Note from editor:
Special thanks to Patricia Golden for submitting this article, and we
also want to thank the San Diego Union-Tribune for giving us permission
to reprint the article and photos. Ms. Yoshiko Golden was one of about
110,000 Japanese-Americans that suffered through the atrocity of
President Roosevelt's decision to place Japanese-Americans in what
amounted to prisons following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7,
1941. Some have compared the internment camps to the treatment that
prisoners are currently receiving at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Prisoners
at Guantanamo have been detained since 2001 with no charges.
By Maureen Magee, San Diego Union-Tribune —
Of all the things Yoshiko Golden lost when her family was forced into
a Japanese-American internment camp in 1942 — her home, their beloved
second-hand piano, her favorite Shirley Temple doll — a high school
education was the one thing she thought she might reclaim one day.
More than 70 years after the U.S. government pushed Golden out of
high school, she is set to receive a diploma Wednesday from the San
Diego County Board of Education's Operation Recognition program.
“I always said I would go back to school. Of course, I never did after the war,” said Golden, 89. “This means a lot to me.”
Golden's son, Olen, helped arrange for the degree after hearing about
the county education office's effort to honor those whose high school
years were cut short by wartime.
A makeshift graduation ceremony is scheduled to take place Wednesday
at a county school board meeting. The event comes as the nation marks
the 25th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act. Congress passed and
President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation in August 1988 to
compensate more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans who were incarcerated in
relocation camps during Word War II.
The public acknowledgments of this dark period of American history
are significant, said David Kawamoto of San Diego, past president of the
National Japanese American Citizens League.
“People need to be aware that 120,000 people were incarcerated
without due process. It was the largest depravation of constitutional
rights of U.S. citizens in our history, and people need to be aware of
it,” Kawamoto said.
Hard-fought by Kawamoto and other Japanese-Americans, the executive
order offered a formal apology and $20,000 to each camp survivor.
The apology addressed to Golden and a copy of her check are framed
and on display in her Imperial Beach home. She will add her diploma to
that collection this week.
Until now, Operation Recognition had issued diplomas exclusively to war veterans.
“It's an honor for us to offer this recognition to anyone with a San
Diego connection whose education was interrupted by war. It's important
to include those who were in the internment camps,” said Nicole Shina,
who oversees Operation Recognition. “These are pretty amazing stories.
These people have been through so much.”
Golden is no exception.
Born Yoshiko Maeyama on the kitchen table of her family's farm house
in Oxnard, she helped tend crops of strawberries and broccoli as a
child. She was 16 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and barely 17
when the U.S. government herded Japanese-Americans to internment camps,
far-flung compounds with guard towers and barbed-wire fencing.
Most of the incarcerated were from the West Coast. They packed only what they could carry and boarded trains to the camps.
Golden said her parents were convinced that if they packed any
belongings with overt ties to Japan, they might be singled out as a
threat. All five children were told to throw anything Japanese into the
outhouse.
“I had a tiny suit case I packed with my everyday clothes,” she said. “I had to leave my dolls. We got on that train and left.”
The family was assigned to the Gila River Relocation in Arizona.
Golden said the guards treated them well. She has good memories of
tending the camp garden, singing in talent shows and making friends.
Still, the experience made her family feel anonymous and without a
country. “I am American, Japan wasn't my country. But my country didn't
want us,” she said. “I never talked about it too much.”
Golden was able to leave the camp after less than two years under a
work furlough program that landed her a job in Chicago as a hotel maid
and salad girl. She later joined her family in San Diego. During another
memorable train trip, Golden met her husband, a Navy sailor.
Several family members plan to attend Wednesday's graduation ceremony. They borrowed a purple cap and gown for Golden.
“My mom did a lot to make her children's' lives better,” said Olen
Golden, who applied for the diploma on his mother's behalf. “This is my
way of giving something to my mother.”
another memorable train trip, Golden met her husband, a Navy sailor.
Several family members plan to attend Wednesday's graduation ceremony. They borrowed a purple cap and gown for Golden.
“My mom did a lot to make her children's' lives better,” said Olen
Golden, who applied for the diploma on his mother's behalf. “This is my
way of giving something to my mother.”
