Joann Takehara Sanford

Look East!  This theme made me reflect on my history: my grandparents traveling east from Japan to California; they and their families, from California to the WWII internment camps then to Chicago; me, from Chicago to college and meeting my life partner; us moving east yet again to New York state then Boston.

My compass needle steadied on the one forced move – Executive Order 9066 gave my parents’ families two weeks to liquidate and take only what they could carry to remote camps.  Along with 120,000 others (two-thirds US citizens) they spent the war years in barracks, where each family was given a room with only cots.  I have a table my father made with scrounged mesquite and scrap wood, their first piece of furniture.  My father was drafted from camp and had to return there when on leave.

The Supreme Court upheld the evacuation order in 1944.  Although not formally overruled, the Supreme Court did discredit the precedent in 2018 with Chief Justice Roberts writing:

“The forcible relocation of U.S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race, is objectively unlawful and outside the scope of Presidential authority.”

The Japanese-Americans, like Jerusalem, served their term and paid the penalty.  We now hold the obligation to prevent repetition and ensure the Lord’s double blessing for all regardless of race, or any otherness.