Hirashima, a married man of 30, was one of about 10,000 people, mainly from Southern California, held at Manzanar. Yet within the record of a country’s unfounded fear of immigrants - and the stain of racial intolerance left by imprisoning an innocent population - lies a history worth honoring: Among the Nisei were some of the most influential pioneers of a developing American car culture that claimed California as its spiritual epicenter. The reminders come as the passage of time shrinks the ranks of those who bore witness to the injustices of places like Manzanar, much as the years have taken away combat veterans of World War II and Holocaust survivors. Pearl Harbor may be 75 sepia-toned years in our past, but distrust of those with an immigrant heritage remains a powerful force. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Dorthea Lange, photographer (reproduction number: LC-USZ62-34565) Two-thirds of them, official accounts explain, were Nisei - a generation of citizens like Hirashima, born in America to immigrant parents, labeled as enemy aliens, assigned identification numbers and, essentially, deported within the borders of their own country.Īn exclusion order directing the removal of Japanese-Americans from San Francisco, posted following the issuance of Executive Order 9066. The government’s pre-emptive move was to herd, without due process or a declaration of martial law, some 120,000 men, women and children living in California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona into remote concentration camps. The strike had inflamed fears of disloyalty - and potentially sabotage - by people of Japanese ancestry, particularly in the event of an enemy invasion force landing on the West Coast. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, as a reaction to Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
Set in the arid Owens Valley of eastern California, Manzanar was one of 10 so-called internment camps established under Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. His offense: being born to Japanese parents. government facility known opaquely as the Manzanar War Relocation Center. Instead, the spring of 1942 found Takeo Hirashima behind barbed wire, incarcerated at a U.S.
Successes piled up a promising career as an engine builder and crew chief at America’s premier auto race seemed assured.ĭriver Rex Mays and mechanic Takeo /Courtesy of Indianapolis Motor Speedway The next year he rode with Jimmy Snyder, setting an Indy qualifying record in a last hurrah for onboard mechanics.
In 1936, this California-born wrenchman was again at Mays’ side, and again they qualified on the pole. 33’s run ended on lap 123, the victim of a broken spring shackle.īy then, however, Mays’ riding mechanic, barely over 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, was on his way to becoming a giant of the Speedway. A forced relocation of people of Japanese ancestry followed, sweeping up some of the most influential mechanics, racers and customizers of the newborn automotive culture that flourished in California.įrom the grandstands, fans at the Indianapolis 500 in 1935 would have strained to see the slight figure crouched alongside pole winner Rex Mays each time the Miller-powered No. Roosevelt 10 weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, it authorized the removal of persons from prescribed military areas in the western United States. 19 marked the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.
0 kommentar(er)
