“I am willing to preserve the principles of democracy and freedom”
Statement made by Osama Nakata, 5/31/1944; Statements of United States Citizens of Japanese Ancestry, Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group 147; National Archives at Riverside
In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which ordered the removal of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans from the west coast. Osama Nakata was incarcerated at Poston Relocation Camp in remote western Arizona, behind barbed wire and watched by armed guards. He was required to fill out a four-page form about his relatives, the newspapers and magazines he read, and his ability to read, write, and speak Japanese. He marked “poor” for all three. This signed statement is his answer to one of the last questions, “Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?”
Mr. Nakata’s statement is among the featured items at the “Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures" exhibit now on display at the National Archives Museum.
I was talking to some friends - by all accounts well-educated, fact-seeking, smart people - and not a one of them had any idea that this happened.
Countries like to gloss over the parts of their own history that make them look bad.