CAL SHINTANI

Board Member at National Japanese American Memorial Foundation,

Son of a 442nd veteran

 

Interview Courtesy of Nadine Rousseau

 

What is your family’s connection to the internment camps?

Two of my aunts were at Tule Lake and Heart Mountain. Neither of them has discussed much about their experience in the camps. It’s not that they are ashamed of what happened. I think they just don’t want to acknowledge it. The memories are consciously segmented off. Post-World War II, so many Japanese Americans wouldn’t speak Japanese in the house. They wouldn’t keep heirlooms on display because they wanted to be as American as possible.

 

Did any of your family members consider returning to Japan?

My grandfather immigrated at the turn of the last century. He inherited nothing, so he came to America to work the orchards near Seattle. One day, he received a letter that said, “Meet this boat on this day. On this dock, you will meet your wife.” It was an arranged marriage with my grandmother. She was the oldest of three girls, and the arranged marriage made it so that my grandfather would take her Shintani name. Together they had six kids. My grandfather died when my father was three, so Mama Shintani moved from Seattle and ended up starting the first Japanese restaurant in Chicago. After Pearl Harbor, the authorities –to deter gatherings of spies –shut down the restaurant. Still, my grandmother had no interest in going back to Japan. The Loyalty Oath was very divisive in the community because answering yes to serving the United States and forswearing all ties to the Japanese Emperor, you were forced to basically disclaim and dishonor your past.

 

Why did your father join the 442nd Regimental Combat Team?

He was a senior in high school at the time of Pearl Harbor, and that’s when he tried to join the service. But any Japanese American was automatically disqualified as an alien. When the United States started forming the 442nd, he joined and was part of the initial group training at Camp Shelby. He considered himself American and knew that enlisting was the right thing to do. He wanted to prove his loyalty. In Italy, he was wounded, but if he had not been recovering at the hospital, he would have been at the Rescue of the Lost Battalion, where his company took heavy casualties. The 442nd tremendously helped the image of Japanese-Americans. Even in the face of prejudice, these men fought for their country.

 

As a Board Member of National Japanese American Memorial Foundation, what compels you to support The Crane Fable Project?

We’re trying to tell the story of an important piece of our civil rights history. All sorts of communities of different ethnicities have been discriminated against somehow. What we are trying to do at the memorial is highlight what our country has done wrong in the past, and how not to commit those injustices again.