Interviews

1. Lack of political power led to camps

2. Results of being more American than Japanese

3. Family separated in the camps

4. Feeling imprisoned at camp

5. World War II hysteria against Japanese in New York City

6. Institutionalization as a bad aspect of camp

7. Positive experiences with Asian Americans for Action

8. Redress payments to Issei who did not enter camps

9. Waiting for the right time to start Redress Movement

10. State Department records show concern for treatment of Japanese American internees

11. Lack of support from fellow Nikkei lawyers during the war

12. Political motivation to keep the camps open until end of 1944 election

Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig

(1924-2018) Researcher, Activist

Political motivation to keep the camps open until end of 1944 election

I knew that there was a very strong political reason for keeping the camps open beyond November of ‘44, which was the presidential election. I put my head together with Donna Komure, who was the young lawyer on the Commission [staff] and we both decided to hand over to Mr. Brooke a few of the documents that specifically said, “Don’t close the camps until after the election is over,” meaning we might lose votes on the West Coast if we do that [close the camps]; that the anti-Japanese group will be so angry at us. And we were able to give to Mr. Brooke two or three documents from different high-level people—the attorney general, the Chief of Staff [General] George C. Marshall, and McCloy himself—that [these papers] confirmed that there was this other reason for not closing the camps; and it was totally political [advantage].

They wanted to wait [to announce camp closings] until Mr. Roosevelt was re-elected. Then, of course, in December [1944], they announced the closing of the camps [after the president was successfully re-elected to his fourth term and after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Endo]. Mr. Brooke was very happy to have actual proof, directly from the Archives, to show that there was this political motivation to keep the camps open until such time [after the presidential election].

elections governments imprisonment incarceration political science politics World War II

Date: Aug 26, 1998

Location: Virginia, US

Interviewer: Darcie Iki, Mitchell Maki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig was born in Sacramento, California in 1924. Her family immigrated from Kumamoto, Japan in 1919. During the Depression, the Yoshinaga family moved to Los Angeles, California.

During World War II, Aiko was incarcerated first at Manzanar with her husband’s family. She transferred to Jerome, Arkansas with her newborn daughter to be with her family. In 1944, the Yoshinaga family left Jerome and resettled in New York. She divorced and remarried a Nisei soldier. She went with him to Japan where he worked during the Occupation period. One of her husband’s co-workers was her future husband, Jack Herzig.

After her return to the United States, Aiko became involved in Asian Americans for Action. Aiko and Jack played a pivotal role in the Redress Movement through their research at the National Archives in Washington D.C. The documents they found were instrumental in the coram nobis case that vacated the convictions against Fred Korematsu, Min Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi. Aiko was also hired as the primary researcher for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, and then worked for the Department of Justice Office of Redress Administration to help identify individuals eligible for redress payments.

She passed away on July 18, 2018 at age 93. (July 2018)

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