“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” states America’s Declaration of Independence. They are equality among men and the unalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Even though Jeanne Sakata’s “Hold These Truths” brings us a story of inequality and lost liberties from the past, it’s simultaneously asking how the evolution of those hallowed words will survive in President-elect Donald Trump’s America.
“Hold These Truths” will be on stage at Juneau’s Perseverance theater for another week. It tells the story of Gordon Hirabayashi, a Japanese-American citizen who was convicted of violating President Roosevelt’s executive order under which the U.S. military imposed curfews and ordered the forced relocation of people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps during World War II.
I saw the play last Sunday, the day after Reuters reported that Trump’s transition policy advisors are considering a national registry for immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries.
[Perseverance Theatre’s ‘Hold These Truths’]
Conservative news outlets were quick to call reports like this “fake news.” They’ve argued the program being discussed is similar to one implemented by President George W. Bush after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. But coupled with Trump’s campaign statements, such as calling for broad-based surveillance of mosques in America, it’s impossible not to recognize that the underlying objective is religious profiling and discrimination.
Furthermore, go back to 2010 when the so-called ground zero mosque controversy erupted. Or to the actual New York City police surveillance of Muslims that included every mosque within 100 miles of the city. These are the discriminatory seeds which would make any kind of registry a threat to Muslims and all minorities who have had to fight for equal rights.
This is part of the instructive value of “Hold These Truths.” On more than a few occasions, Hirabayashi, played by actor Greg Watanabe, describes discrimination against Japanese-Americans with a familiarity that makes it clear it was a widely-accepted norm well before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The historical truth is that in some West Coast communities, they weren’t allowed to live in certain neighborhoods and were barred from competing with white people for jobs. In fact, immigration from Japan had been halted entirely years before the World War II.
While outright discrimination against Muslims isn’t legal like it was during Hirabayashi’s time, a similar level of resentment and mistrust exists. In such an atmosphere, any new policy or law that’s crafted well enough to pass constitutional muster doesn’t mean it’s not intentionally violating the spirit of freedom and justice for all.
It took more than 40 years for America to admit the internment program violated America’s core principals. In the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by President Ronald Reagan, our government finally acknowledged “the fundamental injustice of the evacuation, relocation and internment” of Japanese-Americans, apologized to them on behalf of the nation and provided restitution to those interned. The act was also intended to “discourage the occurrence of similar injustices and violations of civil liberties in the future.”
A lesson from near the end of “Hold These Truths” is those violations weren’t related to protecting Americans at home during a time of war. Almost 40 years later, Hirabayashi’s convictions were overturned because influential evidence presented by the government during his Supreme Court hearings was known at the time to be false. The FBI had refuted every claimed incident of Japanese-American sabotage, and the military never expected a Japanese invasion of the West Coast.
Why would a government that “holds these truths to be self-evident” prosecute such a travesty of justice? Because of “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.” That was the conclusion of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which investigated the interment program in the 1980s.
If you don’t think Trump’s attempt to make America great again won’t parallel that tragic past, consider last week’s interview of Pete Hoekstra on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
A former Republican congressman from Michigan who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Hoekstra is now an informal advisor to Trump’s transition team. He claimed we need to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border because it’s “become an access point for terrorist groups to enter into the United States.” When challenged to name one such incident, he couldn’t. So he pivoted to a case involving the Canadian border.
Hoekstra’s argument, and his place close to Trump’s advisors, are predictors of the same leadership failures that Hirabayashi fought 70 years ago. The laws and policy proposals they’re tossing around aren’t justified any more now as they were then. And unless a substantial number of Americans rigorously oppose them, this new administration will be free to sail ahead under a new wind of political correctness.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
