Katsumi Yagura testified before the Commission to highlight a group often overlooked in discussions of wartime incarceration: Japanese American veterans who were already serving in the U.S. military before Pearl Harbor. He described the bitter irony of men in uniform fighting for their country while their parents and siblings were forced into camps.

• Forgotten Veterans: Many Nisei soldiers had parents, brothers, and sisters incarcerated despite their service. One man even broke furlough just to see his family behind barbed wire.

• Politics of Fear: Quoted Roosevelt’s remark that “nothing happens by accident in politics,” and described how demagogues and vigilantes stirred hysteria using Hitler’s playbook: the bigger the lie, the more people believe it.

• Racist Rhetoric: Read inflammatory statements from senators and representatives portraying Japanese as inherently immoral, godless, and unworthy of citizenship.

• Double Standards: Noted the hypocrisy that Hawaii, geographically closer to Japan, had no mass removal, while West Coast families were uprooted.

• Military Exclusion: Nisei soldiers barred from certain assignments — “they all look alike” — and in some cases denied citizenship even after years of combat service, citing the Oriental Exclusion Act.

• American Double Standard: Recalled an image of a Navy veteran, in uniform with service ribbons, being escorted to camp by MPs — a symbol of betrayal and humiliation.

• Beyond Money: Emphasized that reparations must account for missed opportunities, psychological harm, and damage to children. How can a veteran explain to his child: “Daddy fought for this country, but Grandpa and Grandma were in camp”?