PACIFIC CITIZEN Highlights Flag-Signing Project
Flag Signing Continues
Earlier this year, our Temple hosted the flag-signing project and for those interested in the project, Pacific Citizen, the newsletter of the Japanese Americans Citizen League, devoted two pages earlier this month to the project.
Under the title “Sign Here to Record the History of Incarceration,” contributor Lynda Lin Grigsby highlights various events for the flag-signing to date, as well as emphasizing why the project is important.
The article provides a close-up of Norman Mineta’s signature, in which he wrote “non-alien.” This is a reference to the infamous Executive Order 9066, in which all individuals of Japanese descent along the West Coast, “alien and non-alien,” were incarcerated. The term “non-alien” was a way to side-step the fact that the order was targeting American citizens. The designation always bothered Mineta, as quoted in the article. Mineta may be best known as the long-serving Secretary of Transportation (2001-2006) and namesake of San Jose’s Mineta International National Airport.
“Sign your name here if you survived the racism, the enforced relocation and incarceration during World War II, urges [Judge] Johnny Gogo with a Sharpie marker in hand,” she reports.
Survivors are signing vintage 48-star flags, supplied by Judge Gogo, as this was the flag during World War II. From the article, "The 48-star flag is a relic of the past, a contradictory symbol of freedom that former incarcerees likely saw flapping in the wind near the barracks that held them captive. The flag is the strongest symbol of any nation, said Gogo."
Coverage does not mention San Diego directly, but touches on locations like Gardena, Monterey Park, Orange County, Salt Lake City, Santa Barbara, and San Jose, among others. The article also promotes a future event in Fresno on December 19.
SOURCE NOTE: Lynda Lin Grigsby, “Sign Here to Record the History of Incarceration,” Pacific Citizen, Vol. 173, No. 10, November 19, 2021, pages 1, 6, and 7. This content is protected by copyright and is available on our website under the Pacific Citizen Reprint Policy:
“Permission is granted to reprint articles used for historical, journalistic or academic research; for-profit reprinting may be granted on an individual basis. Send inquiries to the Pacific Citizen’s executive editor. Regardless, use of copyrighted materials appearing in Pacific Citizen must include wording crediting Pacific Citizen as the source.”