The Pride of Being an American Citizen

I immigrated to this country when I was 12 years old. I was naturalized when I reached 21 years old. It was just another day, it was just a piece of paper, a means of convenience. I graduated from college and went to work. I married an American girl. I have a 2-year-old baby girl. It was just life as usual.

On Sept. 11, I became an American. When I woke and saw the attack on the World Trade Center, I felt a knot in my stomach. I felt sad toward my fellow Americans, and I felt angry toward the terrorists. I realized that I am an American. Proud to be an American.

If someone were to ask where I come from or what nationality I am, I would answer, “I am an American and proud of it.” God bless America.

Jae S. Yu

Torrance

*

It is with total respect that I write to you to express my disappointment in many people of the media who are comparing this horrific act of terrorism to Pearl Harbor. I am a third-generation Japanese American and I am having a difficult time understanding where the similarities are.

Although I am born an American, I can’t say that I am not sensitive to my heritage. This doesn’t mean that I condone Japan’s acts or that I condone the fact that my country, America, also put my family and thousands of other innocent Japanese Americans in internment camps.

Sept. 11’s events were unmistakably the most horrific act of violence upon thousands and thousands of innocent civilians at the hands of people raised to hate our country and what it stands for.

Please let us not repeat history. We need to stay united as a diversified nation.

Kara Nomura

Fountain Valley