We must acknowledge the injustice committed upon Imperial Valley Japanese families

Within days following the attack of Pearl Harbor by Japan Dec. 7, 1941, the FBI would apprehend over 100 Japanese men in Imperial Valley in a series of large-scale sweeps that separated families from their providers. In the weeks following, a wave of fear would sweep our country causing federal, state and local officials to take panicked political actions against local Japanese men, women and children. Six months later, every single Japanese resident of Imperial Valley – including farmers, business owners, ministers, and some of our earliest settlers – would be ordered to evacuate with only the belongings they could manage to carry. All ultimately transported in buses to an Indian reservation in the Arizona desert.

Driven by panic and fear, America would also provide no financial protection to those suddenly forced to abandon everything they had worked for in pursuit of the American Dream. This was not an evacuation of “bobbing heads and waving hands,” this was a mass deportation and incarceration of Imperial Valley Japanese families.  A tragedy that should be remembered forever as it revealed the real repercussions of viral complicity and failed leadership, both morally and politically, in our nation. Prior to the war, nearly two-thirds of all west coast Japanese Americans worked in agriculture and grew close to 40% of all California vegetables, including nearly 100% of all tomatoes, celery, strawberries and peppers. Of our valley’s Japanese population, almost three-fourths worked in agriculture, farmed tens of thousands of acres, perfected the cantaloupe industry, and as a result of being the first to successfully grow head lettuce on a commercial basis, led the entire United States in lettuce production.

World War II and the attack on Pearl Harbor would change everything for our valley and the Japanese who helped build it.

Fewer than two years before President Franklin D. Roosevelt forced the relocation of over 120,000 of West Coast Japanese Americans February 19, over 600 Imperial Valley Japanese Americans stood before the Imperial County board of supervisors to pledge their loyalty to the United States. In other parts of the valley, draft parties were held to bid farewell to local Japanese men entering the U.S. Army and Japanese service clubs hosted dinners for local officials to further prove their allegiance to America. Despite these proactive efforts, when war came, all were blatantly ignored by a populace blinded by fear.

Whether being referred to by federal officials as the “enemy race” or congressmen justifying their placement in “inland concentration camps,” similar sentiments about the Japanese were echoed on a local level. County Sheriff Robert W. Ware alerted residents to “report Japanese if seen” to authorities. Our Farm Bureau also unanimously passed a Resolution urging Governor Warren to do whatever it takes to keep them out of California.

Even after the war ended in 1945, once engrained Imperial Valley Japanese families were persona non grata within County limits. County Supervisors, B.M. Graham and Brawley Mayor, Elmer Sears, would lead a massive Brawley rally in calling for the president and governor to keep the Japanese out of Imperial Valley. District attorney C.G. Halliday would also make the prevention of Japanese land ownership a “main task” of his office. The same fervor had during the deportation of Japanese families was maintained simply at the notion of their return.

It should come as no surprise that very few would return, as a group unjustly exiled and unwelcomed back did not want anything to do with a place that was no longer home nor with the people who tenaciously allowed it. Within a decade, an entire race of Americans completely and forcibly vanished from Imperial Valley.

As we approach the end of Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we must acknowledge the injustice committed upon Imperial Valley Japanese families, our original pioneers, as well as their contributions that molded our valley and agriculture industry that continues nearly a century later.

Gil Rebollar is a lifelong resident of the Imperial Valley and currently serves on the Brawley City Council. In addition, as a District representative, he represents seven Imperial Valley cities on the Southern California Association of Governments' (SCAG) Regional Council. His email is Gilly_Rebollar@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: We must acknowledge the injustice committed upon Imperial Valley Japanese families