Interviews

1. Don’t Rock the Boat

2. Speaking with Sparky

3. The Scale of the Issue

4. A Common Cause

5. Evolving History

Miyatake,Henry

(1929 - 2014) One of the earliest proponents behind the redress movement.

Evolving History

I guess, to me, one of the interesting things that came about from the redress process was that people were coming out of the closets, they're talking about these issues, and we're finally able to talk coherently to individuals. And in some cases still the fragmentation of society is still there. But nonetheless, we're able to talk and we're able relate to these events that took place. And so maybe the redress thing has a lot of secondary effects. Maybe it'll have some beneficial effects for the Sansei. Maybe they'll recognize some of these things that went on and why their parents feel the way they do about certain social events or social contacts, and organizations and things of this nature. So to me, there's a whole evolution of Japanese American history that has taken place in the last maybe thirty years, or somewhere in that realm.

Date: October 28, 1999

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Tom Ikeda

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Henry Miyatake was born in 1929 in Seattle, Washington. During World War II, he was incarcerated while a teenager at Puyallup Assembly Center and Minidoka incarceration camp in Idaho. In camp, he wrote and defended an essay criticizing the United States' treatment of racial minorities. His teacher refused to accept his paper, resulting in a failed grade and preventing him from graduating.

Although it was a radical idea, Miyatake was one of the earliest proponents behind the redress movement from the early 70s. Along with a few others, he prepared a plan for the Seattle chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) to seek redress from the U.S. government for the incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry.

Miyatake’s efforts met resistance from the community until the first “Day of Remembrance” was held on November 25, 1978 at the site of the former Puyallup Assembly Center. This event, that Miyatake helped organize, was one of several watershed moments that helped galvanize the Japanese American community on the road towards righting a wrong.

He passed away on September 16, 2014 at age 85. (April 2015)