ホノルル福島県人会85周年記念誌
ホノルル福島県人会85周年記念誌 次の英文は、ホノルル福島県人会85周年記念誌に私の写真と一緒に紹介されたものの原稿です。この文章は、ハワイ出身で現在福島市に嫁がれているマリアン森口さんにより翻訳されたものですが、一部修正やカットされたものが記念誌に記載されました。Tomizo Katsunuma of Hawaii When Tomizo Katsunuma was young, Miharu Town in Fukushima Prefecture, where he grew up, was surrounded by an enthusiastic atmosphere for the freedom and people’s rights movements. Shortly after Tomizo and his older brother, Shigenori, moved to San Francisco, they made newspapers to support the movement and sent them to Japan. However, because of the stagnation of the movement, Tomizo got a new job at a winery, Nagasawa Farm, in Santa Rosa. Later on, he worked at railroad construction sites in the midland, drifting from one location to another. When he moved to Salt Lake City, he entered the Brigham Young University (BYU) and received a qualification as a veterinarian. Here, Tomizo became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he acquired U.S. citizenship and joined the Utah National Army. Although Tomizo suffered from racial discrimination on the mainland, he received a request to assume the immigration office in the then Republic of Hawaii. After accepting the offer, Tomizo came back to his hometown, Fukushima, and brought many immigrants along with him. It was exactly 110 years ago from today. In Hawaii, however, great difficulties were waiting for them. Tomizo and his wife, Mine, actively lead, cooperated and guided the immigrants; and then in the meantime, Hawaii became a territory of the United States. At that time, starting with the First Sino-Japanese War and Russo-Japanese War, Japan fought against many foreign countries. In addition to that, Japan was hit by the Great Kanto Earthquake, and later on, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. Even though at that time people in Hawaii supported Japan as if they were in “a one-way love relationship”, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on December 7th, 1941. As the waves of racial discrimination increased, Japanese-Americans were thrown into concentration camps in the United States, as well as in Hawaii. Niseis’ wishes to redeem the honor and to relieve their fellow countrymen paid off when the 100th Battalion and 442nd Infantry were established; however, Tomizo had no way to stop it. Under the name of the Purple Heart, they made many sacrifices to earn the admiration of the people of the United States. However, American society never welcomed those veterans of Japanese ancestry with open arms. Prior to the war, the first-generation Japanese had started the acquisition of U.S citizenship movement, but it became stagnated during this period. It can be assumed that their attitude was reserved because they had a guilty conscience for having been descended from Japanese ancestors who fought with the motherland, United States. However, Tomizo’s experience in the freedom and people’s rights movement in Miharu Town in his youth perhaps became his driving force for the acquisition of a citizenship movement in the United States. Later, the movement moved the white-dominated society and a bill to the Congress, the McCarran Walter Immigration and Nationality Act, was introduced. Since the bill was packaged together with Joseph McCarthy’s Red Scare, this divided the public opinion of the United States in two; those Japanese-Americans, who were desperate to acquire U.S citizenship, welcomed this bill. At the age of 86 on September 11th, 1950, Tomizo passed away at Kuakini Hospital in Honolulu. With great anticipation from Japanese-Americans, the McCarran Walter Immigration and Nationality Act passed on September 13th, which was only 2 days after his death. My wish that he should have lived just two more days drove me to write the book, Snow of Mauna Kea. Indeed, September 11th is the same date as the September 11th attacks in New York and Washington. Strangely enough, the same day, the non-fiction book September 11th, which is about Thomas Katsunuma, who visited my family, received the Fukushima Prefecture Literary Recognition Award. In addition to that, I was able to publish a new book, For My Fellow Countrymen: Japanese-American Nisei Soldiers, which developed from Snow of Mauna Kea. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all of you in Hawaii who helped me through the entire interviews. (Translated by Marian Moriguchi) 2008/10/26 ブログランキングに参加しました。是非応援して下さい。←これです。