Quiet Americans
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Quiet Americans
@quietamericans.com
Uncovering Japanese American stories: History. Injustice. Resistance. Achievements. Remembering those who built, fought, and endured.

https://quietamericans.com
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Welcome to Quiet Americans.

We tell stories of Japanese American history — injustice, resilience, and resistance.

Inspired by Claude Akira Mimaki, a Nisei soldier who rarely spoke of his WWII incarceration or Army service, we’re here to make sure it’s heard.

quietamericans.com
They didn’t need a fence or guard tower to keep loyal citizens locked up.
Gila River had no barbed wire, and its fences were removed in 1943.
Still, they imprisoned over 13,000 Japanese Americans until this day in 1945.

Nov 16, 1945 — Gila River officially closed.

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #WWII
November 17, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Might be hard to believe, but November 15, 1946 was the first time Californians ever voted down a racist law.
And it helped lead to the end of the Alien Land Law.

Read: quietamericans.com/proposition-15

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #CivilRights #442ndRCT #NeverForget
November 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Nov 15, 1942:
The first two Japanese Americans left Manzanar to volunteer for the MIS at Camp Savage.
Forty more would follow.

They served a country that had just imprisoned them.

Read: quietamericans.com/camp-savage

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #MIS #WWII
November 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Ted Tanouye died fighting for freedom while his family lived behind barbed wire at Rohwer.
Born Nov 14, 1919 in Torrance, he became one of the 442nd’s most heroic soldiers — even as his own country incarcerated the people he loved.

Learn more: quietamericans.com/ted-tanouye
#JapaneseAmericanHistory
November 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Fortunately for 935 plaintiffs, that ship hadn’t sailed when they found him.

Nov 13, 1945: San Francisco lawyer Wayne Collins filed habeas corpus petitions for 935 Japanese Americans, stopping mass deportations just two days before they began.

#JapaneseAmericanHistory #WorldKindnessDay
November 14, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Nov 13, 1922: The Supreme Court ruled in Ozawa v. United States that Japanese immigrants could not become citizens because they weren’t white.

Takao Ozawa lived in America for 28 years, spoke English at home, and believed he was American. The law said otherwise.

quietamericans.com/ozawa-v-unit...
November 13, 2025 at 3:30 PM
It always starts out small.
Snowballs. Crimes. Federal incarceration.

Nov 12, 1941 — The FBI raided Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, arresting 15 Japanese American businessmen and community leaders weeks before Pearl Harbor.

It may have looked like only 15 people.
But it kept getting worse from there.
November 12, 2025 at 2:30 PM
America’s human secret weapons. Not so secret now.

On Nov 11, 2013, the Military Intelligence Service Historic Learning Center opened at the Presidio — in the same classrooms where Nisei soldiers once trained in secrecy during WWII.

Read about the MIS: quietamericans.com/mis

#VeteransDay
November 11, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Colonel Miller fought with Japanese American soldiers until the end of the war, then kept fighting for them.

Born Nov 11, 1900, he commanded the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in some of WWII’s toughest battles, including the fight against prejudice.

🔗 quietamericans.com/virgil-miller

#VeteransDay
November 11, 2025 at 3:02 PM
He never stopped believing in a Constitution that refused to believe in him.
Forty years later, the courts finally did.

🔗 quietamericans.com/fred-korematsu

#QuietAmericans #FredKorematsu
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
During WWII, the field of dreams was surrounded by barbed wire.

November 10, 2005 — Arizona Governor Napolitano proclaimed Zenimura Day, honoring the man who built a baseball field inside the camp, so that incarcerees could still play and enjoy America’s game.

🔗 quietamericans.com/zenimura-day
November 10, 2025 at 2:30 PM
A memorial for those who believed in the country that didn’t believe in them.

November 9, 2000: The National Japanese American Memorial was dedicated in Washington, DC.

It honors 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans, and thousands who still fought for the U.S.

🔗 quietamericans.com/nja-memorial
November 9, 2025 at 2:30 PM
One of the most celebrated contemporary British authors was born in Nagasaki.

November 8, 1954 — Writer Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, who has been awarded numerous major literary prizes including the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, was born in Japan.

#KazuoIshiguro #NobelPrize #JapaneseBritish #Literature
November 8, 2025 at 4:30 PM
He made history in both the House and the Senate, and he only needed one hand to do it.
Nov 6, 1962 — Daniel Inouye became the first Japanese American elected to the U.S. Senate, decades after losing his arm in WWII.

Full story: quietamericans.com/daniel-inouye

#QuietAmericans #WWII #DanielInouye
November 6, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Nov 4, 1943 — Protests broke out at Tule Lake War Relocation Center over food and unfair treatment. Project Director Raymond Best panicked and called in the U.S. Army. Tanks. Machine guns. Martial law.
A prison inside a prison was born.
#QuietAmericans #TuleLake
November 4, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Born on this day, Ralph Lazo wasn’t Japanese American.
But when his classmates were sent to Manzanar, he refused to let them go alone.

For two years, he lived behind barbed wire — not because he had to, but because he wanted to.

🔗 quietamericans.com/ralph-lazo

#QuietAmericans #RalphLazo #Manzanar
November 3, 2025 at 3:31 PM
November 1, 1941: A month before Pearl Harbor, U.S. Army secretly formed the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) to train soldiers in Japanese.

Thousands of Nisei linguists went on to serve in silence, saving countless lives and shortening the war by years.

🔗 quietamericans.com/mis

#MIS #WWII
November 1, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Topaz closed on Oct 31, 1945.
One of its incarcerees, Mitsuye Endo, helped make that happen.

Her case went to the Supreme Court.
She won.
The camps closed.

👉 quietamericans.com/topaz
👉 quietamericans.com/california-fires-400

#OnThisDay #QuietAmericans #MitsuyeEndo #JapaneseAmericanHistory #Topaz
October 31, 2025 at 2:31 PM
The largest mass trial in U.S. history was one of the biggest failures of justice.

Oct 30, 1944 — Sixty-three Japanese American draft resisters from Heart Mountain stood trial for refusing to serve while their families were locked up in concentration camps.

quietamericans.com/heart-mounta...
October 30, 2025 at 1:31 PM
October 29 is National Cat Day 🐾

The Japanese Bobtail has been part of Japanese culture for centuries, known for its pom-like tail, playful personality, and the maneki-neko.

It came to the U.S. in 1908, but wasn’t officially registered until the 1960s.

Learn more at cfa.org/japanese-bob...
October 29, 2025 at 1:31 PM
On October 28, 1895, Tōyō Miyatake was born.
During WWII, he smuggled in a lens and built a homemade camera to document life at Manzanar.
They took away his freedom — but not his vision nor determination.

🔗 quietamericans.com/toyo-miyatake

#ToyoMiyatake #Manzanar #WWIIhistory #QuietAmericans
October 28, 2025 at 3:31 PM
A lighthouse for Africa and Asia became a symbol of freedom in America.

Originally called “Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia,” it was meant for the Suez Canal — until Egypt rejected it. The design was reused for the U.S.

Oct 28, 1895 — The Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

#StatueOfLiberty
October 28, 2025 at 2:04 PM
On October 26, 2024, the Manzanar Baseball Project hosted a commemorative game on the site of one of the most cherished ballfields in America’s concentration camps.

🔗 quietamericans.com/manzanar-baseball-project

#Manzanar #BaseballHistory #JapaneseAmericanIncarceration #ManzanarBaseballProject
October 26, 2025 at 2:45 PM
They left no man behind. Even when America did.

On October 25, 1944, the all-Japanese American 442nd RCT began the brutal rescue of the “Lost Battalion.”
They saved 211 men from Texas — at the cost of over 800 of their own.

Read here: quietamericans.com/lost-battalion

#442ndRCT #LostBattalion
October 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
October 23, 2000 — Norman Mineta became the first Asian American to serve in a U.S. presidential cabinet when he was appointed Secretary of Commerce.

He eventually held two cabinet posts under two presidents, helping guide America through the aftermath of 9/11.

🔗quietamericans.com/norman-mineta
October 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM