A Japanese American Perspective on September 11, 2001
by Timothy M. Nakayama

As a 10 year-old child in Canada, on a Saturday morning in December 1941 I was given a glass of milk by the father of a 4th grade classmate. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941 by the military forces of Imperial Japan. On Monday morning at the corner of the schoolyard my fellow classmate turned on me and said, "You dirty, yellow Jap!" That remark shocked and introduced me to the Second World War. It was to become the "Exodus" event for Japanese Canadians. (Simultaneously Japanese Americans were also being incarcerated).

We were removed and sent to "camp." If "Little Tokyo" was our ethnic ghetto, thought to be impenetrable, undesirable and removed, the forced removal galvanized us into a closer community than ever before. It united us as an ethnic people. We now were having a common experience of facing racial discrimination from a society in which we thought we belonged. World War II was the occasion, but we as a people began to speak of the period as being, "in camp." Pre-war days became dubbed "before camp," and the post-war period became "after camp." It became a way of talking about our "wilderness" experience in a quiet way — a kind of in-house code, self-evident, immediately understood in the community without explanation.

From the moment of the attack, a grievous, racist societal mistake began developing in the Americas. Japanese Americans, Japanese Canadians, Aleuts (Native People of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands), Japanese Peruvians, Japanese Brazilians, and other people of Japanese descent in Latin America were vilified, vandalized, and attacked. Our citizenship by birth or naturalization was ignored or denied in the first place. We were falsely identified as "enemy aliens," registered, removed from our homes and businesses, evacuated, relocated, and incarcerated in far-off "camps." In the U.S. it was a military action: Presidential Order 9066 sent the people to several military camps. In Canada it was a political action by the Prime Minister.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when the four hijacked planes crashed almost simultaneously… the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor immediately became an oft-quoted media image to remind people of the stealth of this enemy attack… except for the stealth, there was little else in common.

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, when the four hijacked planes crashed almost simultaneously, two into New York City’s World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the other into a field in Somerset, Pennsylvania, the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor immediately became an oft-quoted media image to remind people of the stealth of this enemy attack.

"It’s like Pearl Harbor all over again!" Not really — except for the stealth, there was little else in common.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor base on December 7, 1941, with its heavy carnage of military personnel, was a sneak Japanese military attack on a military target; but on September 11, 2001, the attacks on the passengers and crew of the four jet airliners and the people in the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were overwhelmingly on civilian personnel. Besides the thousands of Americans casualties, people of at least 62 other nations are injured, dead or missing.

The hijackers were on a suicide mission; those who attacked Pearl Harbor were not. There is no similarity here.

However, towards the end of the Pacific War, the Japanese military machine master-minded suicide missions against naval vessels. Those who trained and sent hijackers on their suicide missions caused deaths and injuries of innocent people and destruction of much property. To the extent that both practiced monstrous mind-control and used suicide, there is a serious commonality at the level of idolatry.

The entire population of an ethnic group was dealt with unjustly, sanctioned by government and the popular will. Voices raised in protest were largely unheeded.

Meanwhile, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was exploited in the two countries of North America. Racism and hatred against people of Japanese ancestry was used for the war effort among the general public. The entire population of an ethnic group was dealt with unjustly, sanctioned by government and the popular will. Voices raised in protest were largely unheeded.

Over many years the climate has changed, but it took over 46 years for this injustice to be officially acknowledged by the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Canada in August and September 1988, respectively, after numerous representations and a Congressional investigation and findings. Subsequently, funds for reparations and words of apology have been sent to the survivors in the two countries, and several years later at a much lower key to Japanese Peruvians.

Because of the attack of the terrorists a specific test now faces the U.S.A. Have the American people learned this lesson about racism?

The frequent mention of the name of high-profile suspect Osama bin Laden has cast a deep pall of fear over Americans who are identified with Arabic states and Islam. Hate calls have been directed at Middle Eastern people. Defacing of mosques and ethnic businesses is occurring. Women wearing head coverings have been spat upon. Arabic students are leaving schools of higher learning and fleeing to their homes in the Middle East.

A Sikh from India wearing a turban was wrongly identified as an Arab and killed. (It is a reminder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who was beaten to death in Detroit because he was wrongfully identified as a Japanese American when Japanese cars seemed to be taking over the car market.)

A Sikh from India wearing a turban was wrongly identified as an Arab and killed. (It is a reminder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American who was beaten to death in Detroit because he was wrongfully identified as a Japanese American when Japanese cars seemed to be taking over the car market. In this instance there were at least two wrongs — he was a Chinese American and not a member of the targeted ethnic group, and even if he were a Japanese American, they have nothing to do with the Japanese or the Japanese market.)

High governmental figures such as George W. Bush, President of the United States, and Gary Locke, Governor of Washington State, are to be commended for their notes of caution to the American public about the wrongness of these kinds of targeted racism. It is to be hoped that their words are not merely lip-service that go unheeded.

The American public needs to be educated about Arabic peoples and Islam to be able to avoid such racial profiling and religious stereotyping that poisons our nation. It caused Japanese Americans to suffer unjustly 60 years ago.

The Rev. Timothy M. Nakayama, Priest, retired
Diocese of Olympia + The Episcopal Church USA
Formerly a Missionary to Japan - 1991 to 2000

The Rev. Timothy Makoto Nakayama has served in pastoral work in urban and rural settings with different racial/ethnic communities in three countries. He was born and raised in Canada, ordained in the Diocese of Calgary, and then emigrated to Seattle. Tim’s ministry of over 40 years of social change includes regional community organizing, assisting in the formation of the national Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry, and welcoming refugees from around the world, especially Southeast Asians in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. He can be reached by email at frtim@yahoo.com in Washington state.