Red lines in the sand

by SEAN SCOTT REINHART

These photos are of my grandmother when she arrived in America in the 1950s. My maternal grandmother was born in Saga Prefecture, Japan to her ancestral Japanese family; my grandfather, her husband, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to his ancestral Cajun family. My grandparents met during the Korean War. My grandfather was a young man serving overseas in the Army when they met. My grandmother was 18 years old at the time. After a brief courtship, my grandfather brought her back to America with him as his wife. My grandmother never returned to Japan and never saw her ancestral family again.

My grandfather and grandmother in 1950. He was from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; she was from Saga Prefecture, Japan. He was overseas serving in the Army when they met. They were married and he brought her home to Louisiana. Later they relocated to Oakland, then bought their first and only home in unincorporated Hayward.

My grandmother as a teenager in front of a waterfall in Japan.

These photos were taken shortly after they returned to America for the first time. After the war, my grandfather was stationed at Ft. Sill Army Base in Oklahoma. They later were stationed in Germany, then Oakland Army Base. My grandfather was honorably discharged from the military from Oakland.

This is my grandmother in front of an Oklahoma barracks shortly after arriving in America in 1950. My grandfather was stationed at Ft. Sill Army Base in Oklahoma when this photo was taken. They later were stationed in Germany, then Oakland Army Base. After he was discharged, the family tried to buy a home in the East Bay Area. At that time (late 1960s), there were discriminatory covenants in many neighborhoods that prevented non-whites from buying homes. They looked in San Lorenzo and San Leandro, but were turned away when the sellers or realtors learned my grandmother’s race. Eventually my grandparents were able to buy a home in Hayward. This is how my mother’s side of the family came to settle in Hayward.

My grandparents, like so many other young veteran families of the era, sought to buy a home in the East Bay Area and raise their family there. This was during the the post-war “Baby Boom” era, a time when thousands of young veterans were buying newly built homes and getting in on the ground floor of the new American Dream. Unfortunately at that time (early 1960s), discriminatory legal “covenants” prevented any and all non-white people from buying homes in many neighborhoods. My grandparents tried to buy homes in San Lorenzo and San Leandro, but were turned away when the sellers or realtors saw my grandmother and realized her race. It did not matter that my grandparents were good people. It did not matter that my grandfather had served his country with honor. It did not matter that they were a young family with their whole lives ahead of them and so much to give. It did not matter that they had the means to buy the home. My grandmother still vividly recalls and occasionally tells me the story of how my grandfather had made all the arrangements to buy a brand-new home in San Lorenzo. The deal was basically done, but when my grandfather and grandmother arrived to sign the final paperwork, the realtor took one look at my grandmother and literally waved them away.

My grandmother with her children in Oklahoma in 1958. My mother is the little girl in front, along with my aunt and uncle. This photo perfectly captures their personalities! Unfortunately prejudice against Japanese-Americans was intense and pervasive when this photo was taken. My mother, aunt, uncle, and grandmother have shared with me many stories of discrimination, fear, and hate that was daily aimed at them back in this time.

Eventually my grandparents were able to buy a home in unincorporated Hayward just outside of San Lorenzo village, where the discriminatory covenants were not in effect. Even then, my grandparents and their family faced shocking racism and prejudice, every day, relentless and unforgiving. This is how my mother’s side of the family came to settle in Hayward. Many years later, I rented that same house from my grandmother and started my own family there. But that is not a happy ending. It is a tale of almost desperate survival in a harsh and inhumane system of caste and persecution that persists and mutates into new and more insidious forms to this very day.

My maternal grandmother arrived in America by sea in 1950. She and her father, a Japanese restaurateur and political dissident during the fascist era of the 1940s, were forced to flee their home in Japan to Manchuria in the 1940s. They later settled in Korea, where my grandmother met my grandfather, an American serviceman serving a tour of duty during the Korean Conflict.

hi def librarian

Red lines in the sand

hi def librarian