Our Debt of Gratitude

For many Japanese American families, it took decades for elders to speak of their personal hardships during the forced World War II relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans. Once shared, their stories have helped subsequent Nikkei generations understand the strength and resilience of our pioneering Issei and Nisei. For others, those stories shed light on the injustices faced by a peaceful civilian population that was targeted by race and wartime hysteria.

Now, we turn to another vital aspect of this history: remarkable acts of compassion and solidarity shown by individuals of non-Japanese heritage during the hysteria following Pearl Harbor, when the US Government itself turned upon its own citizens and law-abiding immigrants using the Alien Enemy Act to issue Executive Order 9066. Some non-Nikkei stood up, reached out and offered support to Japanese American friends, neighbors, students, and even strangers.

While many Japanese American families endured profound losses with no one to turn to, some were extended a helping hand or a kind favor by a non-Nikkei individual, someone who came forward amid the hysteria and hatred when our families and communities were being forcibly uprooted and removed from the West Coast. They did things like rented out our farms to pay the land taxes, maintained ways for us to return to something of our homes and businesses, or faithfully extended a kindness while our families were being quickly corralled away.

These individuals could not prevent the mass incarceration, but their acts of help, large and small, made an immeasurable difference for Japanese American generations to come. The effects of their courage and compassion are still appreciated today in family stories passed down. These non-Nikkei individuals showed up despite risks of their own surveillance by the FBI and taunts from their own neighbors of being called traitors themselves. Some could not publicly show up, but found a way behind the scenes to come forth to help, or to give a Japanese American family a quick but lasting break, hoping no one was looking. They acted.

Generations later, these personal stories of help and empathy offer a different kind of healing. Beyond the narratives of hardships, they illuminate instances of decency and fairness that emerged from a period of profound injustice. Some descendants of early Issei and Nisei have said that in growing up, little was heard about the concentration camps but instead, certain names were repeated again and again, in recounting "what these folks did for us", and visits would be made to non-Nikkei families who did something for which our appreciation would continue for generations, in further debt of gratitude.

For the present-day generations of Japanese American historical heritage, these stories help heal the intergenerational wounds from racial division stoked during a dark chapter of American history.

These stories awaken pride in the acts of decency and fairness, of courage and kindness that came from their own communities, inviting curiosity into our full American history.

These are the lessons of history that teach us who we can be in our present times.

We plan to use these stories to honor those of non-Japanese heritage who stepped forward against the tide of racism to enhance conversation about personal conviction, and to encourage similar helper actions when an injustice is being done to another person. We intend to make the collected stories available in different forms at Japanese American confinement sites, museums and displays, and available to others in a non-profit archive, with lengthier story versions included there, or in print publication.

In a time when immigrant lives and civil rights of different groups are increasingly challenged once again, our full Japanese American history can encourage acts of courage and help to all groups of people now found in the recurring divisiveness we once experienced.

We are gathering stories of assistance and compassion, of individuals of non-Japanese heritage who came forward to help Japanese Americans during the WWII racist hysteria, forced evacuation from the West Coast and mass incarceration.

We also welcome helper narratives from Japanese Americans who were outside of the West Coast under intense government-ordered restrictions and denial of civil rights while most were not incarcerated at confinement sites.

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The suggested written length is from a paragraph to one or two pages, with a copy of a possible photograph, artwork, or other document that aids the narrative. Initially we plan for museum-length shorter versions, but longer versions of stories are welcome in planning for a possible later repository for public access.

Many of the helper stories are expected to be family stories, passed down orally from generation to generation, retold in your words. If there is a written first-hand account of it, please introduce the story by telling how you knew of it. If you need someone to talk about writing it down or recording it, please email us with your phone number and other contact information.

We might request some editing for clarity or legal purposes. These personal stories will not be released without your written permission, and in some instances, other permissions might be required.

We hope to gather an initial round of stories by October 1, 2025 for inclusion in a first collection. Stories submitted after that date will still be welcomed as the project expects to be ongoing.

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Guidelines for Stories

Send your Story

Project Organizers

Margret Mukai

Margret Mukai is a retired nurse and former research scientist based in Philadelphia. During WWII, the Crowningshield family, neighbors of the Mukais in Spring Valley, CA, rented out the Mukai farm to pay the land taxes, lest the farm be forfeited for non-payment of taxes. "They took shotguns with them each month to demand the rent," recounted her father. "The renters at first said, 'Oh, they're not here, we don't have to pay.'"

Her mother's hero was the Mills College librarian, Evelyn Steel Little, who spearheaded donations totaling 4,000 books in six months from Bay Area libraries to the Tanforan Assembly Center. Kyoko Hoshiga (Mukai) recalled the unstoppable passion with which Mrs. Little repeatedly tried to gain entry into Tanforan to help her catalog all of the books. The Tanforan Library became the formidable start of the Topaz Relocation Center Library.

Growing up in an often Asian-unfriendly NY and NJ after WWII in the McCarthy era, Margret was also heartened by stories from Issei and Nisei who were not interned during WWII, but who spoke of the goodwill from those who helped them survive the civil restrictions and societal discrimination of the war years.

Sandra Mikesell Buscher is a lifelong writer. She taught a class called “Capture the Moment in Words” at her town’s Senior Citizen Center in Bethel, Connecticut for 28 years. Her class was designed to help others write their own stories. When encountering people who say, “No one in my family is interested in my stories,” she responds, “The person who will want to read them might not be born yet.” That is the beauty of writing a story down - it allows future generations to hear the stories we preserve.

A hapa Sansei, Sandra is excited to help facilitate the preservation of “Helper” stories. Her grandfather Masaichiro Marumoto led a caravan of three cars to Utah during the Voluntary Relocation period to avoid incarceration in a WRA camp. Her mother, Yukari Mikesell, who was six years old when they moved to Utah, calls the farmer’s wife who hired them, “Grandma Thurgood”. Even 83 years later, Yukari says, “Grandma Thurgood never slaughtered a chicken for her family without giving one to my mother to cook. She never baked a loaf of bread without giving one to my mother for our family. She was the only grandma I ever had.” Grandma Thurgood’s kindness lives on in those memories.

We are thankful for the generous time, efforts, opinions and suggestions from these persons,

* for Japanese cultural clarification of the concepts of ongi and kansha: Emy & Yasuo Kamihara of Montclair, NJ.

-for the space to discuss ideas : JAMP -Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages.

-for Interest in the idea for this project: Attendees at a breakout group at the 2024 JACL national convention in Philadelphia, as well as encouragement from other Nikkei and non-Nikkei friends.

-for Website review: Arlin Ortiz , artist and website developer based in Los Angeles; Quinha Faria, artist and RN based in Portland, OR.

The Project's Own Helpers

This project began its initial organization during an intergenerational discussion session at the September 2024 Topaz Pilgrimage held by JAMP - Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages .

Sandra Buscher

We may be contacted for questions, brief comments and suggestions using the adjacent form.

For inquiries more than 200 words, please email us at OurDebtOfGratitude@gmail.com