WHO WAS RALPH LAZO?
After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese Americans increasingly became targeted as disloyal Americans. Community leaders in Hawaii and on the West Coast were arrested with no charges and were sent to Department of Justice (DOJ) internment camps. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which further violated the constitutional rights of Japanese Americans. Over 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, were shipped off to temporary assembly centers, and later transferred to ten concentration camps located in the most desolate areas of the countrys interior. Even Latin Americans of Japanese descent were targeted. They were kidnapped from their homes in South America and sent to DOJ camps in Texas.
Yoshindo Shibuya was Ralphs classmate and friend at Belmont High School. After Yoshindo was sent to Manzanar he wrote to Ralph and, a few weeks later, received a letter in return. Ralph told Yoshindo to expect him to arrive at Manzanar on a certain date. To Yoshindos surprise, Ralph arrived at camp with some of his Japanese American high school friends on the date promised, having taken the train from Los Angeles to Lone Pine and then a bus to Manzanar. Yoshindo recently said, Hes a special guy, especially to do what he did. When youre kids you dont delve into something that heavy, but evidently he must have had some deep thoughts about this.Thats probably the reason he said, Im going. Rosie Kakuuchi concurred. The Constitution? We learned it in school, but it was just words. But to this man it had meaning because he knew the camps were wrong. This is the reason he came into our camp he thought if his buddies are going into camp, he wanted to experience it. Sixteen years old and he leaves his family, not knowing what was going to happen.
At Manzanar, Ralph fit right in. He had taken Japanese classes and could speak a little Japanese to the first generation immigrants, the lssei, who took him under their wing. Perhaps they thought he was an orphan of mixed blood. After Manzanar High School was established in September 1942, Bruce Kaji said this about his Mexican American friend: In fact, he was one of the most popular members of our class - a cheerleader, a president of the class and a mixer. He was very outgoing and most of us Nisei, I speak for me, are very quiet. We got a lot of leader- ship from Ralph Lazo.
Ralph spent two and a half years at Manzanar. He left camp only twice: once to register with the draft board in Lone Pine and the other to represent the Manzanar YMCA at a Hi-Y conference in Estes Park, Colorado. After Ralphs family found out that he was at a relocation camp and not at summer camp, Ralphs sister Virginia wrote several letters asking Ralph to return home. But Ralph did not want to return and his father eventually gave him permission to stay at Manzanar. Following graduation from Manzanar High School, Ralph was drafted into the armed services and served in the Pacific Theater.
After the war Ralph attended UCLA, where with his fellow Latino students, he conducted voter registration drives in East Los Angeles. Always interested in youth programs, Lazo taught in Mexico where he married, became a teacher, and then a college counselor at Valley College. He was always aware of what was going on, says Sue Kunitomi Embrey. When he was working at Valley College he would call me and say,You know, theres a new book out about the Peruvian Japanese. Have you read it? I would say, No. Ralph would then say, Okay, Ill give you the title, and you go look far it. When election time came around, Ralph would send postcards advising me to vote for this proposition or that person, or just dont forget to go vote. But, Im sure he was very cautious because he said people had threatened him (as a Jap sympathizer for supporting reparations for Japanese American internees).
Ralph Lazo never lost touch with his Japanese American friends. On New Years Day 1992, one of Ralphs Nisei friends found out about his death when she delivered some of his favorite Japanese New Years dishes to his house. With Ralphs passing, Japanese Americans lost a dear friend one who, when it seemed the whole world was against them, kept their spirits up and refused to turn his back on them.
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