Restoration of Manzanar
As the president of a local chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, I commend the essay by Robert A. Jones, “Whitewashing Manzanar” (April 10).
Comments from groups opposing the restoration of Manzanar as a historic site indicate a mentality that exposing or even stating the truth of what happened during the past is un-American or not patriotic. If no other lesson is learned from history, it should be that hiding the truth accomplishes nothing and only leads to further fears and cover-ups.
As only a small reminder of how the “camps” operated, I was serving in military intelligence in the Pacific and was not allowed to even visit my parents in camp. Comparing the Manzanar wartime camp to the Enola Gay exhibit is just a ploy. Americans of Japanese descent served heroically and tragically for their country while their families were kept behind barbed wire.
We need to learn from our mistakes, not hide them and act as though they did not happen.
GEORGE KANEGAI
Los Angeles
* Regarding the letter about Manzanar from Helen Hoffman (April 16): A gilded cage is nonetheless a cage. The Americans of Japanese descent who occupied Manzanar did not go there by choice. Their lives were disrupted simply because their skin was the wrong color. That they were allowed at Manzanar to do the things that Hoffman says is immaterial. They were not Japanese, they were Americans.
CHRISTOPHER LATHAM
San Diego
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