Shinseki Heading US Department of Veteran Affairs
President-elect Barack Obama has nominated Eric Shinseki to lead the US Department of Veteran Affairs. I suppose the timing couldn’t be more perfect, as Sunday marks the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Why? It’s not just because Shinseki is Japanese American, but that it represents just how much the US government has changed since the 1940s. And as I think about my own identity, how little things have changed.
As you may recall from history courses, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. What this meant for thousands of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast and Hawaii, was uncertainty and anxiety. Wartime hysteria and fears that Japanese Americans could have been or had played a part in the attacks in Pearl Harbor eventually culminated in the internment of some 110,000 Japanese Americans in remote areas of the United States. It didn’t matter that 62% of Japanese Americans at the time were US citizens. It didn’t matter that complete evacuation of Hawaii did not occur, even though this is where the Japanese had struck, since it was not feasible to evacuate so many Japanese Americans (the FBI did roundup several Japanese community leaders and send them to mainland camps, of which my family’s history is a part of).
The Nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans, were coming of age during internment, and sought to demonstrate their loyalty to the United States in the most obvious way – wartime service. After initially being turned away from service, the military eventually segregated soldiers into the 442nd Infantry Regiment. These men fought honorably and became the most decorated unit in US military history. The irony here, of course, is that these men were fighting and dying overseas while their family members were being incarcerated.
I think this is what makes Shinseki’s nomination all the more fitting. I’m not saying that he deserves it because of who he is (like a affirmative action-type argument), but rather that his nomination represents something for the Japanese American community, if one still exists. Shinseki certainly deserves this position based solely on merit, and of course for rightfully disagreeing with Rumsfeld on the amount of troops needed for Iraq, but when I think about it, it’s amazing that Japanese Americans, once incarcerated in camps, can now point to a four-star general who is occupying one of the highest government positions.
When I think about my own identity, it’s also possible to argue that not much has changed. There’s no denying that I look Japanese/Asian/whatever and that the first thing that comes to mind when you look at me is probably not American. This stuck-out to me very prominently in India, where people would call out to me with “Hey China” “Konichiwa” “Are you from Singapore/Korea/Vietnam/Nepal?” Even if I said I was from America, I was asked, “but you must be from [insert Asian country]” or “do you speak [some Asian language]?” I’m in no way faulting anyone in India for asking me these questions – they’re naturally curious and were friendly enough to approach me to talk. But, it reminded me that I am not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of American.
The same thing is true in America, too. A lot of people ask me if I speak Japanese. “Nope,” I tell them, “My great-grand-parents came to America in the 1900s.” What’s worse, is when I get a disappointed response or expression, as if it’s my fault for not learning Japanese. It’s as if I’m not Japanese enough for them. But if my parents, and my parents-parents didn’t learn Japanese because they were too busy trying to prove themselves as Americans (see the part above about internment), then maybe it’s okay for me to speak English, since, after-all, I was born here. The point here is that there’s an underlying difference – that Asians are relatively recent immigrants, which statistics certainly prove (look up 1965 immigration act) where many Americans of Asian descent are 1st/2nd generation. But, the history of immigration of Asians to America starts as far back as 1865, so there are certainly 4th, 5th, and 6th generation Asians who live in this country. I hope that more people can start to recognize that some of us, meaning Asian Americans, have been here a long time, and I hope we can continue to stake claim to being just as American as the next person. So maybe that’s why Shinseki’s nomination means something to me – because now there’s an Asian face associated with military service, which is as American as you can get. We may not look the part, which will probably be an annoyance for the rest of my life, but I’ll continue to educate and argue against the ignorance of assuming I’m a foreigner of this country – either at home or abroad.