“Americanism is not a matter of race or creed, it is a matter of the heart.”
Harry S. Truman uttered these words when presenting a citation to the all-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team/100th Infantry Battalion in 1946. He attributed the quote to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt–the president who signed the executive order that allowed the government to incarcerate more than 125,000 Japanese Americans in 1942. Words can be powerful–but they are empty without action, or when they are applied in some situations but not others: FDR’s inspiring words accompanied a call to enlist in the Armed Forces, but ring hollow in the face of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans on the basis of their ancestry.
In a recent conversation with two Topaz survivors, as so often happens, the talk drifted to a family both had known in Berkeley before the War. One mentioned one of the sons–“John”–and added wistfully, “He was so handsome!” Then there was a pause.
In my childhood, such silences were respected, the talk allowed to continue on a different subject. And that’s why so many of us grew up knowing so little about our families’ lives before 1945.
This Veterans Day, we share the story of John Yukiharu Harano. Many thanks to the Sons and Daughters of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team for their efforts to preserve the stories of Nisei WWII veterans, and to Yae Yedlosky and Kaz Iwahashi for remembering John. Read the story, “Go For Broke.”
The Topaz Stories Team
Plan to visit the Topaz Stories Exhibit in Salt Lake City before it closes on December 31, 2022.
Contact us if you have a Topaz Story to share.
Follow us on Instagram @topazstories
Media Coverage:
Watch Topaz survivors tell their stories (abc4 news, 4/22/2022)
Listen to the “In the Hive” podcast with interviews with Ann Dion, Jonathan Hirabayashi, and Topaz survivors Jeanie Kashima and Joseph Nishimura (KCPW, 4/28/2022)
Read How a Utah exhibit about Topaz Camp looks to find empathy in ‘an ugly stain on American history (ksl.com, 4/22/2022)
Read “Topaz Stories rise from the dust,” (Department of Culture & Community Engagement, 4/2022)
Listen to KQED Forum, Day of Remembrance interview with Ruth Sasaki, 2/15/2022
Listen to Max Chang and Ruth Sasaki interviewed (KRCL RadioActive, 2/9/2022
Read On Topaz Stories and ‘Authentic Voice’, the Discover Nikkei interview with Ruth Sasaki (10/14/2022)
Listen to Remembering the Japanese American Inca