - 50:00 [Music] [Music] there is no way ever uh knowing exactly you know body thinking or thoughts [Music] it will forever be mystery
50:00 - 50:30 some see buddy as a traitor but i think it's way more complicated i just see him as a tragic figure in her post-war career susan ahn continues to buck tradition
50:30 - 51:00 she eventually becomes a russian code breaker during the cold war she went to work every day for the national security agency and she couldn't tell me what she did there but she was there all day long and she came home was like a normal mom susan later moves back to los angeles to manage a popular chinese restaurant with her brother both will continue to speak about their father's legacy i'm very proud of being an american born
51:00 - 51:30 in this country but i still am proud that i'm korean i mean i like it you know i like being korean unless you respect your korean heritage you'll never find identity at war's end all japanese are released from the incarceration camps but george uno remains in crystal city along with his youngest son edison age 16. the entire family
51:30 - 52:00 including his sons serving in the us military write letters and telegrams pleading for their release george and edison are finally released in 1947 two years after the end of the war edison eventually becomes a leader in the movement to hold the government accountable for what it had done and american citizens of japanese ancestry were incarcerated in total violation of their
52:00 - 52:30 constitutional rights my uncle edison had a beautiful calm about him he had a lot of passion and he was definitely a fighter for justice my auntie amy was kind of relentless in just wanting to tell this story of the internment now i i look back and i say could it have actually happened you know is it for real
52:30 - 53:00 um would my children believe me if i tried to explain it to them to raise awareness she would go to church groups schools any gathering of people both edison and amy uno die before they can see the fruits of their activism they helped plant the seed that would grow into the movement to restore the rights of those imprisoned during the war hearings are held around the country where these
53:00 - 53:30 suppressed stories can finally be heard i couldn't believe that we were being correlled to this concentration camp the government we trusted the country we love the nation to which we had pledged loyalty had betrayed us had turned against us it's a devastating indictment of our government and of our society main reason i am here is because my brother edison uno
53:30 - 54:00 he died in 74 76 and then my sister amy um was very active with the organizations here on the mainland for redress and reparation and she died in january so i'm glad you were here i think for both he had to come
54:00 - 54:30 in 1988 president ronald reagan signs the civil liberties act we gather here today to write a grave wrong which formerly apologizes and pays reparations to all individuals incarcerated during the war
54:30 - 55:00 nobody stood up for us there were no marches or vigils or petitions protesting our incarceration crystal city was the final holding facility for both ina and uno families just 30 miles away lies a new detention camp where thousands of immigrant children from central america have been separated from their families and held in limbo
55:00 - 55:30 for months it's called the south texas family residential center it's the same euphemistic language it's the prison the prison with electronic gates with guards with guns and cells many of us are wanting to stand with people who are being targeted today
55:30 - 56:00 and not letting them feel like their incarceration is justified and we're going to ignore it we're not being japanese-american we have personal and a special insight into what it means to be captive people [Music] if we don't participate in the present moment the past will be recreated i was born in a concentration camp in
56:00 - 56:30 northern california for a total of four and a half years my family was incarcerated they never committed a crime except to have the face of the enemy i'm here today to say how important it is for each one of us to tell this story over and over again so the rest of this world here's what happened to us
56:30 - 57:00 protest and resistance now takes on a whole different meaning i personally feel like it's a way of of defining my loyalty by speaking up [Music]
57:00 - 57:30 you