Well, this year, the old platitudes about a past year won’t work. “Happy New Year” seems very hollow. So I have to try and say something general without sounding like a total idiot. It wasn’t a great year, and we don’t know quite what to expect, but it will be different, unprecedented and I sure hope I have the stamina to withstand whatever happens.

One notable event that happened last year in my life was the death of my uncle Keiichi, the youngest brother of my father. He lived to be 107, and was in pretty good shape right up to the end. He outlived two of his three children, he loved fast food like Taco Bell, and was getting about on his own until about the last year of his life. He maintained a pleasant, affable personality, and was beloved by his grandchildren and family. I guess you could say that good genes run in our family since two of his sisters, my aunt Toki and aunt Masuye, also hit the 100 year old mark. Toki lived to be 100, Masuye, 104.

Keiichi had lived a life that was full of twists and turns. I don’t know many of the details because I hardly knew of his existence until the 1950s. I vaguely knew my father had brothers in Japan, but I don’t remember references to them. My dad was born in Japan, came to the U.S. when he was around 16, and so he was an Issei. Keiichi, born in California, was a Nisei but he and his older brother Seiichi were taken to Japan as a small children.

My father lived with them for such a short period that he did not develop strong fraternal bonds with them.

We in the U.S. were sent to concentration camps, while Keiichi was drafted into the Japanese army and was bright enough to be sent to Osaka Foreign Language School where he learned English, Mandarin, Mongolian, and Russian. During the war, he served as an interpreter in Mongolia, and as an officer, he led contingents of soldiers in the Philippines, and Taiwan, where he met and married his wife. At war’s end, they made it back to Japan.
Amazingly enough, he and his brother retained their American citizenship and they then decided to bring their families to the U.S. in 1957. He had to renounce his Japanese citizenship in order to make this move. It was only then that I was made aware of their presence in Los Angeles and slowly got acquainted with them.

The brothers quickly established themselves in the LA area. I understand that Uncle Keiichi worked impossibly long hours at several jobs establishing himself and creating a secure position here. One of their successful ventures was a cocktail bar with karaoke and sushi restaurant called the Kappa Lounge in the heart of old Little Tokyo. This business was closed due to redevelopment, but they continued with shops in Gardena. Continuing his hard working ethic, Uncle Keiichi finally retired at the age of 85.

When I looked at my father’s so-called “loyalty questionnaire,” which I found in government archives, he did not list these brothers in answering the questions about his family. And then I wondered how we would have been treated had the Army found out that my father had two brothers in the Japanese army. I think, by their rules, our family would have been immediately put into the “reject” category and shipped off to Tule Lake and then deported.

My uncle Keiichi didn’t want to talk much about his experiences. We tried to record an interview with him, but he was reticent, so I never heard his story directly. Many people showed up for his funeral, so he had a lot of friends and business associates. I saw cousins and other relatives that I had not seen in a long time. There were stories told about my uncle that I heard for the first time, and I’m sorry that I was never close to this remarkable man.

Given the circumstances of our lives, it would have taken a major effort to get him to open up. And I reflect on all the wars that the U.S. has waged, like in Korea and in Vietnam. But we’ve become friends in the post-war periods and it makes me wonder why we went to war with these countries in the first place. War seems so stupid and evil and so destructive. Nevertheless, we seem to be involved in one or more most the time.

I don’t think my family history is unique. I’m sure that many American families have similar stories. But during World War II, the U.S. chose to treat Japanese Americans much more harshly than its German and Italian citizens and aliens, and it will do this again to Americans who are not white. The campaign promise to deport millions of people who live here is really horrifying and as a survivor of an American concentration camp, I intend to do a lot of protesting in the coming year.

Chizu Omori, of Oakland, California, is co-producer of the award-winning film “Rabbit in the Moon.” She can be reached at chizuomori@gmail.com. The views expressed in the preceding column are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.

Chizu Omori, Nichi Bei News

Chizu Omori, of Oakland, Calif., is co-producer of the award-winning film “Rabbit in the Moon.” She can be reached at chizuomori@gmail.com. The views expressed in the preceding column are not necessarily those of the Nichi Bei News.