Community leader releases book about Japanese American history

by: Mary Tablante

A new book by S. Floyd Mori, the President and CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies and former national executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, captures vignettes from a period in American history many know little about: Japanese American internment during World War II.

“The Japanese American Story as Told through a Collection of Speeches and Articles,” combines Mori’s personal stories and the stories of the innocent Americans who were affected by internment. Mori, who has more than 40 years of political experience, gave these speeches before various crowds, from students in high school to leaders of nonprofit organizations. His wife Irene compiled much of his work.

The main motivation behind the book is to increase awareness of this history when Japanese Americans were deprived of their liberty and denied due process.

“Most people say, ‘Really, that happened in our country?’ Some of the stories explain what happened help people to understand that [the internment] did happen in this country,” Mori told Asian Fortune. “Those that have misconceptions might feel it was holiday in the park. Some might feel we were a danger to society, and we were not. [The book] dispels any misconceptions or fears about Japanese Americans in that part of our history.”

One event that Mori particularly remembers in his career is when he was asked to make an apology to the Japanese American draft resisters who were incarcerated in Heart Mountain in Wyoming during the war. He made the apology when he was the national president of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).

The resisters challenged government drafts because the government incarcerated them and revoked their citizenship rights. Many in the Japanese American community did not support the resisters and labeled them as draft evaders.

“(The draft resisters) were stigmatized as cowards,” Mori said. “JACL made an official apology and we were required to do a ceremony … It was a very heartfelt apology we hope that was understood to those to whom we apologized to.”

Although Mori’s family was not forced from their home during the war, they experienced discrimination and prejudice for being of Japanese descent and looking like the enemy. Mori, who was born and raised in Utah, said that he disliked his Asian heritage growing up. Later, while attending college in Southern California and living in Hawaii for two years, he made friends of Asian descent and became more interested in his heritage.

While the book’s focus is on Japanese Americans, Mori also give nod to the discrimination still present in other Asian American communities. Included in the book are Mori’s remarks at the funeral of Surinder Singh, a Sikh American who was killed in a possible hate crime in 2011.

In his remarks, Mori said, “The Redress Movement, which provided an apology and reparations to Japanese Americans, was to ensure that this type of thing should never happen again to any other people. However, since the terrorists’ actions of 9/11, we see innocent persons who may have appearances similar to the terrorists being routinely faced with racism and hate.”

Mori said that the racial profiling and prejudice that Japanese Americans and other Asian Americans faced and continue to face is more relevant than ever in post-9/11 America, with some even going as far as saying Muslim or Arab Americans should be put in internment camps.

“There’s the same kind of hysteria about immigrants in general for some people,” said Mori. “I’ve heard Congressmen suggest that it might be good to put immigrants in concentration camps, so I think it’s very relevant today as it was then.”

He added that he hopes the book can help Asian Americans help learn and understand this history so they can appreciate who they are and where they are today regardless of what country they came from.

Mori said, “Our democracy requires that people learn about this and understand that it is very painful and very unjust for groups of people to lose the basic constitutional rights that are guaranteed.”

“The Japanese American Story” is available at thejapaneseamericanstory.tateauthor.com and Amazon.