Talk of registering Muslims stirs echoes of an awful past
As thousands of Stanislaus County area residents enter and exit the fairgrounds during the height of fair season, they might miss a somber reminder of a shameful chapter in Turlock and Stanislaus County history.
In May 1942, 1,000 Japanese Americans walked through the fair gates to meet an unknown future. President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order that authorized the forced relocation of people of Japanese descent, the majority of which were American citizens.
This act would ultimately lead to more than 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans being forcibly removed from their homes – sometimes at gunpoint – abandoning their possessions and homes, and shipped hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles away to American internment camps.
Turlock was one of many California towns that turned racetracks, fairgrounds and stables into “assembly centers.” There was another at the fairgrounds in nearby Merced and Stockton from May to October in 1942. These assembly centers were the first stop for Japanese and Japanese Americans before being permanently relocated to camps across the United States.
Turlock’s newspaper documented the entirety, heaping compliments on its citizens for helping coordinate their arrival.
At the height of the relocation, it is estimated the Stanislaus County fairground housed almost 3,700 people. They ate, slept and waited at the very same fairgrounds we now happily take our families to in the hot summer months for cheap thrills. There were 4,000 assembled in Stockton, but Merced held 4,670 – all surrounded by barbed wire and 160 armed guards.
In 2009, we installed a small monument at the north gate to commemorate those who were unjustly imprisoned within our fairgrounds. It was meant, in part, to remind Turlock residents of their city’s past in order to inform their future. Never again would we be complicit in such a shameful act against our own.
This week, the nation watched as President-elect Donald Trump started to pick the Cabinet that will shape the direction of our nation. But beyond the gossip and fodder over who may be chosen (or snubbed) for key positions, something altogether horrifying and familiar has emerged. Major news networks reported that Trump is considering a plan to document and track Muslims living in America.
I watched as one Trump surrogate, Carl Higbie, cooly cited Japanese internment camps as precedent for this plan.
Higbie is right about one thing: There is precedent, and Northern San Joaquin Valley residents cannot allow our neighbors to be once again stripped of their rights and dehumanized. Not again.
I grew up in Turlock, in the midst of the unique melting pot that is Stanislaus County. I have yet to live anywhere where a community lives peacefully and respectfully with so many different cultures and races. I grew up visiting Sikh temples, Pentecostal, Catholic and Assyrian churches, and attending quinceaneras. We don’t ignore one another’s differences, we invite one another in to learn more. At one time, Turlock was listed in Guinness World Records as having the most churches per capita in the U.S.
That is why we should feel particularly offended by the president-elect’s flirtation with religious persecution.
It is why I am imploring this community to support our Muslim neighbors and stand up against Donald Trump’s policy to track Muslims in America.
Remember, we imprisoned Japanese Americans because they happened to look like the people responsible for Pearl Harbor. Trump’s Muslim surveillance program, which he has touted throughout the campaign as a “precaution,” would subject millions of innocent, law-abiding Muslims to warrantless abuse because they look like the people responsible for 9/11.
Donald Trump could learn from communities like ours, but we have to train his eye to see us. Speak up; call Rep. Jeff Denham (209 579-5458) to remind him of our history and culture. Email President-elect Trump (www.donaldjtrump.com/contact) and speak of our values of tolerance and respect.
We are all one community; a community with a shared history we must remember and stand against repeating.
Turlock native Vanessa Varin is a digital strategist and historian whose research topics include nativism and the American West. She wrote this for The Modesto Bee.
This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Talk of registering Muslims stirs echoes of an awful past."