S1E6 Dear Attorney General

Hosts Michelle and Koji explore parenthood, cultural heritage, and resilience through personal narratives and historical references. In part three, Koji’s grandparents' attempt to stay in the United States after renouncing their citizenship with the help of civil rights lawyer Wayne Collins and their friends/family.

ABOUT OUR READER

Derek Mio is an actor and comedian from Huntington Beach, CA. He portrays real-life recipient Hiroshi "Hershey" Miyamura in the Netflix anthology series Medal of Honor--executive produced by Robert Zemeckis--and is the lead actor in the second season of the critically acclaimed AMC anthology series The Terror co-starring George Takei and executive produced by Ridley Scott. He is the creator and host of 'The BudoComedy Show' held at the Terasaki Budokan non-profit rec center in Little Tokyo, downtown Los Angeles featuring comedians such as Atsuko Okatsuka, Al Madrigal, Sheng Wang, Ian Bagg and more--the show has raised over $10,000 for the facility. Derek earned a Bachelor of Arts from USC's School of Cinematic Arts. His hobbies include surfing, fishing, birding, and wrangling his 2-year-old son.

ABOUT US

Welcome to "Japanese America," where the Japanese American National Museum unveils captivating stories that add a Nikkei slant to the American narrative. In each episode, we explore Japanese Americans' unique experiences, challenges, and triumphs, illuminating their rich contributions to the mosaic of American life. From historical milestones to contemporary perspectives, join us for an insightful journey showcasing the diverse tapestry of a community that has shaped the American story in extraordinary ways.  Welcome to "Japanese America," where each story unfolds like a chapter in a living history book.

For more information about the Japanese American National Museum, please visit our website at www.janm.org. 

CREDITS

The music was created by Jalen Blank

Written by Koji Steven Sakai

Hosts: Michelle Malazaki and Koji Steven Sakai

Edited and Produced by Koji Steven Sakai in conjunction with the Japanese American National Museum

Transcript

0:00

Have you ever made a decision you regreted? Every single day of my life. I don't regret having a child, obviously, but, like, you know, you think, like how different your life would be and how much more time I would have. You know, I remember, you know, a lot of times, like, especially when I'm really busy on the weekend, I remember thinking, I remember the days I could just roll out of bed, go to brunch, read a newspaper, hang out, talk, and then spend the rest of the time kind of putzing around and having shopping or having fun. Yeah Those days no longer happen. Oh, you got to share the shopping money with the kids and you only have like 20 bucks left. I don't give nany money to my kids. What are you talking about? What about you? Are there any decisions you regret? Of course. Like what? Well, okay. Uh, when I was little, I went to a Catholic preschool. In Japan? In Japan? That's weird. Well, my parents are Christians, okay? But they are not Catholic. But the preschool nearby, my parents house was Catholic, so I went there and then they told me if I behave well and pray every night, my wish will come true. So I behave really well. And I wished for a sister and I got one a year later I'm like, oh my gosh, God's. Wow. Exists. God, you know God exists. But wait, you regretted it later? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, like, I was so happy to have a baby sister. But one day after, I was like, totally regretting because I was the only child. I was six years old and all the attention now went to my little sister. Hahaha. So if you didn't pray, you would have not had a little sister. I know right? That that is that sounds regretful. But that history repeats. My son did the same thing. He prayed for three sisters. He got one and he regrets. He regrets it. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the episode number six of the Japanese America Podcast. My name is Koji and I am one of your hosts. And I'm Michelle and I'm the other host. This is the third part of the story about Koji's grandfather. We highly recommend that if you haven't already listened to parts one and two, you go and do that before you listen to this episode. Michelle, how are things going for you? Doing? I'm doing good. It's summertime. Wait, do you go to Obon? Obon? Yeah, I have to go Obon dance. Uh, the one in Oxnard. Oh, you got Oxnard. Oh, sorry. You live out there? Yeah. Do you have fun? Yeah. Of course. Like, um. Do you dance? Do you do the obon dori? I have the outfit. Kimono. Yukata? Yeah, yeah. Oh, so you go out in, your children do it too. My daughter, she wants to dress up, but she doesn't want to dance. She wants to Kimono. Yeah, she she's got yukata. Oh, just yukata. Not not kimono. Yeah. Because I for obon dance, you wear yukata. Yeah, Yeah. You should put her in a whole kimono and then have to have her wear the the the wooden. Yeah. The, uh, what are they called? How do you call that? Uh. It's geta, but it's different geta. It's like taller. Yeah. You should have to wear that. Oh, then she's going to be taller than me. I know, but she's gonna be uncomfortable. She can't run away. She can't run away. That's like a funny story. I had a Japanese friend, a Japanese American friend who wanted a super traditional wedding for some reason. And he wanted to do the, um, the tea ceremony, and then he wanted to sit, like, uh, like, you know, with the knees under you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seiza. But he's never done that before. Like I did kendo for 20 years. Wow. So I remember, like, I had to sit there for, you know, hour watching people do kendo and sit like that. So I'm used to. I could do it forever. But if you've never done that before, it's really hard. So I was watching the wedding and I was like, oh, you can't sit like this. It's like two minutes. It's just it's hard for him. And I was like, see, you don't know. You can't. You don't have what it takes to be Japanese. Like Japanese is about pain. A torture. Yeah, torture. And you have to, like, sit through because the ceremony takes forever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, You gotta do something. And then you got to do this and. You have to turn the cup. Yeah. And it's all very deliberate and slow and everything takes forever, and, you know. Anyways, sorry. This is where we look at all things Japanese American. We'll bring alive the history, culture and people that make up this diverse community. Koji, should we get started? Yes. Let's get started. After renouncing their citizenship, my father and his family were sent to Crystal city, Texas. This wasn't a concentration camp. It was an internment camp because these were prisoners of war. In other words, people were not citizens when the war ended. My grandparents requested they not be sent to Japan despite having to renounce their citizenship. However, once a person willingly gives up their citizenship, it isn't easy to get it back. The following is the end of an FBI report on whether the family should be allowed to stay. We brought back actor and comedian Derek Mio to help bring the report to life. The entire hearing very definitely shows redacted this family to be a typical Japanese family. Japanese in their thinking, Japanese in their manners, and undoubtedly Japanese in their hearts. After carefully weighing the evidence favorably and unfavorable, giving serious considerations such as relationship facts which merit special consideration, I have concluded that the evidence which indicated attachment to Japan is stronger than that evidence, which indicated attachment to the US. On the basis of this conclusion, I recommend that both Takaichi Sakai and his wife Sato be removed to Japan. But Koji's grandfather wasn't leaving without a fight. He wrote letters and telegrams pleading his case directly to the Attorney general. My three children are all American citizens and would like very much to continue their democratic education. I therefore appeal to your honor to reconsider my case and release me and my family, as I have a brother in the armed forces and have three American citizen children to be educated in American schools. My grandfather also got his friends and extended family to write to the Attorney General to reconsider and vouch for him. I found dozens of letters in his FBI file, but two of them stood out to me. The first is from Masao Sakai, my grandfather's brother, whom I'd never known about until I saw this letter in his file. Masao served in the United States military and was stationed in Japan during the occupation. April 1st, 1946. Tokyo, Japan. Dear sir, since you are the only one that can help me on my problem, I am bringing up this matter to you. I am a soldier of Japanese ancestry and doing my duty in Japan. My eldest brother, his wife and three children are in Tule Lake internment camps at present. He has a mother to look after in Hawaii and besides three US children to be educated in American schools. My brother, his wife and three children all wanted to stay in the US. And we do too. Hoping you can help me by looking into this matter and give them permission to stay in the US. Thank you sir. Yours truly, Masao Sakai. The second letter is from people who have worked with Koji's grandmother in the hospital in Hawaii. There are simple letters signed by over 17 nurses moved us almost to tears. To the honorable Tom Clarke, Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, regarding Mrs. Satoko Sakai. 16 03B Newhall, California. Dear Mr. Clarke, we, the friends of Mrs. Satoko Sakai, unreservedly vouch for her moral character and her ability as a nurse. We would like to have her back here in Honolulu, Hawaii. Michelle, what did you think when you read these letters? Oh my gosh, 17 nurses. I was like, you know, I always think about myself like, if this happened to me, if I were your grandpa, would I get this many people to vouch for me? I don't think so. Your grandparents must been really nice. You know, people. I think my grandma was really nice. I'm not sure. Like I said, I'm not sure about my grandpa, but I'm not. I'm not 100% sure I could find 17 people to vouch for me either. I mean, I think that that's pretty crazy. I think it's crazy that they even had to ask for people to vouch for them. I was especially moved by my my father's brother, my my grandfather's brother, Masao, because he was just saying, you know, like he's fighting for this country. Can his brother stay? Yeah, He has a lot of things to do here. Yeah. And it was just very it was very, very simple letter, but I thought it was a very powerful letter. And he was stationed in Japan too. Yeah. During the occupation. Yeah. So he was probably working in translations and doing a lot of the interacting and stuff. If you could ask one person for to vouch for you, who would? That's not family, who would you vote? Who, who would you have to vouch for you? Well, will you vouch for me? Absolutely not. No, no. I'll Say, Michelle is a Terrible. Person. A traitor, and she should not be allowed to stay here. She needs to go. Oh. But I have nowhere to go now because I don't have Japanese citizenship. Will they take you back? You can probably get your Japanese citizenship back, couldn't you? Um. I guess it's easier for me to get a Japanese citizenship back. But. You'd have to apologize. I know, I have to apologize. I'm so sorry. I was sleeping sideways, having my feet facing west towards Japan. I am so sorry. Wait. What does that mean? Not supposed to have your feet facing towards Japan to go to sleep. Why? Because that's so rude. Is it? I don't know. My mom used to say that to me and I never understood. I keep asking her why. Well, you're not supposed to sleep with Kitamakura. Like having a pillow facing north. But also if you. If somebody did something good for you, like you, Koji, you are nice to me. Maybe I shouldn't have my feet facing east towards your house. I mean, no matter what direction, you're gonna be pointing your feet at somebody. Somebody that you don't like, that you like. Yeah. So what do you do then? I guess I just have to seza that and sleep. That's pretty funny. Ultimately, my grandfather and his family were allowed to stay in the United States. It is difficult to say how much of an effect the letter campaign had, but I think it didn't hurt his cause. People like my grandfather were not sent to Japan, and mainly because of the hard work and dedication of civil rights attorney Wayne Collins, Mr. Collins worked over 14 years and won back citizenship for approximately 5000 Nisei Renunciants like my grandparents. According to Japanese American history and A to Z reference from 1868 to the present. Collins argued that the Nisei second-generation Japanese Americans were coerced into renouncing their citizenship for several reasons. A small clique of Japanese nationalists were terrorizing those who did not renounce their citizenship. The government knew of these terrorists and not only did nothing about it, but actually aided them. The government, through its inhumane treatment of the internees, brought about extreme duress, which was responsible for such behaviour. To find out more about Wayne Collins, we invite you to visit JANM's ongoing exhibition, Common Ground Heart of a community, where they have a picture and more information about him. So, Michelle, let's look back at the last three episodes. Is there anything that you wanted to chat about? Gosh, there are so much like I'm still like, yes, yes, no, no thing. Am I like to way behind because I'm like, I will never be able to answer these questions because I'm yes, yes, but no, no. Like there's nothing in between. Like if you answer one of them. No, you're answering both of them no. Yeah. Yes. No. Like you can't do that. So like one no means you're answering both. No. So you have to kind of go for one or the other. You know, even within families there was disagreements. Like I talked to my wife about this and my wife, I believe would. Say no, no. Like I said, I would have said yes. Yes. I thought it was really interesting to to think about this a lot, because the older I've gotten, the more I'm forgiving of my grandpa about a lot of these decisions. When I was younger, when I first found these out, I was convinced he was a spy. I was convinced that he was kind of a bad guy in quotes. Not like bad bad, but that these decisions were based on like anger or based on maybe being disloyal, I don't know, but then now, as a dad, as an older person, I forgive him more. I see it differently. I don't think he was making a decision based on himself. I think he was making a decision based on what his what was best for his family. And I think that I'm much more forgiving of that now. And for a long time I did think it was a spy, but I don't think he was a spy anymore. I just think he was kind of in a bad place. I mean, he when I used to give tours here at the museum and I'd talk about my family, I'd say like it was like he was working for al Qaeda in New York City, at the World Trade Center the day, like a month before 9/11, like he was working for the the enemy. Right when it would have happened. And so what I'll say about my family, and I would love to hear your thoughts, is that even if they didn't lock up all Japanese Americans, they would have locked up my my grandfather. He would have been locked up no matter what because he was working for the Japanese government. So when I when I talk about the tragedy of the Japanese Americans, I talk about my father, who was a child and his siblings and my grandma, who had nothing to do with what's happened. And all the other Japanese Americans had nothing to do with it. Like if you were a Japanese American child like Yuri Kochiyama from episode one, she was in San Pedro. She had nothing to do with what happened. My grandfather, he was involved, right. And I'm still convinced that he knew about Pearl Harbor before it happened. But, you know, I asked myself now, well, what was he supposed to say? Like, does he go to the government and say, the United States government say, hey Pearl Harbor is about to happen, which is probably what you're supposed to do. But then Japan is his employer. So, I mean, I don't know, to be clear, if I were working for the Japanese government and I knew about a potential attack, I would tell the American government to save myself a lot of this stuff that happened. But but what do you think about anything I just said? Yeah, I think your grandpa was really thinking about your family, because if he were a single person, he would have said yes. Yes, maybe. But like, Well, the yes, yes. To be clear, he was already 40. Yeah. So he would never have fought for the war I believe the, the no no was a moral decision because I don't think he ever thought he was gonna get out. And I'm pretty sure that he knew he wasn't gonna fight. I mean, he's a 40 year old man with three children. They're not looking for 40 year old men with three children to fight, Especially. Yeah, especially with his history, too. He knew. I'm pretty sure he knew he's not gonna fight. So he's saying no to fighting. Was like, more of like, f you government I think than than anything else. But the renunciation part of it I think was more of like a family, like, let's not separate these people. Yeah. And then you also have to match with everybody in our family for those questions or you're going to be separated. Yeah. I mean, the husband and wife, the children had no choice. They were whatever the parents said, they would have gone. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, did split up families. I mean, you know, if your parents wanted you to say yes. Yes. And you said no, no, guess what? You weren't a part of the family anymore. Oh, no. Or the other way around, you know, and brothers versus brothers or, you know, people had a lot of issues. So like I said, to this day, people are still fighting about this. Yeah. Now their grandchildren are fighting about this. I've heard from people my grandfather said, you people are are cowards. Oh my gosh, I'm like you people. You people. Like you weren't even there. Yeah, Like, how can you say something like that? Like I personally respect anybody like that. Their decision, they made what I think is the best decision at that time, they thought, Yeah you know, like it's easy to look back and make a decision. Yeah. But with 80 years of history. But back then it was, you know, there's a lot of rumors and a lot of things and you don't know what's going to happen. Yeah. And also it's like they were isolated. So the amount of the news or information that they have is limited. So whatever you hear you believe in it. It's like a cult. That's a great point. Also, Tule Lake at the time was not just like it wasn't like not a concentration camp like we've talked about. It's not like Manzanar where there dances and there was no like, basketball or baseball or anything like that. It was a prison camp because those were for the Japanese Americans that had answered no, no to a loyalty questionnaire. So all those like things that made life okay in the other camps were not at Tule Lake. And so it was much more tense. Yeah, It was a much more like a prison camp. And I think that, yeah, that probably played I mean, like in the, in the thing that he wrote, it played a factor. There were people there who were pro Japanese. Yeah. Who said that if you don't, we're going to beat you up. Yeah. If everyone around you is saying, I'm going to beat you up, then unless you're going to fight everybody, you're going to say whatever they want you to say. And then you kind of move on. Especially with children. It's easier. Like you said, if you had no children, it's easy to be like, fuck you. Yeah, Right. But if you have children, then you have to be careful of the children and then you're going to go along to get along. Right? I mean, that's just part of like the situation. Like you have to kind of bite your tongue in a way that's different if you have nobody. So, I mean, was there anything surprising for you in any of the stories about my grandpa? Oh, Gosh, Was it everything? Everything was surprising. And, um, I don't know, I War is awful. War is awful. I mean, all of this, I. And I think we talked about last episode or no, we talked about an episode three, but I cut it. So this is. Brand new for the. Brand new. Yeah. Is that I was I was at the midway ship. Yes. Um, in San Diego. And we were watching a video about the actual Battle of Midway. And I just kept thinking, what a waste of life. Like both on Japanese and the American side. Such a waste. All these young men dying for no reason on both America and Japan. I was like, it's so stupid. And here's a funny thing my wife and I were both Japanese. Our parents. My mom was from Japan. My wife's parents were both from Japan. When we watch those videos, there's a we're conflicted because, you know, we're Japanese and American. You know, it's always like we feel bad because we're on both sides. But my son, who's gosei just fifth generation, he didn't feel any of that. He's just he's just American. And it's really interesting to see his reaction because he's just like, you know, he looks at it from only an American's point of view. Whereas when I watch it, I'm like, I see all the Japanese soldiers. I say, that's terrible. You know, like it's that's interesting. But anyway, I'm sorry. No, I'm like all those lives wasted, like war creates money. And some people really want to have war to make money off common people. And that's just awful. Do your kids identify as Japanese? No. My. My daughter was anti-Japanese. Anti-japanese? Yes. My daughter wants anti-Japanese. Still, she was like five. And then she found out hello Kitty and Pokemon are from Japan. She didn't know her middle name was Japanese till she was 11. She didn't know that? No, because I never told her because she was anti-Japanese. And I'm like, what? Would she react? Wow. And then she found out, oh, my middle name is Chiharu. Oh. So cute. That's funny. My son, his name is Takao, so he can't he can't get away from the. Takao. He can't get away from it. The only problem is that he says it in American TakaO. Yeah, yeah. You gotta learn how to say your name. Takao Yeah, Takao. Not Takao. Takao. Yeah. Um, like your Sakai is better, but like Takei. Like George Takei. Takei. No, they say Takei. Takai. All of them say Takei. Like, even side story. Because he he's a part of the museum. Yeah. It's always funny when people say I'm good friends with George Takei. And I'm like, how good of a friend could you be if you didn't even say his name correctly? Yeah, yeah. You know, It's Takei. It's like Takei. Yeah. I mean, plus he's famous. Yeah. So they say his name, right? Most of the time, these episodes are dedicated to my dad and his side of the family. It's unfortunate that no one who was directly affected by by what happened is around anymore. But I hope that wherever they are, they are listening and find some peace. I know that my dad never knew exactly what happened and why, and that's why one of the reasons I continue to do search for answers. As we do every month, we need to do something fun or at least interesting. How do you move on from tragedy? Well, the advice I always give, and I give this to people who my friends who get divorced and stuff. I make sure that they need to know that life will never be the same, that things will always be different. So for example, I even I even told my son this, that if I were to ever get divorced, I will try my hardest to make sure that life is the same. But I can't guarantee it. And the sooner he accepts that life will not be the same, the better it will be, because that's what that's what problems happen is that you want everything to be the way it was. And unfortunately, in a divorce or death or sickness, nothing is the same. Like my dad was really sick when I was a kid, and I learned that really early was that one day he's there and everything's fine, and then the next day he's gone and everything will be different. Like, you know, I can't go to a baseball practice, I can't do this, I can't do that. And I either have to adjust to it and move on, or I'm going to spend my entire life trying to make it better. And I think that for something like a tragedy, you know, the sooner you accept it and move on, the better and the more you like, think about it and let it ruin you, the worse it's going to be. But what about you? How do you think you move on from tragedy? Oh, I don't know. My tragedy is not like your grandpa's tragedy. So. Well, any tragedy, I mean, everybody has tragedy. I know, but like my I'm a comedian. So tragedy times. Times is comedy. Well, that's how you. That's how you deal with tragedy. You make you talk about it, you make fun of it, right? I mean, that's, that's like one of the best ways is to be able to joke about about joke about make jokes about something that's terrible. The war is something that you can't joke. It's not. It's never funny, and it will never be funny even after time. Now that you're kind of more engrossed in kind of the Japanese American history and the camps and the war and everything like that, has it affected what you're writing in your comedy sets, or is it has it changed anything? Have you made any jokes about camp? No, no, no jokes about the camps. But I wrote a song. I, I'm taking a music class, and I had a homework that I had to write a song with a story. So I wrote a song about Manzanar, Oh we're going to share that. Yeah. Can we share it? I have a demo. I got to rerecord it. Okay, but yeah, a demo. You know, some of the best comedians I know, they came from places that were challenging, and one of the ways that they've been able to deal with the challenge was that they could talk about it. And, and, you know, because, like, the worst kind of comedians are just up there telling jokes or saying curse words or talking about sex or something. But the best jokes are the ones that are have something behind it. Yeah. And I think that if you go through tragedy, like you have real experiences to talk about. Oh, no, I will never be a good comedian. No, you do a great comedian and you, you don't. I mean you tell jokes about what it's like to be you. Yeah right. Like, you know, you talk about language, like your language and how you speak and being Japanese in America. But I'm from, like, a mediocre family. Mediocre, everything. Not much tragedy. This is why this. This what I tell my son I'm like being a major League baseball player. Meant that I would be dead. Would you want me dead? And he's like, no. And I'm like, wrong answer. Because here's a crazy fact. Did you know that most professional writers, one of their parents, died before 21? What? So you're gonna. You are on your way. My dad. Well, I'm a professional writer. Yeah, yeah, but. Like like like. Uh. But my dad. Died when I was 20. Yeah. It's like. And it profoundly affected, like, everything I do. Yeah. And it profoundly affected how I see the world and how I write and how I work and my work ethic. And everything's changed because of my, my father's death. And so I think that, you know, there is something about tragedy like. But but the flip side to that is that over 50% of the people in prison also had one of their parents die. So it's like you either become a superstar or you go the other way. So you just told me, I will never be a great anything because my parents, my dad's 86 and he's doing great. Well, we could make tragedy happen if you want. Oh, Are you willing to trade your career for tragedy? No. Yeah, but I mean, it's true because, you know, when things are good, it's it's harder to move, you know, it's harder. Like, that's what I tell, like my son, about being baseball. The difference with him versus somebody from, like, Honduras or El Salvador who's playing baseball. They're playing baseball because this is their chance. Yeah. And this is their only chance. And I'm like, you know, my son will be fine if he doesn't make it. Yeah. And so there's a difference in work ethic. Maybe there's a difference in how much you want it. And that he has to make that up by wanting it that much more. You know. The drive. The drive. Yeah. Exactly. All right. Thank you, Derek Mio, for your wonderful reading. And thank you all for listening. There's almost 3 million podcasts out there, and we're honored that you've chosen ours to listen to. This podcast is a program of the Japanese American National Museum. The museum's mission is to promote understanding and appreciation of America's ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Please rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, and be sure to join us next month when we discuss the Civil Liberties Act. Bye.