Mary Matsuda Gruenwald Quotes
I could not shake the feeling that I was bad and not to be trusted and that is why I am imprisoned here.
The incredible absurdity of the security claim of interring the Japanese-Americans is that the majority of all the people interred were teenagers, children and babies. See {624010}.
Mary Matsuda Gruenwald, American Citizen Interned in Japanese-American Internment camp in WWII, Description of her feeling when interred as a teen-ager, C-SPAN, Book TV, February 2, 1906
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In one of the great American disgraces, during WWII, American citizens of Japanese ethnicity were forced into an “evacuation” into camps for the duration of the war. German American citizens were not similarly treated. There was not a single act of sabotage or anti war propaganda by Japanese Americans before (or after) the “evacuation.” Many German Americans were so involved but never interned, but one of the major motivations was to get the valuable farmland owned by many Japanese on the West Coast. (The Japanese American citizens could not work or earn the money to pay the mortgages or taxes on their property and the white Californians were able to acquire the land for very little. Many believe this was the real motivation for the Japanese American incarceration as there was none such on the East Coast where there were few Japanese American land holdings.
She was a teenager at the time. The leaders organized some entertainment and she performed traditional Japanese dances. In the beginning there was no school, no education or training, no entertainment. Later there were some rudimentary opportunities provided by the authorities.
The initial reaction was to prevent Japanese from leaving the area, being out at night, or spending their assets. Incredibly, Japanese-American citizens who had their own hard earned money in a bank were not allowed to withdraw and spend their own funds. Her family had owned a farm on prime land. Soon, whites looking to get the land owned by Japanese Americans lobbied to have the Japanese removed. They lost their livelihood, would default on their mortgages, and much land fell into the hands of whites. Gruenwald’s family did not lose their farm thanks to the local sheriff who had agreed to supervise the farm and split the profits. Not all West Coast Americans approved of the treatment of their Japanese fellow citizens and many helped protect some from the greed and racism of other Americans. See {624010}.
Many of the young men who were given this form to fill out, had never been in Japan and some did not even know there was an emperor there. Nonetheless the Japanese American divisions of enlistees were the most effective and most decorated fighting units for America while their parents who had not been born in America were still imprisoned in the internment camps. See {624010}.
