December 30, 1999
"In 1983 I first started learning Japanese as a college freshman at Cal State
Northridge. I can speak, read and write Japanese fluently, but there is one
question people have asked me hundreds of times in the last 17 years that I
never could answer adequately, until now.
"'Why did you learn Japanese?'
"At different times I had different answers. I had Japanese-American friends in
high school and college. Three of them deserve special credit for showing
me what the aftereffects of WWII had left in their lives; the struggles they
had gone through to rebuild lives and families. But when I was 20, I didn't
know what picture was being painted by their stories. I was still ignorant of
the larger issue.
"At the age of 20 I became a Buddhist. Buddhism teaches that the welfare and
happiness of others is as much your responsibility as building a life of good
fortune and happiness is for oneself. All around are reminders and remnants of
what happened to 120,000 people who never committed a crime against
anyone. People who were willing to sacrifice for the greater good of
everyone else, even at their own detriment, were shepherded into
internment camps little better than cheap versions of San Quentin. They were
forced to be outsiders in a land they strove to make their own. They carried
their culture with them, but in all manners of importance, they were
Americans. This is the central issue which has been swept away with barely
any murmur from the rest of us.
"I cannot look anymore at my own citizenship without feeling it is tainted. It
will be that way until I know exactly how such a travesty could be passed off
in the name of "National Defense", yet ironically, the 442nd proves that
harmony and fellowship are the surest tickets to overcoming obstacles; not
hatred, bigotry and paranoia. The Japanese-Americans who were interned
deserve more than a letter of apology and a check for $20,000 - they deserve
and understanding from everyone else of their suffering and loss.
"I have chosen to become a writer as my profession. I can make no additions
to the already voluminous amount of material that has been penned by those
who either experienced the event of 1942-46 directly, or were related to
those who survived them. I was not there and cannot insert myself into that
type of situation. But I do feel that I can show the effects that are felt by
everyone because such a stain remains with us to this day. Until everyone
realizes that such an event cannot be erased by ignoring it, but must be
remembered so that it cannot happen again, then no one of any color or race
is safe from the same thing happening again.
"To me, if there is an answer for the question of why I learned Japanese, then
that is the closest I can come to answering it."
Sincerely,
-ANTHONY J. BURNS, (e-mail Anthony)
