Quiet Americans

The First. The Longest. The Oldest.

On Dec 2, 1974, George Ariyoshi became the first Asian American governor in U.S. history.
He went on to serve three terms — a Hawaiʻi record that can’t be broken under today’s term limits — and is now the oldest living former governor in the country.

Born OTD, Dec 1, 1921: Claude Akira Mimaki survived incarceration, fought for the U.S. in two wars, then rebuilt his life in Japan.
A Nisei story of loss, perseverance, and reinvention.

Full story: quietamericans.com/claude-mimaki

From packing salmon in Alaska to designing the World Trade Center.
Born OTD in Seattle, 1912: Minoru Yamasaki became an architect who shaped American skylines, creating more than 250 buildings.
It all began with grueling summers in an Alaska salmon cannery.

November 30, 1945: Rohwer War Relocation Center closed.

The barracks and the land were sold. The government tried to erase what happened there.

But even they couldn’t touch the cemetery, built by Japanese Americans for the soldiers who never came home.

It’s still there.

quietamericans.com/rohwer

He was born OTD into discrimination and couldn’t escape it, even in death.

Staff Sgt. Kazuo Masuda of the 442nd fought with extraordinary bravery in Italy. But when his family tried to bury him back home in California, the cemetery refused — because he wasn’t white.

quietamericans.com/kazuo-masuda

November 29, 1944:
Hood River’s American Legion removed 16 Nisei soldiers from its honor roll.

Meanwhile, Hood River–born Frank Hachiya was dying in the Philippines — killed by friendly fire when mistaken as the enemy.

The backlash was nationwide.

Born OTD in 1926:
Michi Nishiura Weglyn, who survived Gila River and later exposed the government’s lies in her book, “Years of Infamy.”

Encouraged by her husband, a Holocaust survivor, she wrote the book that helped spark the Japanese American redress movement.

quietamericans.com/michi-weglyn

Born OTD, Shizuya Hayashi wasn’t nicknamed “Cesar” for anything he did in Italy.
His sergeant just couldn’t pronounce “Shizuya.”
By coincidence, he became a hero in Cerasuolo — earning the Medal of Honor with the all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion.

Three uncles from the all-Nisei 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team inspired him to serve.
Born OTD, General Eric Shinseki rose from West Point to become the first Asian American four-star general in U.S. history.

quietamericans.com/eric-shinseki

On Nov 27, 1941, the U.S. sent a “war warning” to Pearl Harbor.
But commanders believed the threat was thousands of miles away, not in Hawaii.

The message was urgent, but open to interpretation.
Ten days later became the Day of Infamy.

Born OTD in 1940, Bruce Lee didn’t care if you were Black, white, red, or blue.
He trained students of every background, refused stereotypical roles, and showed that strength doesn’t belong to any one race.
quietamericans.com/bruce-lee

The first foreigner to manage a pro Japanese baseball team was an American teacher named Kaiser.
Born in Hawaii, Yoshio “Kaiser” Tanaka made history on Nov 26, 1957, by becoming the manager for Osaka (now Hanshin) Tigers.

#Nisei #HawaiiHistory #SportsHistory #JapaneseBaseball #HanshinTigers #NPB

Nov 25, 1978: The first Day of Remembrance was held in Seattle.
Japanese Americans returned to Puyallup, reliving what happened in 1942, and sparking the movement that led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988.

#DayOfRemembrance #JapaneseAmericanHistory #QuietAmericans

On Nov 24, 1942, Ralph Merritt took over Manzanar during deadly unrest.

He wasn’t perfect — but agriculture, education, and community programs grew under his watch.

Read the story: quietamericans.com/ralph-merritt

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #Manzanar #QuietAmericans

He did more to correct a democracy’s mistake than any other one person.
Born OTD: Wayne Collins was one of the greatest civil rights attorneys in Japanese American history.
quietamericans.com/wayne-collins

#WayneCollins #CivilRightsHistory #TuleLake #Korematsu #TokyoRose

On Nov 22, 1922, the Supreme Court ruled in Yamashita v. Hinkle that Japanese immigrants couldn’t own land.

They used “Negro, Indian, and Chinaman” as evidence.

Full story: quietamericans.com/yamashita-v-hinkle

#QuietAmericans #JapaneseAmericanHistory #AAPIHistory #CivilRights

Nov 21, 1945 — Manzanar closed.
After 3.5 years of incarceration, people were released with a one-way ticket, $25, and almost nowhere to go.
The last to leave were a mother and her 4-year-old son.

#Manzanar #WWIIHistory #JapaneseAmericanHistory #CivilRightsHistory #QuietAmericans

The only Asian American leader in the Black Panther Party was an FBI informant.
Born OTD, Richard Aoki’s life was one of the most complicated in the civil rights era.

Read the full story:
quietamericans.com/richard-aoki

#RichardAoki #BlackPantherParty #CivilRightsHistory #JapaneseAmericanHistory

Enough was enough, even for quiet Americans.

On Nov 19, 1942, Japanese Americans launched two strikes on opposite sides of the country — at Jerome (AR) over low wages and at Poston (AZ) over the detention of two men.

By Nov 24, both camps caved.

Even behind fences, people pushed back.

#WWII

Chiura Obata turned an incarceration camp into an art school.
During WWII, he was imprisoned, and still taught art behind barbed wire with nearly 900 students.

Born on this day in 1885, he showed that creativity was perseverance.

Full story ↓
quietamericans.com/chiura-obata

#ChiuraObata #WWII

He volunteered to enter a prison camp.
No one trusted him.

Isamu Noguchi went to Poston hoping to improve life inside: parks, theaters, community spaces.
Instead, people thought he was a spy.
The WRA ignored his designs.
And the outside world distrusted him too.

Born Nov 17, 1904 in Los Angeles.

They didn’t need a fence or guard tower to keep loyal citizens locked up.
Gila River had no barbed wire, and its fences were removed in 1943.
Still, they imprisoned over 13,000 Japanese Americans until this day in 1945.

Nov 16, 1945 — Gila River officially closed.

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #WWII

Might be hard to believe, but November 15, 1946 was the first time Californians ever voted down a racist law.
And it helped lead to the end of the Alien Land Law.

Read: quietamericans.com/proposition-15

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #CivilRights #442ndRCT #NeverForget

Nov 15, 1942:
The first two Japanese Americans left Manzanar to volunteer for the MIS at Camp Savage.
Forty more would follow.

They served a country that had just imprisoned them.

Read: quietamericans.com/camp-savage

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #MIS #WWII

Ted Tanouye died fighting for freedom while his family lived behind barbed wire at Rohwer.
Born Nov 14, 1919 in Torrance, he became one of the 442nd’s most heroic soldiers — even as his own country incarcerated the people he loved.

Learn more: quietamericans.com/ted-tanouye
#JapaneseAmericanHistory

Absolutely. Sometimes timing is everything. For 935 people, it certainly was!

Fortunately for 935 plaintiffs, that ship hadn’t sailed when they found him.

Nov 13, 1945: San Francisco lawyer Wayne Collins filed habeas corpus petitions for 935 Japanese Americans, stopping mass deportations just two days before they began.

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #WorldKindnessDay

Nov 13, 1922: The Supreme Court ruled in Ozawa v. United States that Japanese immigrants could not become citizens because they weren’t white.

Takao Ozawa lived in America for 28 years, spoke English at home, and believed he was American. The law said otherwise.

quietamericans.com/ozawa-v-unit...

It always starts out small.
Snowballs. Crimes. Federal incarceration.

Nov 12, 1941 — The FBI raided Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, arresting 15 Japanese American businessmen and community leaders weeks before Pearl Harbor.

It may have looked like only 15 people.
But it kept getting worse from there.

America’s human secret weapons. Not so secret now.

On Nov 11, 2013, the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center opened at the Presidio — in the same classrooms where Nisei soldiers once trained in secrecy during WWII.

Read about the MIS: quietamericans.com/mis

#VeteransDay