Stillwell: "These Japanese American troops bought an awful big hunk of America with their blood." In 1948. 2 years after he had been discharged from the Army. and as Washington representative for the Japanese American Citizens League. he was to point out to a congressional committee that "Fifty thousand parents of these gallant soliders cannot become citizens of the country for which they and their sons gave so much * * * they are still branded as enemy aliens. and we. their American children. are forced to suffer from the accident of birth." He was determined that the Issei. the foreignborn Japanese. should gain the same full status as American citizens as all other ethnic groups and he haunted congressional offices and committees with a persistence and an eloquence rarely seen in congressional corridors. His determination to correct existing injustices against Japanese Americans met with success. Some of the bills whose passage he influenced most notably included the right to naturalization for persons of Japanese ancestry. compensation for property losses incurred by evacuees. prevention of the deportation of Japanese aliens whose families included American citizens. and authorizing servicemen to marry and return with Japanese war brides. He also was one of the leaders which brought statehood for Hawaii. His success in obtaining passage of so many bills made him the subject of an article in the Readers Digest entitled "Washingtons Most Successful Lobbyist." Mike did not limit his activity to the cause of the Japanese Americans. but was very active in the fight to assure human rights for all Americans.
Keywords matched
naturalization deportation