Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Capt. James Higuchi, my uncle, was transferred from his post at the Army’s Camp Roberts in California to Camp Chafee, Ark. James, like the rest of my family, was Japanese-American, which was enough to warrant moving him 2,000 miles from California and from his family’s home in San Jose because of the unfounded fear of sabotage.
Thousands of other Japanese-Americans in the military were mustered out then, too, not because of misconduct but for the crime of their race. Thousands more who wanted to join the service were classified 4-C — enemy alien — although they had done nothing wrong.