We Lived & Died Here

"Compared with the heroic deeds in the battlefields and in the American home front, our experience lacks the glory that our fellow Americans know. But silently, quietly, unfalteringly, must our paths be paved upward. Our duty is to awaken within your hearts [a] meaning and purpose of life. It is up to us to guide their growth toward a broader outlook-that unflinchingly, though
discriminated, their hearts must sing high so that a worthier, finer citizen may be won for our country. That in spite of all our humiliation and disastrous few years out of our life, we would not make this our failure, but make this experience a tremendous force towards building an enduring generation of finer Americans.
Mary Tsukamoto, Nisei internee, excerpt from "Facing the future,” Inside View Japanese American Evacuee Center Rohwer, Arkansas 1941-45