WASHINGTON — On Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Mary Tsukamoto felt the same shock and outrage as every other American, plus something else: fear.
``When the war broke out we were
WASHINGTON — On Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Mary Tsukamoto felt the same shock and outrage as every other American, plus something else: fear.
``When the war broke out we were really frightened about what would happen to us,`` says Tsukamoto, who was born in 1915 to Japanese immigrant parents in California. ``We realized that our faces would reveal our ancestry.``
Being of Japanese descent during the war years caused instant suspicion in a way that never affected Americans of German or Italian descent. Though not a single charge of espionage or sabotage was brought, no formal accusations were made and no trials were held, more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans were forced from their homes and into internment camps under armed guard during World War II.
Historians today view the abandonment of due process of law for Japanese- Americans as the largest-scale failing of the Constitution in its 200-year history. The U.S. government may move to compensate the 66,000 living Japanese-Americans who were interned with one-time payments of $20,000 each. Such legislation has passed the House and a Senate committee and is awaiting Senate action.
For many years Tsukamoto and other Japanese-Americans who lived through the internment remained silent about the injustice. ``When people after the war asked me what really happened, I used to say, `Oh, I`m a Christian and I`m going to forgive and forget,` `` she says. ``It was so painful I didn`t want to face it.``
A teacher for 26 years, Tsukamoto was persuaded to abandon her silence by one of her young students in the `70s. After weeks of learning about the internment and wartime relocation, a young Japanese-American boy had asked,
``What did (my) Grandpa do wrong that they put him in prison camp for so long?``
The question jolted Tsukamoto into speaking up so the answer would be known: nothing.
Two products of Tsukamoto`s tireless activity since then have now come to fruition with the recent publication of her book, ``We The People: A Story of Internment in America`` (Laguna Publishers, $15), and the opening of a five-year exhibit on the Constitution and the internment at the Smithsonian`s National Museum of American History in Washington.
Tsukamoto, 72, small and frail from a lifetime of battling rheumatoid arthritis, provides a vivid account of the internment and its effects on her, her family and the small agricultural community of Florin, Calif. Her fervent speaking style and unbridled patriotism shine throughout the book, which she co-authored with Elizabeth Pinkerton. Artifacts from Florin and Tsukamoto`s videotaped story are part of the National Museum of American History exhibit, which commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Constitution by examining the internment.
``We thought about the times when the Constitution didn`t work... instead of simply invoking everything from 1787 as if not