Stubborn Twig – Excerpt
Masuo was visibly taken aback. “Oh, no,” he almost shouted. “This is just schoolwork of my young son.”
“We believe you had intent to damage the Panama Canal.”
“No, no, no.”
“Prove that you did not intend to blow up the Panama Canal,” demanded the official.
Min was incensed at the treatment his father received. But Masuo accepted it stoically, not so much with a sense of shikata ga nai (it can’t be helped) but with stubborn faith that the American system would work for him, that eventually the truth would be known, his innocence confirmed and his name cleared. Min reported to his younger sister that Masuo was “very philosophical” about his situation and “willing to accept whatever the U.S. government told him to do.” As a Japanese national in federal custody, he had little choice.
Finally, a month after the hearing and almost three months after his arrest, Masuo was informed of the government’s decision. Based on the recommendation of the hearings board, he was pronounced “potentially dangerous to the public peace and safety of the United States.” Above the signature of the attorney general on the official order of March 6, 1942, were the words that would determine his life for the next four years: “It is ordered that said alien enemy be interned.”
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