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Interviews

Miyatake,Henry

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

Speaking with Sparky

During this same time sequence, I had a chance to talk to Sparky Matsunaga. And he came through to talk to the Nisei Vets in town, and I got fifteen minutes with him on the appointment schedule. And it ran to about two-and-a-half hours because he thought the issues were very important to Japanese America. And he was very empathetic with the position that we were taking. He was also fascinated with the amount of research that we had done relative to all the activities that we were talking about that pertain to -- in the question of Japanese American loyalty before and during World War II, things like the DeWitt testimony in the Supreme Court, you know, things of this nature.

But it was a kind of a good interchange of information between myself and Sparky. And I was very impressed with the fact that he would allow me to talk to him for the length of time that I had with him. And he kind of postponed the other scheduled parts of his appointment schedule. But I felt that he was gonna be the main focal point for any redress issues that would come to bear. And as history proves it, he was very influential, he was very responsive to our requests.


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)

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