An 80-year commemoration should touch the heart of every American

By Jim Jones

Photo courtesy of Eric Saul from the Washington Post

The Washington Post recently published a moving story about how members of the Japanese American 522nd Field Artillery Battalion freed Dachau death-march survivors near Waakirchen, Germany, on May 2, 1945. Reading about the 80-year commemoration on May 2 brought tears to my eyes. The humanity of the event, which included death-march survivors and descendants of the 552nd, should touch the heart of every American and provide incentive to advance the human rights of everyone.

The artillerymen served in a segregated unit that was part of the highly-decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was also a segregated unit of Japanese American troops. Family members of many of those soldiers were living in concentration camps in the western United States for no reason except for their Japanese ancestry. Nevertheless, they fought valiently for their country. Many lost their lives in dangerous assignments where some commanders deemed them expendable.

The combined unit’s motto was “Go for Broke” and more about it can be found on the Go for Broke website. Incidentally, my wife and I visited the Go for Broke museum in Los Angeles last November and found it fascinating. It tells of the outstanding military service of these young men and the hardships faced by their families back home. Americans should be proud of what they were able to accomplish under such circumstances. Having served in Vietnam as a field artilleryman, I feel a real kinship with these remarkable Americans.

But we need to view their service in a broader perspective. African Americans provided distinguished service to the country in World War Two, but also in segregated units. It was not until July 26, 1948, that President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981, abolishing discrimination in our military forces "on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin." Back then, executive orders actually meant something and were sparingly used to make important and lawful changes to the conduct of public business.

Truman’s EO 9981 righted wrongs in our armed forces, but also paved the way for the civil rights strides made in the courts and through the Congress in the ensuing years. The US Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education banned segregation in public schools and that ban was enforced and strengthened in following years. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, both of which were supported by my former boss, Idaho Republican Senator Len Jordan, provided strong groundwork for providing equal rights and opportunities for all Americans.

Unfortunately, progress on human rights issues in the United States has historically been subject to periods of action and reaction. Following the period of enlightenment beginning in the 1950s, there was a period of retrenchment beginning in the 1970s. Ever since then, the ebb and flow of human rights issues has continued in increasingly shorter cycles, often changing course with presidential elections.

In the last administration, there was substantial interest in providing greater equality of rights and opportunities for Americans of disparate racial, religious and socio-economic groups. This year has seen the start of a retrenchment, apparently based upon a misperception that providing more equality for some, results in less equality for others. And so it will go until a majority of Americans understands the lessons we should draw from that ceremony in Waakirchen on May 2 this year–that the rights of all people are advanced when we break down the fences that divide us. When Abba Noar, one of the Dachau inmates, embraced Tom Oiye, the son of the Japanese American artilleryman who saved him, the fences fell and enlightenment prevailed. We all need to devote our efforts to bringing back another such period of enlightenment to our wonderful country. Jim Jones is a Vietnam field artillery officer who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017).