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Montage of photos///low wind in the background
John McPartland-BART Board President
70 years ago today the collection site for the
largest collection process of the interning of the Japanese Americans in the United States
was opened here at Tanforan less than 4 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
JACKIE SPEIER-US Congresswoman
President Roosevelt ordered 120,000 Japanese Americans
to be rounded up and brought to war relocation camps or prisons. In this land of freedom
and possibility,120,000 people in this country were imprisoned for only one reason, because
of their race.
Narration:
BORN IN SAN FRANCISCO AND RAISED IN SAN MATEO, YONEO KAWAKITA WAS ABOUT TO
GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL WHEN THE WAR BEGAN.
ON MAY 3rd, 1942 the Western Defense command
issues Civilian exclusion order number 35, this order required the registration of all
Japanese ancestry both aliens and non aliens. After registering our family name, Kawakita,
was changed to 21954. This order also instructed all persons of japanese ancestry living in
San Mateo county would be evacuated. We assembled on May 9th, 1942....with only the baggage
we could carry.
Yoneo Kawkita:
When I arrived...the whole area was guarded by military police with rifles.
Busses were lined up along the street waiting to take us to the assembly center.
As they called our name and Family number...we boarded the bus and when it was full we departed
with an armed guard on board.
Narration: THE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN BY FAMED DOCUMENTARY
PHOTOGRAPHER DOROTHEA LANGE.
LINDA GORDON-Author
I Wrote a biography of Dorothea Lange and a book about her photographs
of the Japanese internment, that book is called Impounded because both the photographs were
impounded and the people were impounded.
Tanforan, which was right here where this
BART station stands, Tanforan was one of the worst of the early camps.
WHEN I WROTE my book in 2003 I discovered these photographs had never been published.
Jackie Speier:
I invite all of you to view the photographs in the concourse. Tears will
well up in your eyes....with these young children looking dewy eyed and hopeful and yet about
to endure a shameful experience.
Narration: THE STALLS REEKED OF HORSE MANURE.
THEY USED STRAW TO STUFF THEIR OWN MATTRESSES TO SLEEP ON.
THEY WERE SERVED FOOD OUT OF FRESH NEW GARBAGE CANS.
Jackie Speier:
Dorothea Lange helped us remember this very dark statin on our history
and I understand her family member is here. Where are you. She’s over there filming.
Put your hands together and say thank you. She’s is doing a piece now about her grandmother
for PBS.
Paul Kitagaki Sr.:
This is me. I’m on the right right here.
We are waiting at the bus to be evacuated by buss.
Narration:
PAUL KITAGAKI SENIOR NEVER KNEW HIS PHOTO HAD BEEN TAKEN BY DOROTHEA LANGE.
AND HE AND HIS WIFE....NEVER SHARED THEIR SHAME WITH THEIR SON.
Paul Kitagaki, Jr.:
I found out about my parents incarceration from a history lesson
in San Mateo in 1970. Ya, they admitted, we were in camp and that’s when they told me
their story.
Narration:
PAUL KITAGAKI JUNIOR LATER FOUND THE FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES.
AS A PHOTOGRAPHER....HE UPDATED DOROTHEA LANGE’S WORK BY FINDING SURVIVORS.
HERE’S ONE EXAMPLE. THIS IS LANGE’S WORK, WITH NOTES FROM THE
NATIONAL ARCHIVE.
Narration:
2nd generation Japanese Americans Helen Nakamoto Mahara and Mary Ann Nahero
recite the pledge of allegiance at the Raphael Weil School in San Francisco before being
sent to the Topaz internment center in Utah, April 1942.
KITAGAKI’S UPDATE:
This is them today, Helen Nakamoto Mahara on the right, her father
owned the American Fish market in the Japantown section of San Francisco. He was arrested
by the FBI but reunited with his family at the Topaz Internment camp.
Nahero’s parents were split up. Her mother, a teacher who taught Japanese was arrested
and sent to a separate camp. She never saw her mother again.
Quote: I don’t have bitterness like a lot of people might.
Jackie Speier:
I am so moved by what you have done that I am making a commitment to
you today. When you are ready we are taking your extraordinary
photo journalism to Washington so they are shown in the Capitol of the United States
of America.
Grace Crunican-BART General Manager:
We know nothing we can do today can erase the
past but we know we can learn from it. I am very proud to be part of BART as BART
shines a light on these dark days with this touching and powerful exhibit.
Narration: THE EXHIBIT AT THE SAN BRUNO BART STATION,
WILL BE ON DISPLAY THROUGH MAY...AS A POTENT REMINDER....OF INJUSTICE.
“With Liberty, and Justice for all.”
At the San Bruno BART station, Mark Jones, BART TV.
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