The fear over Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor led to the signing of Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, permitting the forced removal of all people of Japanese descent from their West Coast homes and into assembly centers and concentration camps. The 10 concentration camps that were constructed imprisoned 126,000 Japanese — two-thirds who were U.S. citizens.
Tule Lake Segregation Center was the largest camp. It held 18,700 adults and children in a squalid overcrowded space designed to accommodate 15,000 prisoners. Just last month, the nonprofit Tule Lake Committee organized its biannual four-day pilgrimage to Tule Lake, California, for descendants and survivors of this ugly chapter in American history.
Toward the end of the war, Tule Lake is where the U.S. Department of Justice set in motion an unprecedented plan that enabled the deportation of “disloyal” Japanese Americans. Public Law 78-805 was drafted on July 1, 1944, permitting U.S. citizens to renounce their citizenship. Many Japanese Americans were misled, believing if they renounced their citizenship, their families could remain together in protective custody at Tule Lake. Horribly, misinformation drove 5,461 Japanese Americans to give up their seemingly worthless birthright citizenship at Tule Lake.
Without the protection of U.S. citizenship, several thousand young men were separated from their families and interned as “enemy aliens” and deported to DOJ internment camps. The decision to give up birthright citizenship was an act done under duress, and nearly all who renounced sought restoration of their citizenship, which the Justice Department refused.
Fortunately, civil rights lawyer Wayne M. Collins, through his advocacy, stopped the involuntary deportations and restored citizenship to nearly all those Japanese Americans who were stripped of their birthright. But in spite of the reversal of the deportations, those who renounced their citizenship encountered decades of shame and rejection within the Japanese community.
Forty-six years after the wartime incarceration, our government recognized the error of its actions with a presidential apology, redress and reparation payments to survivors.
Today’s mass deportations, inhumane imprisonment conditions and attacks on birthright citizenship echo the unjust treatment experienced by Japanese Americans during World War II. When will we stop making the same grievous mistakes?
Michael Harada, Wilmette
Barbara Takei, Sacramento, California
Aiming high for state’s Department of Natural Resources
Gov. JB Pritzker has built one of the strongest climate action records in the country and now has the chance to make it even stronger. Healthy, resilient nature is a key part of the equation, one that can drive more economic investment. A transformational appointment for the next director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources can extend his leadership through visionary investment in nature.
The department’s mission is to steward the state’s natural resources for the health of ecosystems and the well-being of residents. That extends beyond state parks to ensuring that all of Illinois’ lands and waters are healthy and beautiful.
People choose where to live based on quality of life. Access to parks, trails, clean water and vibrant natural areas is exactly what makes a place feel compelling. It’s why families put down roots and why young professionals choose one city over another. Businesses know this, too. When they’re deciding where to locate and how to attract talent, they look for places their employees want to live.
As a former chair of the Forest Preserves of Cook County’s Conservation and Policy Council, I saw firsthand how good leadership can nurture the land and local communities. Deer Grove East Forest Preserve is one such success story. An economic analysis of the restoration work found that every dollar spent on restoration delivered an immediate $2 return from jobs and economic activity. In the long term, it delivered a whopping $6 return from flood control, water quality benefits and recreational activity. At the scale of the state, the health and economic benefits of this type of conservation are indisputable.
Cook County voters understand this and responded in 2022 by passing, with an overwhelming majority, a ballot measure that increases investment in nature by $45 million a year. The five collar counties followed suit in 2024, generating over $1 billion over the next 20 years for nature.
There’s real headroom here. Illinois has lost more than 99% of the state’s original prairie and over 85% of its historic wetlands, and ranks 49th in the nation in protected natural areas per capita — a clear marker of fragmented habitats. As climate change reshapes ecosystems across the country, Illinois has the chance to step up and lead.
We love the Prairie State. The governor loves it, too. A transformational appointment for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is his opportunity to write the next chapter of that legacy.
Wendy J. Paulson, executive chairwoman, Bobolink Foundation
Trump doesn’t deserve to be called a leader
I take issue with David McGrath’s recent op-ed headlined “Trump is our cold-blooded leader.” I do not take issue with the atrocities and unlawfulness McGrath noted about the Trump administration. However, I disagree with his describing Trump as a “leader.”
According to Merriam-Webster, leadership means “the office or position of a leader,” “a capacity to lead” and “the act or instance of leading.” I fail to see any “leadership” qualities — as well as integrity, honesty, accountability, responsibility, empathy, compassion — in Trump as he’s pushed the country to the economic brink with his tariffs, endangered us in an unwinnable war in the Middle East and dismissed higher education and science as the bases of government.
Words have meaning, as McGrath surely knows. I think we need to be careful in calling Trump a “leader.” I describe him as the “occupier” of the White House, but I’ll leave it up to Professor McGrath to find a more appropriate moniker or epithet.
Linda Hendelman, West Ridge