Friday
December 7 11:31 PM ET
Japanese
Mark Solidarity With Muslims
By DEBORAH
KONG, AP Minority Issues Writer
SANTA
CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Mits Koshiyama's memories of the attack
on Pearl Harbor are intertwined with recollections of being
forced to live in an internment camp with 11,000 other Japanese-Americans.
Now
Koshiyama worries history could repeat itself - this time for
American Muslims.
To
mark the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans
from the Bay Area presented more than 1,000 paper cranes to
Muslims as a symbol of solidarity. Koshiyama and others see
Muslims as the new victims of discrimination.
``Why
were we punished for looking like the enemy? Today Arab-Americans
are suffering the same persecution,'' said Koshiyama, 77, who
spent almost two years at Heart Mountain camp in northern Wyoming.
``You must fight for your rights when they are violated.''
The
event in Santa Clara, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco,
began with a moment of silence. More than 300 people bowed
their heads ``in memory of all the innocent lives lost in acts
of terror, war and acts of intolerance,'' said Muslim Community
Association member Samir Laymoun.
For
Manami Kano, talk of military tribunals, plans to question
5,000 Middle Eastern men and increased scrutiny of immigrants
are uncomfortable reminders of similar Japanese-American experiences
after Pearl Harbor.
``Japanese-Americans
feel a special responsibility to raise this question and speak
loudly on it,'' said Kano, whose mother and grandparents were
interned at Manzanar and Tule Lake camps in California. ``Right
now the Arab and Muslim communities don't have the luxury of
questioning as vocally as we are.''
Islamic
community advocate Yousef Al-Yousef said Muslims appreciate
Japanese-Americans ``standing by us'' in the aftermath of Sept.
11.
``We
felt for the Japanese in the past, but now we feel a lot more
because we're going through some of what they had to go through,''
said the Santa Clara engineer. ``The biggest problem really
is the fear factor and the insecurity that people have.''
As
Japanese-Americans did 60 years ago, many Middle Eastern immigrants
are trying to keep a low profile. Some are avoiding prayer
sessions, Al-Yousef said.
``Some
people are thinking, 'Is this really the country I want to
live in? Do I want to raise my kids so that they become second-class
citizens?''' he said.
Koshiyama
knows that feeling firsthand. He was among 120,000 Japanese-Americans
interned by the order of President Franklin Roosevelt after
the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He,
his parents and six siblings were forced to abandon the California
strawberry fields they farmed.
``We
don't hear a call to repeat the precise mistake of the Japanese
internment, but there are parallels,'' said Georgetown University
law professor David Cole, a constitutional law expert.
``In
times of fear, we often overreact by engaging in guilt by association
rather than focusing on individual culpability,'' Cole said.
``That's what we did during World War II and during the McCarthy
era, and that's what we're doing today.''
The
Pearl Harbor anniversary is typically a patriotic time, when
veterans are honored and survivors gather to remember their
comrades. For older generations of Japanese-Americans, however,
Dec. 7 is a day viewed with a mixture of caution and fear.
``Japanese-Americans
feel jittery around Pearl Harbor day. They're worried about
being associated with the enemy during that time,'' said Lisa
Nakamura, a member of Nosei, the Japanese-American organization
that helped organize Friday's event.
For
Muslims, ``we're hoping that legacy doesn't come for them in
terms of Sept. 11.''
-
On
the Net:
http://www.nosei.com
|
