In February 1942, President Roosevelt issued one of the most controversial orders in history, Executive Order 9066, authorizing the U.S. Army to designate certain areas of the country as “war zones” and to impose any necessary restrictions on those living in the war zones – an order that, in fact, was intended to detain Japanese-Americans in what would become known as the “Japanese Internment Camps,” a stain on the United States.
Some 110,000 Japanese living on the Pacific coast of the United States were detained, transferred, and imprisoned one after another. The camps were not disbanded until the end of the war. Most people today believe that it was the attack on Pearl Harbor that caused the U.S. government to hate The Japanese, but in fact, it was a very small incident that caused the U.S. government to turn on the Japanese.
On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. A Japanese pilot named Shigetoku Nishikaidi, who was flying a Zero fighter with a fuel tank leak, was unable to return to the ship, and in accordance with the pre-war Japanese escape manual, he was forced to land on Niihau, a small island at the westernmost tip of the Hawaiian Islands.
The Japanese chose this island as an emergency landing site because it was a small, private island, not far from Pearl Harbor, with only two dozen native Hawaiians on the island, and the pilot was in less danger of landing there and could wait for his own rescue.
And so it was. After landing successfully, Nishikaidi was welcomed by the unsuspecting and hospitable natives, and a party was held in his honor. However, a native named Havilah, who knew a little about current affairs and was aware of the tensions between Japan and the U.S. at the time, kept an eye out and hid Nishikedi Shigetoku’s pistol and briefcase.
It so happened that there were several Japanese immigrants on the island who were engaged in cattle breeding and beekeeping. One of them, Yoshio Harada, was a second-generation American citizen who spoke English, indigenous languages and Japanese. After talking with Nishikaidi, he immediately understood that Japan was already at war with the United States, but for the purpose of helping Japan, he concealed the news and introduced Nishikaidi Shigetoku to the natives as just a flight enthusiast in distress.
The next day, the natives learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio, and it dawned on them. But instead of taking action against the pilot, these good-natured natives decided, after collective deliberation, to hand him over to the American businessman Robinson – the island of Niihau was his property, and usually Robinson would bring weekly supplies from the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
But immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. issued a ban on shipping and blocked all Hawaiian waters, making it impossible for Robinson to come. At this time, Nishikaiji Shigetoku realized that the Japanese army might not be able to rescue him, so he convinced Harada Yoshio and several other Japanese descendants to use patriotism and reasoning, telling them that the Japanese Empire would soon conquer the Pacific Ocean, including defeating the American Empire, so that the latter would help him seize the island and wait for an opportunity to meet the Japanese landing.
After being convinced, the Japanese sent someone to prepare a bribe to the native Havilah to hand over the pilot’s pistol and briefcase. But Havilah was unmoved. Several Japanese then turned over the only weapon on the island, a hunting shotgun, and threatened to kill all the natives if they did not comply. The natives and the Japanese had been living together on the island for many years, and they usually got along well without any grudges. It was unexpected that because of the encouragement of a Japanese pilot, the natives instantly turned against each other.
The poor natives scattered and fled, the old and the sick hid in the jungle, while Havilah led a few young men on a raft, fleeing entirely by human paddling, and eventually contacted Robinson, the owner of the island.
The next day, the Japanese captured a young indigenous couple on the island, holding the wife hostage and threatening the husband to go out to sea to find the escape report Havilah and others. The young indigenous boy was bloodthirsty, because not thus hit by several bullets, but he actually managed to take advantage of the Japanese were not prepared, the armed Nishikaiji Shigetoku back to kill. Harada Yoshio was also forced to raise his gun and kill himself.
Upon receiving the news, the Americans quickly boarded the island to rescue and detain all the Japanese. This was the end of the farce of the Japanese taking over the island from both sides.
Although the Niihau incident was an unrelated farce, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States was in a state of shock and the nation’s hatred for Japan was at a high point. At this time, the Nijima incident, which was a case of revenge and hatred, made the American people distrust and dislike the Japanese even more. Based on this incident, Americans believed that although people of Japanese descent lived in the United States and many of them had become American citizens or had sworn allegiance to the United States, they did not care about American interests and would still help Japan unconditionally. This was the last straw for Roosevelt to order the mass internment of the Japanese two months after the Niihau Island incident.
It was not until January 1945 that the restrictions on ethnic Japanese ended, and on August 10, 1988, President Reagan signed a bill formally apologizing and making reparations for the internment camps.
While the American initiatives during the war were certainly inappropriate, were the Japanese absolutely innocent? One can only say mostly innocent. The mismatched ambitions of the home country and strength, and the blindness of a part of the Japanese diaspora led to the tragedy of the 110,000 Japanese internment. The “Niihau Island Incident” is, in fact, what we now call “offshore patriotism”. What kind of attitude should an immigrant community take to understand “patriotism” in a new country?
Patriotism is a simple emotion inherent to human beings, and there is nothing wrong with it in itself. In fact, Chinese people are the most prominent in this regard. In those years, those Chinese who could not get a foothold in their homeland and were forced to go abroad on a large scale to make a living were regarded as outcasts by the imperial court, but all they thought about was their homeland. When Sun Yat-sen started the revolution, which time was not overseas Chinese to help? Many of them gave up their families and assets to support the revolution, and even sacrificed their lives to participate in it, all for the sake of their homeland to get rid of the darkness and become better. Such family sentiments are respected both at home and abroad.
But on the other hand, as an immigrant, you have to understand that you were born and raised not in your distant homeland, but in the country you live in now. You have the obligation to stand firm on your native land, both legally and morally. If, like the Japanese in the Niihau incident, you do something that seriously harms the interests of your home country, it has nothing to do with “patriotism” and is actually “treason”. Others do not see you as a foreign power, and there is nothing to say.
In the 1950s and 1960s, why did Southeast Asian countries repeatedly set off waves of Chinese exclusion during the tide of revolutionary exports from large countries? In fact most innocent Chinese were implicated. The guerrillas in Southeast Asia were clear of red background. It was not until 1979 that the Southeast Asian guerrilla training base in Kunming was closed. Even until the 1980s, the Malaysian guerrilla radio station, are still located in Yiyang City, Hunan Sifang Mountain. Out of people and guns and money, others could not think better of the Chinese.
Nowadays, with the progress of the times, the number of people migrating overseas is increasing day by day. In the conflict between countries, the phenomenon of “offshore patriotism” is even more eye-catching. A small number of ill-intentioned performances under the banner of patriotism cast a shadow over the future of the majority of expatriates. Not to mention immigration, even normal study and business travel have become difficult. Amidst the growing skepticism of the outside world, those who eat from both sides can still make a fortune, leaving behind a long-lasting divide and hidden problems. If you cannot truly identify with and uphold your native values, you will only be an eternal abhorrent frog of a great nation.
So, whether you go to that country, you may have to ask yourself why you want to go out? If the homeland is a thousand times better, you may not have to leave your home country, such as those shouting and shouting idyllic national masters, and do the patriotic business of making a fortune anytime, anywhere.
Whether you are a citizen or a resident of your country or a student or a businessman, patriotism is not only emotional but also legal and moral. Don’t take a favor from your second home, where you were born and raised, and then turn around and do something derogatory and evil. There is no distinction between right and wrong, no moral righteousness. In the end, it will only harm people and their own communities.
There are many divergent paths of patriotism off shore, and overseas Chinese should know themselves.
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