Former prisoner speaks on Japanese internment camps

Sumi Kobayashi wants every American to know. In an hour-long speech in Kings Court last night, Kobayashi, one of 120,000 Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned during World War II, spoke about her experiences in a Utah internment camp. Kobayashi called her experience "an injustice to American citizens whose ancestry happened to be Japanese." She emphasized that this part of American history must be made known and remembered so that it does not happen again. Kobayashi, who is a member of the Japanese-American Citizens League, began her lecture by sharing her personal background with students, and went on to discuss parts of recent American history. She and her family moved to San Diego in 1939, two years before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Following the bombing, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order calling for the placement of Japanese-Americans into internment camps. Kobayashi said that her family was forced to move from California to Topaz, a camp in a Utah desert, taking only the possessions essential for survival. Internees were given cotton ticking and straw for a mattress, and families were assigned small, empty rooms. "This was to be our home . . . family life was gone," Kobayashi said. Topaz housed 8000 residents in one square mile that was "guarded around the clock by military police." After Kobayashi spent a year in the camp, she said the government encouraged internees to move to other parts of the U.S. for schooling or employment. Kobayashi not only discussed her own internment, but also touched on the treatment of other Japanese-Americans. She said many soldiers of Japanese origin were discharged or assigned menial tasks. "[At the end of the war] everyone wanted to forget about this chapter in their history," Kobayashi said. But she said in recent years, children of the internees have begun to question their parents. A special commission was set up by Congress to hear the stories of both former internees and former government officials. And in 1983, this commission published Personal Justice Denied, a booklet describing their conclusions and recommendations. Kobayashi said that she personally lobbied for a bill, signed into law in 1988, calling for a written apology and a $20,000 payment to each internee. Following her speech, Kobayashi answered questions from the audience about internment experiences, American views toward Japanese-Americans, as well as about her thoughts on the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Then a brief documentary and the film "Come See the Paradise," both about Japanese internment camps, were shown. The 15 students who attended said they found the discussion interesting and informative. College sophomore Chi-Tai Tang described the speech as "really interesting," calling the internment a "drastic measure." "I think it's a terrible shame that so few people are here [at the lecture]," College freshman Amy Joseph-Mosely said. "[The internment] is something that should be remembered or else it will happen again." The discussion was organized by Kings Court staff members.

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