19-02-2025
U.S. Army veteran remembers his family's history on Japanese American internment anniversary
February 19 is a solemn day of reflection for the Japanese American community. Exactly 83 years ago, President Roosevelt signed an executive order that forced the removal and imprisonment of people of Japanese ancestry.
At 99-years-old Takashi Hoshizaki said he's lived a full, eventful life. Though there's no record of it now, he's a proud two-time prisoner.
Born in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo and raised in a segregated area formerly known as the "J-Flats," or "Japan Flats," Hoshizaki was the eldest of six kids, born to Japanese immigrant parents.
Everything changed after the Pearl Harbor attacks on February 19, 1942. President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.
The then 16-year-old was just two classes shy of graduating from Belmont High School when suddenly the government told them, he and his family needed to move.
Hoshizaki was one of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, imprisoned in desolate internment camps. There was no trial, no reason for arrest, just racial prejudice and wartime hysteria.
"We were a small powerless group. And for the other group, it'd be an easy group to pick on," Hoshizaki said.
The Hoshizaki's were sent to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming. He remembers working in the mess halls to pass the time, until one day, the newly turned 18-year-old was drafted into the U.S. Army.
"They take everything away, put us into these so-called relocation camps, and then with our families still behind barned wires, they try to draft us out of the camp, and I thought, this is crazy," Hoshizaki said. "This is all wrong."
Hoshizaki refused to go to the Army's physical exam. Within weeks, the FBI arrested Hoshizaki and several dozen draft resisters, who became known as the Fair Play Committee.
At the federal trial in Cheyenne, they were tried and sentenced to three years at McNeil Island Penitentiary in Washington state.
"In camp, we had barbed wire, searchlights, so forth. We even had armed guards there, and so I felt that there was no difference coming into McNeil Island," Hoshizaki said. "The only difference was that I'll probably miss my family."
While he was in prison, the war ended, and his family returned to LA. In 1947, President Truman pardoned all members of the Fair Play Committee. Just a few years later, "Uncle Sam" came calling again, but this time, Hoshizaki answered.
"The very things we used to refuse to go, was now gone. So, we would gladly serve," Hoshizaki said.
After two years in the Army during the Korean Conflict, Hoshizaki used the GI Bill to get his PhD at UCLA. He and his wife Barbara raised two children, while he worked with the Space Program until his retirement.
Nowadays, the 99-year-old keeps busy as a board member of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. Every year on February 19 he shares his Executive Order 9066 story, with the hope of never repeating that shameful episode of American history.
"On Day of Remembrance, we bring these points up as to how to fight back some of these things that are occurring and may occur in the future," Hoshizaki said.
