美国国家公共电台 NPR Some Japanese-Americans Wrongfully Imprisoned During WWII Oppose Census Question

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

There's a legal battle growing over a controversial new question on the 2020 census¹. It asks, is this person a citizen of the United States? A ruling in one of the lawsuits² over the question is expected soon from a federal judge in New York.

Critics of the question have been speaking out for months, including a group of U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry³. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang has their story.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE⁴: Eileen Okada was 5 years old when the U.S. government forced her and her family to live in a stall made for horses.

EILEEN OKADA: I remember the stench. They cleaned it out, of course, but didn't scrub it down. The smell was still there.

WANG: This was in 1942, months after this attack upended life for families like Okada's.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by air, President Roosevelt has just announced.

WANG: The U.S. government responded, in part, by allowing confidential⁵ Census Bureau data identifying individual Japanese-Americans to be released to other federal agencies during World War II. The Census Bureau also provided information about where Japanese-Americans lived.

That information was not confidential and was used to round up around 120,000 people of Japanese descent, mainly U.S. citizens. They were wrongfully locked up at fairgrounds, racetracks and, eventually, remote prison camps.

OKADA: I remember asking my mother why we were here. She simply said, because we're Japanese. I remember thinking it was not good to be Japanese, and I carried that for a long time.

WANG: It was a kind of experience that was also part of the childhood of former Commerce Secretary Norman Mineta. He remembers asking his older brother to explain posters he saw in their neighborhood about what the government called the evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry, quote, "both alien and non-alien."

NORMAN MINETA: And I said, what's non-alien? And he said, that's you. My own government - the government of the United States of America wouldn't call me a citizen.

WANG: The federal government has formally apologized for actions that it said were motivated by racial prejudice and wartime hysteria. But Mineta says he and other survivors⁶ still worry that confidential census information could be misused⁷ again. That's why Mineta, Eileen Okada and her two sisters joined a friend of the court brief for the citizenship⁸ question lawsuits in New York.

The Trump⁹ administration insists the question was added to the 2020 census to better protect the voting rights of racial minorities. But Mineta says he's concerned asking about citizenship on the census was intended to scare immigrants.

MINETA: One of the things it does is intimidate¹⁰ people. All I could think of was what it was like for evacuees¹¹ to be facing a census, and whether or not that information could be used.

WANG: NPR has reached out to the Commerce Department, which oversees¹² the Census Bureau, and to the Justice Department, which is representing the administration in the citizenship question lawsuits. Both declined to comment on the friend of the court brief.

But during a recent speech, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross addressed the confidentiality¹³ issue. He stressed there is long-standing federal law that prohibits the Census Bureau from releasing information identifying individuals until 72 years after the data are collected.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WILBUR ROSS: By law, the census is strictly¹⁴ confidential - strictly confidential.

WANG: But Sharon Sakamoto, one of Eileen Okada's sisters, remembers this has not always been the case. Sakamoto was born inside a prison camp in Idaho after the government forced her family to leave Seattle.

SHARON SAKAMOTO: I keep wanting the words, justice for all, to work.

WANG: After her family was released, Sakamoto says her parents continued to raise her and her siblings¹⁵ to respect their country and their government.

SAKAMOTO: Just because we say, justice for all, I have to still look at how we're functioning and how we're acting¹⁶. I think we have to be watchful¹⁷.

WANG: Sakamoto says she'll be watching to see what happens to the citizenship question. It's an issue the Supreme¹⁸ Court is expected to take on in the new year. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

3 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

6 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

7 misused   

v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用

参考例句：

• He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

9 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

10 intimidate   

vt.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• You think you can intimidate people into doing what you want?你以为你可以威胁别人做任何事？
• The first strike capacity is intended mainly to intimidate adversary.第一次攻击的武力主要是用来吓阻敌方的。

11 evacuees   

n.被疏散者( evacuee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Moreover, for multi-exits, evacuees select a exit based on game theory. 在有多个出口时，疏散人员根据对策论选择出口。 来自互联网
• Evacuees wade through flooded area following heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar on Saturday, July 31, 2010. 撤离灾区涉水通过后在白沙瓦沉重的季风降雨在周六，2010年7月31日。 来自互联网

12 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

13 confidentiality   

n.秘而不宣，保密

参考例句：

• They signed a confidentiality agreement. 他们签署了一份保守机密的协议。
• Cryptography is the foundation of supporting authentication, integrality and confidentiality. 而密码学是支持认证、完整性和机密性机制的基础。

14 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

15 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

16 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

17 watchful   

adj.注意的，警惕的

参考例句：

• The children played under the watchful eye of their father.孩子们在父亲的小心照看下玩耍。
• It is important that health organizations remain watchful.卫生组织保持警惕是极为重要的。

18 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。