The Day of Remembrance and the Legality of Racism

What do you do when random acts of bigotry weave themselves into the fabric of daily life, but you are not in a targeted group? Say something or nothing, do something or nothing? Or some other combination of words and actions? I've seen people who will not and do not publicly denounce bigotry justify their lack of words by pointing out that their actions speak louder.

So, imagine you are a small business owner or a public school teacher. You treat your employees or students with fairness, respect, kindness and even love. Your actions speak for themselves.

When your employees or students who belong to a minority group are subjected to hateful words and deeds you do not speak out publicly, but you double down on your kindness.

When your employees or students who belong to a minority group are forced to register with the government, are put on a list, and are monitored by the government, you disagree but don't criticize the action publicly. You continue to live an upright and decent life, treating all people as valuable human beings. You give your employees extra time off, or spend extra time tutoring your students.

So tell me this: What do you do if the government rounds up that minority group and puts them in camps? Do you continue to stay silent but hide a family in your basement, or join an underground movement to smuggle people to Canada, thereby continuing to live your credo that actions speak louder than words? Or do you continue to stay silent and feel sad, while pointing out that it was a legal action and there was nothing you could do?

We can justify a lot of injustice by following the law.

When the Day of Remembrance comes around every year on February 19th, I remember the upper level Japanese history class I took in 1999 while majoring in history, and the classmate who looked me in the eye while stating to the class that he would support the same type of incarceration if something like Pearl Harbor happened again. I remember the many, many times I've been told this during my 57 years on the planet. I remember how good people are at forgetting what little history they ever learned. I remember the overwhelming silence and complicity of the majority of Americans as Japanese-Americans were torn from their homes and businesses. I remember that history has conclusively shown how wrong internment was, and I remember how often we repeat history.

The Day of Remembrance is held on the day that then President Roosevelt signed the order – Executive Order 9066 – that legalized rounding up tens of thousands of Japanese-American men, women, and children, many of whom were born and raised in the U.S. They were told to pack what they could carry, and were then herded onto trains and taken to internment camps where conditions were initially barbaric. You might as well call them concentration camps.

It's understandable if you’ve never heard of this day. It’s mostly held in the west coast states of Washington, California and Oregon, where the impact was highest. It was first honored in 1978 and it’s officially recognized in Washington state.

My Japanese family wasn’t in the U.S. during WWII, but I majored in history and I know people. And very often I look around and wonder at every face I see, every day; is this someone who would support putting me behind barbed wire tomorrow, or someone who would stay silent and watch while it happened, or someone who learned history's lessons and would resist on my behalf?

I look inward to find what I would do if some other group that I am not lumped with were treated with such contempt, and I find a firm core of resistance. A compelling need to never be silent or complicit.

So tell me this: what would I see in your face?