Fumiko Hayashida, Face of WWII Japanese-American Internment -- RIP

Nearly sixty-three years ago, President Franklin D Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. That document condemned over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens to internment camps during World War II. The shameful episode remains a dark moment in our nation's history, and one the "rule of law" crowd rarely trots out in defense of its perspective.

Fumiko Hayashima, Dec. 1941
Enroute to Internment Camp
(Image: idahoptv.org,
Original from Seattle Post-Intelliegcer)

The literal and figurative face of the internment period was Fumiko Hayashida. The Washington state resident and her young child were photographed on their way to their incarceration odyssey, which included terms in Washington State, California, and Idaho. More than a half-century later, she testified before Congress about her experiences. Ms. Haysahida recently passed away in Seattle at age 103, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times and reprinted in the Seattle Times.

"I realized," she said during her House testimony, "that I now had the face of the enemy." That ironic observation continues to resonate today, as the country faces a combination of nativist sentiment and suspicion that Arab-American citizens might harbor hostile intent toward the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.