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Japanese Internee Denounces Racism and WarInterview with Frank Emi
Frank Emi is a Japanese American who was a leader of the Fair Play Committee, a group formed in the U.S. detention camp at Heart Mountain, Wyo. during World War II. He and 85 other Japanese detainees refused induction into the U.S. armed forces to protest the wholesale incarceration of Japanese during the war. Emi and six other leaders were convicted of conspiracy to evade the draft and of counseling others to evade the draft. They spent a total of 18 months in jail before an appeals court overturned their conviction. The other draft resisters also served time and were eventually pardoned by President Truman. Emi and other Fair Play Committee members are featured in a new documentary, "Conscience and the Constitution," by Frank Abe. (See www.resisters.com.) Q: What parallels do you see between the situation of the Japanese during World War II and the plight of Arabs and Muslims in the post-Sept. 11 United States?A:Racial profiling. Japanese Americans were subjected to very racist anti-Asian laws in existence from the 1800s on. Arabs and Muslims are not subject to the racist laws that we were subjected to. But a general racist attitude is pervasive towards anybody that looks Arab, not only among the authorities but also among many average people. The climate is getting very similar because the authorities are rounding up Arabs and Muslims without any reason. Whoever they think might be subversive, they're putting them in jails without any hearings. In that respect, I would say the threat to our civil liberties is very similar. Q: What are your thoughts on the U.S. "war on terrorism" and the current push to wage war in Iraq?A: Well, I think this country is really acting like a big bully. If they start preemptive strikes, where is it going to lead us? What if China wants to do the same thing to Taiwan? Are we going to say no you can't do that? Only the U.S. can do that? Their target is to get control of the oil fields in Iraq. This thing about weapons of mass destruction is a joke. If Saddam Hussein were to attack the U.S. or its allies, Iraq would be obliterated. What happened in the Gulf War? In one week they were almost wiped out. So for the authorities to say we have to do this because they're liable to attack us with weapons of mass destruction is really a lot of bull. Q: What would you say to Muslims and Arabs in the U.S. who face violations of their civil liberties?A: Try to take every legal step you can to counter. Arab American organizations must step up and fight it. In our case the Japanese American Citizens League did the opposite. They bent over backwards to cooperate with the government and really came after us resisters. When we won our case at the appellate level, we proved them wrong. Gerald Lenoir is art director of War Times. |
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