Note: It was stunning and terrible news for many Californians to hear of the passing of Bob Matsui, Member of Congress who represented the Sacramento area since his election in 1978. It is hard to believe he is gone.
A memorial service was held in the US Capitol on January 5, 2005. and he came home for the last time, to Sacramento on January 6th. His flag draped casket in a privilege given only to a few in California history, lay in state under the dome of the State Capitol Rotunda through late Friday afternoon. A public memorial service attended by thousands of people was held at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on Saturday, January 8th and was followed by private burial and funeral services. People in the Sacramento area came to the Capitol and paid their respects to Bob Matsui and to honor his memory, to remember his work and to mourn his passing and to give some small comfort to his family. We will never forget him. - Marty Omoto
These are touchstones to Japanese-Americans - and only now may be names that other Americans recognize. These are the names of the internment camps where 120,000 Japanese-Americans were forced to live behind barbed wire in some of the most desolate parts of the United States. Prior to that, thousands were initially kept in temporary prison camps, including the horse stalls at Santa Anita Race Track in Southern California, Tanforan Race Track in the Bay Area, a livestock exposition hall in Portland, Oregon and elsewhere.
My grandparents were interned in the desert in Owens Valley. My father and his brothers in the desert camp in Arizona that interned 30,000 other Japanese-Americans. My other grandparents, mother, aunts and uncles shipped along with thousands of others to camps in Arkansas.
It is a memory that dwells not on the past for pity or even outrage - but for remembrance that it never happens again to any American. Sadly, it seems it has happened in many ways to many Arab Americans after the attacks of 9/11.
And the internment was the largest form of forced institutionalization of an entire population at a single time, in modern American history. As a disability rights advocate, it is sad to see that institutionalization of people with disabilities, 60 years later, is still an issue that this country has not resolved.
A Japanese American, in an internment camp in Wyoming, wrote a sad poem reflecting the feeling of isolation and lost hope during the first cold winter behind barbed wire. With only a change in location, it could have been a poem written by Elaine Wilson who died this past November. Fighting to be released from a state institution in Georgia, she was one of the two plaintiffs with disabilities who filed what became the landmark 1999 US Supreme Court Olmstead Decision about preventing unnecessary institutionalization.
"Snow upon the rooftop
Snow upon the coal
Winter in Wyoming
Winter in my soul"
And yet, hope never dies. And honor and dignity is never lost if it is never given up whether you were a Japanese American then or a person with disabilities now.
My family - like thousands of others, owes a great deal to Bob Matsui and his work toward reparations and a formal apology by the US government, that helped to right some of the terrible wrongs. Every Japanese American knows that something precious was lost forever during those terrible years more than 60 years ago. Now, with the death of Bob Matsui, we know that something precious was also lost just a few days ago.
There have been many other Japanese-American men and women who have fought even more courageously to right those wrongs, with many passing away over the years. Our community has lost much with their passing too.
But Bob Matsui was extraordinary in part for where he was in American life - in a place where few Asian-Americans have been. Where still too few are now.
There is something intangible that is lost that goes beyond all that he did in the United States Congress, because he was a living reminder of what this country did to him and his family, to my family and thousands of other Japanese-Americans. But more important perhaps, he was a living example of the best of what this country is all about - hope and redemption. And hope never dies. And redemption cannot be taken away.
Frederick Douglass once said that "where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, then neither persons nor property will be safe..." Bob Matsui was a force for social justice because he understood what Frederick Douglass meant - something that only a few members of Congress can understand through experience.
He was a comforting and stong presence in a sometimes frightening world. He worked for all of us - for seniors, for people with disabilities who included my sister, people with mental health needs, low-income families, children and everyone else.Photo of Bob Matsui He was there for everyone - but for those who were Asians, Pacific Islanders - there was a special pride and a sense of belonging - for him and for all of us.
How do you thank a man for a lifetime of work that made a difference to so many? Or to a man who in many respects became a symbol of both what was right and wrong about this country? You really can't after one dies. You can only miss and remember him. But perhaps that is the most important thing of all. To remember.
We will all miss him terribly. Our prayers and our hearts go out to the Matsui Family, especially his wife Doris and son Brian.
None of us will never forget what he did for all of us. My family will always remember.
Nobody can replace Bob Matsui - they can only follow him.
CDCAN Disability Rights News goes out to over 55,000 people with disabilities, mental health needs, seniors, traumatic brain & other injuries, veterans with disabilities and mental health needs, their families, workers, community organizations, including those in Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, African American communities, policy makers and others across California.
