PAINFUL LESSONS
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PAGE 6
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Kennie never made it to France, instead fighting though Italy until being wounded while attacking a German machine gun nest, earning a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He returned to the States to recuperate in Minnesota. There he reunited with Ruth, a young woman he met in Minidoka, marrying her a few months later.
But like many Japanese-American veterans, Kennie’s battles did not end after leaving Europe. Upon returning to Gresham after the exclusion order was lifted in 1946, to recommence farming the Nambas found their farm looted and their neighbors and authorities hostile. In 1945, while former internees had been fighting in Europe, and Kennie had been recovering from his wounds, the Oregon legislature had moved to prevent the return of Japanese-Americans to the agricultural sector by expanding the Alien Land Use law, making it illegal for wives or children of those ineligible for citizenship to own or lease farmland.
But rather than being turned back by resistance, Ruth, Kennie and his parents attacked the problem directly. After searching out a willing land owner, the Nambas signed a lease in 1947 with Florence Donald and were cited for violating the Alien Land Use law. They sued the Attorney General and the local district attorney for violating their constitutional rights. The case became known as Namba v. McCourt.
After two years, and repeated losses in lower courts, the Oregon Supreme Court sided with the Nambas. In a decision that would be cited in other states to overturn similar laws the court declared the 1923 law and its 1945 expansion unconstitutional. Oregon, the decision stated, “Cannot afford to create, by legislation or judicial construction, a ghetto for our (citizenship) ineligible aliens … (nor) assign him to a lowered standard of living.
“We know of no basis upon which these two acts can be sustained.”
Though successful in the legal field, the Nambas still met with racism from some fellow Oregonians, one group of whom saw fit to remove the names of members of the 442nd from a plaque honoring veterans in Hood River because of their race. But again, Kennie responded to the racism the only way he knew how, by confronting it. Since the 1950s Kennie traveled widely throughout Oregon, addressing hundreds of school children and community groups on his experience during the war and afterwards. He spoke numerous times in Eugene, and he and Ruth aided extensively in efforts to memorialize the internment at the Hult Center.
Before passing away in 2012, Kennie saw the Eugene Japanese American Memorial dedicated and his own face smailing from it. Kennie’s likeness as a young man served as a model for the unnamed soldier on the bronze Honor panel.
But like many Japanese-American veterans, Kennie’s battles did not end after leaving Europe. Upon returning to Gresham after the exclusion order was lifted in 1946, to recommence farming the Nambas found their farm looted and their neighbors and authorities hostile. In 1945, while former internees had been fighting in Europe, and Kennie had been recovering from his wounds, the Oregon legislature had moved to prevent the return of Japanese-Americans to the agricultural sector by expanding the Alien Land Use law, making it illegal for wives or children of those ineligible for citizenship to own or lease farmland.
But rather than being turned back by resistance, Ruth, Kennie and his parents attacked the problem directly. After searching out a willing land owner, the Nambas signed a lease in 1947 with Florence Donald and were cited for violating the Alien Land Use law. They sued the Attorney General and the local district attorney for violating their constitutional rights. The case became known as Namba v. McCourt.
After two years, and repeated losses in lower courts, the Oregon Supreme Court sided with the Nambas. In a decision that would be cited in other states to overturn similar laws the court declared the 1923 law and its 1945 expansion unconstitutional. Oregon, the decision stated, “Cannot afford to create, by legislation or judicial construction, a ghetto for our (citizenship) ineligible aliens … (nor) assign him to a lowered standard of living.
“We know of no basis upon which these two acts can be sustained.”
Though successful in the legal field, the Nambas still met with racism from some fellow Oregonians, one group of whom saw fit to remove the names of members of the 442nd from a plaque honoring veterans in Hood River because of their race. But again, Kennie responded to the racism the only way he knew how, by confronting it. Since the 1950s Kennie traveled widely throughout Oregon, addressing hundreds of school children and community groups on his experience during the war and afterwards. He spoke numerous times in Eugene, and he and Ruth aided extensively in efforts to memorialize the internment at the Hult Center.
Before passing away in 2012, Kennie saw the Eugene Japanese American Memorial dedicated and his own face smailing from it. Kennie’s likeness as a young man served as a model for the unnamed soldier on the bronze Honor panel.