9:32 p.m. PST Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001

Japanese-Americans reach out to Muslims

Show of support set for Pearl Harbor Day

BY LISA FERNANDEZ
Mercury News

Six decades separate the events, but Japanese-Americans see striking -- and frightening -- parallels between the treatment of their community after Pearl Harbor was bombed and the treatment of Muslims and Arabs today.

On Friday, the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Bay Area Muslims and Japanese-Americans will join together in a program at a Santa Clara mosque to preach against ``wartime hysteria'' and warn U.S. policy makers not to be ruled by paranoia.

After the attacks by Japanese bombers on the Hawaiian naval base on Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese-Americans became a foe in their own land: Buddhist priests were rounded up, Japanese-Americans were labeled security risks, and 120,000 of them were forced into internment camps. Thousands of German- and Italian-Americans were also interned.

Muslims realize their situation is not as dire as 60 years ago. Unlike Japanese-Americans, their homes haven't been stripped away and no one has been sent to a detention camp. Many also praise President Bush for visiting mosques and preaching that Islam is a peaceful religion.

But since Sept. 11, Muslims and Arab Americans -- and others who look Middle Eastern -- have felt they've been eyed suspiciously by the public and government agents for the terrorist attacks by 19 Islamic hijackers on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some have been the victims of hate crimes, and more than 1,000 have been detained for government questioning.

``There are very few people who stood together to build alliances with the Japanese after Pearl Harbor,'' said Lisa Nakamura, 29, of San Francisco, an organizer of Nosei, the leading sponsor of the event. ``And right now, we have the luxury of not being the targeted group. So we have an obligation to stand up for others now being targeted. This should never happen again.''

Although the sponsors acknowledge that the bombing -- and deaths of U.S. servicemen -- during the Pearl Harbor attacks were horrific, that aspect won't be a focus of Friday's event.

``That already is the prevailing message; it's a given,'' said Manami Kano, 30, of Oakland, another Nosei leader. ``It's not as though it wasn't a tragedy, but our focus this time is a civil rights issue.''

Members of Nosei, a 3-year-old Bay Area group of Japanese-American activists, will offer a traditional gift of hope -- 1,000 origami paper cranes -- to the leaders at the Muslim Community Association mosque and the American Muslims Intent on Learning and Activism, or AMILA.

Both groups say they now share a common bond.

``Sixty years later, we're still feeling jittery,'' Kano said. ``Muslims are feeling that way now, too.''

Muslims appreciate the empathy and support.

``It's heartwarming,'' said Amjad Obeidat, 33, a Jordanian-born electrical engineer who lives in San Francisco and is a spokesman of AMILA. ``I am familiar with the issues of Pearl Harbor and thought it was something of the past that happened half a century ago. I thought our country knew better. I never really thought this would be happening to my own community.''

Obeidat said he hasn't suffered discrimination since the terrorist attacks. And generally, he said, Bay Area residents are able to differentiate between ``criminals and everyday Muslims.''

But he said the U.S. policy proposals -- such as indefinitely detaining immigrants on petty charges and conducting police interviews with Middle Eastern men between the ages of 18 and 33 -- are scary and troubling.

``We should be reminded that we rushed to judgment after Pearl Harbor,'' Obeidat said. ``We singled out a segment of society. And in hindsight, it turned out to be the wrong thing to do.''

The Japanese and Muslim groups first met after the the Sept. 11 attacks. A week afterward, Nosei organized a vigil in San Francisco's Japantown to show the Muslim community that Japanese people know firsthand what it's like to be the victims of racial discrimination and physical violence.

AMILA was started about eight years ago and is made up of mostly young Muslim American professionals. The term amila means ``hard work'' in Arabic.

Nosei also is a play on words. The term issei means ``first generation'' Japanese-American; nisei means second generation; and sansei means third generation. Nosei means ``my generation'' and refers to all the people that don't necessarily fit any of those categories. The term also sounds like ``no say'' in English, which is how many younger Japanese-Americans have felt in their own community, organizers say.

The group was formed in 1999 by many people in their 20s and 30s already involved in ``issue oriented'' work, such as helping Asian immigrants with medical and social services. Nosei, which has about 20 core members and several hundred other part-time participants, has met to discuss the redevelopment of Japantown in San Francisco and to encourage Japanese creative expression.

``We've traditionally focused on community building within,'' Nakamura said. ``But because we're all interested in issues of justice and oppression, it's not that much of a stretch to reach out to the Muslim community, too.''

The Nosei-AMILA event is from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Friday at the Muslim Community Association, 3003 Scott Blvd., in Santa Clara. It is free and open to the public.

Contact Lisa Fernandez at lfernandez@sjmercury.com or (510) 790-7313.