{"id":71093,"date":"2026-08-08T23:23:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/71093\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T23:23:20","slug":"how-memories-of-japanese-american-imprisonment-during-wwii-guided-the-us-response-to-9-11-national-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/71093\/","title":{"rendered":"How memories of Japanese American imprisonment during WWII guided the US response to 9\/11 | National"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the chaotic hours and days following the attacks, Mineta did not yet know that his childhood incarceration by the federal government in the aftermath of Japan\u2019s Pearl Harbor bombing nearly 60 years earlier would be a crucial element in decisions<\/a> about how the George W. Bush administration responded to 9\/11.<\/p>\n

Enduring the wartime hardships<\/p>\n

Earlier that spring, President Bush had invited Mineta and his wife, Deni, to spend time at Camp David<\/a>, the presidential retreat. One night after dinner, the president asked Mineta about his imprisonment during World War II.<\/p>\n

For three hours, Mineta, an 11-term member of Congress who also had served as President Bill Clinton\u2019s secretary of commerce, shared his experience of wartime detention and its effects on him and his family.<\/p>\n

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Without any charges brought against them, they were held under harsh conditions<\/a> for the duration of the war simply because they were the same race as the enemy.<\/p>\n

Mineta\u2019s parents, Kunisaku and Kane Mineta, and other first-generation immigrants from Japan were prohibited by federal law from becoming naturalized citizens<\/a>. After the declaration of war, they were classified as enemy aliens, no matter their loyalty to America, their adopted country. Their U.S.-born children, like young Norm, were included in the military detention orders as \u201cnon-aliens<\/a>\u201d \u2013 the government\u2019s term invented to avoid recognizing that they were natural-born U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1942, before the family was rounded up by the military, Mineta\u2019s father\u2019s business license for his insurance agency was suspended, and the family bank accounts confiscated. The family scrambled to dispose of their household belongings since they could only take what they could carry. Ten-year-old Norm\u2019s great heartbreak was having to give away his dog, Skippy. And yet, when he boarded a train with his family for an unknown destination, Mineta was wearing his Cub Scout uniform<\/a> to show his patriotism.<\/p>\n

The Minetas arrived at the Santa Anita Assembly Center in Arcadia, California, in May 1942, and six months later were transferred to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center near Cody, Wyoming. During the war years, the Minetas and those incarcerated at nine other camps run by the government\u2019s War Relocation Authority lived behind barbed wire, under searchlights, with armed soldiers in guard towers pointing guns at them.<\/p>\n

From San Jose to Washington<\/p>\n

When the Mineta family was able to return to San Jose, California, following the end of the war, they put the challenges of their incarceration behind them and prioritized rebuilding their lives and standing in the community<\/a>. Mineta was elected student body president at San Jose High School in his senior year and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1953.<\/p>\n

In addition to being the first Asian American to hold a presidential cabinet position, he was one of the few individuals to serve two presidents from different political parties; in Bush\u2019s cabinet, he was the only Democrat.<\/p>\n

Changing the course of history<\/p>\n

The day after the 9\/11 attacks, Secretary Mineta was at the White House in a meeting with the president, Cabinet members and Democratic and Republican congressional leaders. The discussion turned to the concerns of Arab Americans, Muslims and those from Middle Eastern countries over the growing demands reported in the media that they be placed in detention facilities.<\/p>\n

Norman Mineta remembers the initial response to 9\/11, from the public and from President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n

Bush later explained: \u201cOne of the important things about Norm\u2019s experience is that sometimes we lose our soul as a nation. The notion of \u2018all equal under God\u2019 sometimes disappears. And 9\/11 certainly challenged that premise. So right after 9\/11, I was deeply concerned that our country would lose its way and treat people who may not worship like their neighbor as non-citizens. So, I went to a mosque. And in some ways, Norm\u2019s example inspired me. In other words, I didn\u2019t want our country to do to others what had happened to Norm<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Mineta\u2019s direction, on Sept. 21, 2001, the Department of Transportation emailed major airlines and aviation associations cautioning against racial profiling<\/a> or targeting or otherwise discriminating against passengers who appeared to be Middle Eastern, Muslim or both. The message reminded the airlines that \u201cnot only is it wrong, but it is also illegal<\/a> to discriminate against people based on their race, ethnicity, or religion.\u201d It said the department would be on the lookout to ensure that airport security measures were not unlawfully discriminatory.<\/p>\n

Five years later, in December 2006, Bush presented Mineta with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country\u2019s highest civil honor, paying tribute to Mineta\u2019s lifetime of public service<\/a>. While the government of the 32nd U.S. president would not acknowledge Mineta as a citizen, the 43rd president called him a patriot and \u201can example of leadership, devotion to duty and personal character\u201d to his fellow citizens.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Mineta reflected on how his childhood experience, and the events of 9\/11, taught him about how vulnerable U.S. civilians are to being rounded up and detained when the nation is under threat: \u201cYou think it won\u2019t happen again? Yeah, it can<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susan H. Kamei is a member of the Japanese American Citizens League and the Japanese American National Museum. She worked with Secretary Norman Y. Mineta in the campaign for Japanese American redress and he authored the foreword for her book “When Can We Go Back to America? Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II” (Simon & Schuster 2021).<\/p>\n

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