“Psychological Trauma”: San Jose Women Reminisce About Life in Japanese American Internment Camps

On Sunday, more than 200 people gathered in San Jose for a day of remembrance marking the 81st anniversary after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order that led to the imprisonment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Walking the streets of San Jose’s Japantown, people held tealights to illuminate the times when 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced to live in internment camps. Those present gathered to remember past injustices and unite to prevent them from happening again.

Sumi Tanabe of San Jose was only 4 years old when her family was forced to leave their home in California to live in an internment camp in Arizona for three years.

“For me personally, it was the psychological damage done to us children,” Tanabe said. “We were made to feel guilty about things we didn’t do, just because of our origins and because of racism.”

She said that when her family returned to California, they found they had lost their home and business.

Satomi Susie Yasui of San Jose was also living in an internment camp in Arizona at the age of 4 when she had to be hospitalized receiving emergency care for a bone disease.

“I didn’t get any medical care at all,” she said.

She said her experience at the camp was devastating.

“It took me all the years of my childhood life,” she said. “I couldn’t walk for seven years.”

Tanabe said it was important to remember stories from the past and beat the drums of change.

“It looks like we’ve gone backwards in the last few years,” she said. “I think it’s rather sad that racism is still rearing its ugly head and that there are people who are still being targeted. It’s very sad for me.”