Nisei Naysayer: The Memoir of Militant Japanese American Journalist Jimmie Omura (Asian America)

Among the fiercest opponents of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II was journalist James "Jimmie" Matsumoto Omura. In his sharp-penned columns, Omura fearlessly called out leaders in the Nikkei community for what he saw as their complicity with the U.S. government's unjust and unconstitutional policies-particularly the federal decision to draft imprisoned Nisei into the military without first restoring their lost citizenship rights. In 1944, Omura was pushed out of his editorship of the Japanese American newspaper__Rocky Shimpo__, indicted, arrested, jailed, and forced to stand trial for unlawful conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet violations of the military draft. He was among the first Nikkei to seek governmental redress and reparations for wartime violations of civil liberties and human rights.In this memoir, which he began writing towards the end of his life, Omura provides a vivid account of his early years: his boyhood on Bainbridge Island; summers spent working in the salmon canneries of Alaska; riding the rails in search of work during the Great Depression; honing his skills as a journalist in Los Angeles and San Francisco. By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Omura had already developed a reputation as one of the Japanese American Citizens League's most adamant critics, and when the JACL leadership acquiesced to the mass incarceration of American-born Japanese, he refused to remain silent, at great personal and professional cost. Shunned by the Nikkei community and excluded from the standard narrative of Japanese American wartime incarceration until later in life, Omura seeks in this memoir to correct the "cockeyed history to which Japanese America has been exposed."Edited and with an introduction by historian Arthur A. Hansen, and with contributions from Asian American activists and writers Frank Chin, Yosh Kuromiya, and Frank Abe,__Nisei Naysayer__provides an essential, firsthand account of Japanese American wartime resistance. Among the fiercest opponents of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II was journalist James "Jimmie" Matsumoto Omura. In his sharp-penned columns, Omura fearlessly called out leaders in the Nikkei community for what he saw as their complicity with the U.S. government's unjust and unconstitutional policies-particularly the federal decision to draft imprisoned Nisei into the military without first restoring their lost citizenship rights. In 1944, Omura was pushed out of his editorship of the Japanese American newspaper Rocky Shimpo , indicted, arrested, jailed, and forced to stand trial for unlawful conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet violations of the military draft. He was among the first Nikkei to seek governmental redress and reparations for wartime violations of civil liberties and human rights. In this memoir, which he began writing towards the end of his life, Omura provides a vivid account of his early years: his boyhood on Bainbridge Island; summers spent working in the salmon canneries of Alaska; riding the rails in search of work during the Great Depression; honing his skills as a journalist in Los Angeles and San Francisco. By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Omura had already developed a reputation as one of the Japanese American Citizens League's most adamant critics, and when the JACL leadership acquiesced to the mass incarceration of American-born Japanese, he refused to remain silent, at great personal and professional cost. Shunned by the Nikkei community and excluded from the standard narrative of Japanese American wartime incarceration until later in life, Omura seeks in this memoir to correct the "cockeyed history to which Japanese America has been exposed." Edited and with an introduction by historian Arthur A. Hansen, and with contributions from Asian American activists and writers Frank Chin, Yosh Kuromiya, and Frank Abe, Nisei Naysayer provides an essential, firsthand account of Japanese American wartime resistance. Cover 1 Contents 12 Editor’s Note 14 Contributors 16 Foreword: “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” 20 Preface: “A Uniquely Genuine Person” 26 Introduction: James Omura and the Redressing of Japanese American History 30 NISEI NAYSAYER: THE MEMOIR OF MILITANT JAPANESE AMERICAN JOURANLIST JIMMIE OMURA 56 Prologue 58 1. Bainbridge Island Beginnings, 1912–1923 60 2. Pacific Northwest Coming of Age, 1923–1933 105 3. Dateline California, 1933–1940 128 4. Showdown in San Francisco, 1940–1942 168 5. Denver Disputes and Concentration Camp Dissent, 1942–1944 204 6. Rocky Mountain Resistance, 1944 234 7. Down and Out in Denver, 1944–1945 277 Afterword: “Who Writes History?” 280 Acknowledgments 286 Appendixes 292 Notes 302 Selected Bibliography 404 Index 406 A 406 B 406 C 407 D 408 E 409 F 409 G 410 H 410 I 410 J 411 K 412 L 412 M 412 N 413 O 414 P 416 R 417 S 418 T 418 U 419 V 419 W 419 Y 420 Z 420 Editor's note / Arthur A. Hansen Foreword : "Let us now praise famous men" / Frank Chin Preface : "A uniquely genuine person" / Yosh Kuromiya Introduction : James Omura and the redressing of Japanese American history / Arthur A. Hansen Prologue Bainbridge Island beginnings, 1912-1923 Pacific Northwest coming of age, 1923-1933 Dateline California, 1933-1940 Showdown in San Francisco, 1940-1942 Denver disputes and concentration camp dissent, 1942-1944 Rocky Mountain resistance, 1944 Down and out in Denver, 1944-1945 Afterword : "Who writes history?" / Frank Abe.