Perseverance of those who have come before us

The most significant event that happened as a child was the U.S. evacuation order in Feb. 1942. I was 6 years old then. … We only had three months to prepare to move — selling whatever we could for a few cents to the dollar and burning everything else we couldn't sell or take with us. I recall tears streaming down my older siblings’ faces seeing their treasured books and things thrown in the bonfire in our backyard.

On moving day, May 9, 1942, my younger brother had just turned 3 on May 7. We closed the house and walked from Delaware Street to Tilton Avenue to the Masonic Hall on Ellsworth and Tilton avenues. On our way there, my younger brother started to cry because he didn't have his favorite doll. My father had dumped it in the trash can because it was old and tattered. But my brother cried so hard that my father had to walk back to the house to get it. As the buses arrived to take us to Tanforan Race Track, which was converted to the Assembly Center, I was again worried if my father would return in time so I kept looking down Tilton Avenue. With a sign of relief, I saw him coming.

Returning to San Mateo after the war was difficult. Prejudice against the Japanese community was still strong. At that time, we were restricted to buy only in the North Central area. The San Mateo Buddhist Temple was “home” for us returnees — a gathering place to share our experiences, and having a minister to listen to and giving us strength to face new challenges as families had to restart their lives from scratch.

The Rev. Daisho Tana was one of the ministers who served the San Mateo Buddhist Temple community in those years of rebuilding after the war. Having been a leader of the Japanese immigrant community in Lompoc, California, the Rev. Tana was separated from his wife and young children for the duration of the war. In a diary entry for April 8, 1942, the Rev. Tana recorded the following reflection at the Department of Justice incarceration camp in Santa Fe, New Mexico:

From this day forward, there is no telling where we will find ourselves and how long we will stay there. … After all the Japanese have left the Pacific Coast, our temples may be abandoned, but the seed of the Buddha, once planted, will be carried by the winds of war, eastward across the American continent so that the Dharma Lotus will blossom in this land. (Translation by H. Adams).

Approximately 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, the majority of whom were U.S. citizens, were incarcerated without due process in this country during the World War II. As I reflect upon the strength and resilience of those, like Mrs. Mukai and the Rev. Tana, who endured great injustice and returned to rebuild their lives here in San Mateo, I am reminded that our lives today have been made possible by the perseverance of those who have come before us. I am also reminded that much work remains to be done if we are to foster a community that embodies the ideals of wisdom and compassion.

A native of Minnesota, the Rev. Henry Toryo Adams was ordained as a Buddhist priest in Kyoto, Japan, at the Nishi Hongwanji temple in September 2008. He has been serving as resident minister of the San Mateo Buddhist Temple since 2013. He is a member of the Peninsula Solidarity Cohort, interfaith leaders working to “leverage moral power for the common good” in San Mateo County.