Japanese Americans, Allies Say “Never Again is Now”

It was full house in the San José Buddhist Church gym where over 400 people listened to speakers including Masao Suzuki, professor at Skyline College. Suzuki spoke of the similarities of immigrants from Japan starting in the late 1800’s and Central American refugees today. He said the World War II concentration camps were created in a climate of race prejudice and a failure of political leadership, the same situation we find ourselves in now. He added that, “The yellow peril of a hundred or more years ago has been replaced by a ‘brown peril’ today.”

Teresa Castellanos, who is the coordinator of Santa Clara County’s Immigrant Relations and Integration services, said that Japanese Americans have a keen understanding of the plight of immigrants today because of the experience of incarceration, until recently euphemistically referred to as "internment", during WW II.

A candle-lighting ceremony preceded a march in the surrounding neighborhood with its backdrop of historic buildings. Nihonmachi, Japantown, is located just a few blocks north of downtown San José. It was founded around 1890, when Japanese immigrants came to the Santa Clara Valley to do farm work, as a place providing comfort and safety from prevailing anti-Asian racism.