It certainly is a grand old flag; probably the most recognizable one in the world. And beautiful. 50 stars shining in a dark blue sky. Red stripes symbolizing the blood shed in defense of the nation and white ones symbolizing its ideals, the most important of which appear at the end of the flag’s pledge — liberty and justice for all.

In 1942, the man rated our second best president after Honest Abe, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the military to establish restricted zones and to remove “aliens” from them. As a result over 110,000 Japanese- Americans, including 80,000 Nisei, American citizens, and 30,000 Issei, (first generation immigrants here for decades but precluded by law from becoming citizens), began their Trail of Tears (Cherokee Removal in 1838) to an unjustifiable incarceration in inhospitable locations in the west.

They had 10 days to close up businesses and homes proudly displaying American flags. Then, taking only what they could carry, they were rounded up and crowded into relocation sites from whence they were transported by bus or train to internment camps enclosed by barbed wire and surveilled by armed guards-American flags flying throughout.

Adults, children and infants, the mentally ill and elderly, were doomed to existences in tarpaper shacks, 25 people crammed into a space built to accommodate four. There were no plumbing or cooking facilities. Outbreaks of dysentery and other illnesses resulting from unhealthy living conditions were commonplace. At no time did the incarcerated violently resist these unconscionable assaults on their civil liberties and lives. Liberty and justice for all.

The government’s justification for this abomination was the unsubstantiated fear that Japanese-Americans would become enemy collaborators. Truth to power, racism and the greed of white American farmers played significant roles determining this injustice. The latter stood to gain from confiscating Japanese-American farmlands thereby eliminating the competition. Ironically, the relocation created a major labor vacuum (sound familiar) which would be filled by a mass immigration of Mexican workers via the Bracero Program.

When all was said and done, not only had Japanese-Americans been deprived of their constitutional rights, but also of an estimated $400 million worth of property; property most would never get back. In summarizing a historical travesty which continues to be covered up, R.C. Hoiles, publisher of the Orange County (Calif.) Register wrote: “It would seem that convicting people of disloyalty to our country without having specific evidence against them (sound familiar) is too foreign to our way of life and too closely akin to the kind of government we are fighting.” Liberty and justice for all.

In a poignant demonstration of the folly of Roosevelt’s Executive Order, several thousand Nisei pledged allegiance to their flag by volunteering to fight to preserve that liberty and justice for all. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team led by white officers joined their “brothers” from Hawaii in the 100th Infantry Brigade and participated in the liberation of Italy in 1944. In less than two years of combat, the 442nd earned more than 18,000 individual decorations including 53 Distinguished Service Crosses, 558 Silver Stars, 5,200 Bronze Stars, 9,486 Purple Hearts and 8 Presidential Unit Citations, the nation’s top award for combat units. Over 600 were killed in action-the highest casualty rate of any American unit during the war. Their caskets were covered by the American flag. Despite their incredible fighting prowess as indicated in the above, only one Nisei received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Note: That was one more than African-American combatants in WWI received.

Pfc. Sadao Munemori from Glendale, Calif., the son of immigrants from Hiroshima, graduate of Lincoln High, enlisted on the army in February of 1942. When his unit was finally given the green light to enter combat, “Spud” (so nicknamed because he preferred potatoes over rice) saw his first action in April of ’44 in Italy and France.

In 1945, he returned to Italy where on April 5, in action on the Gothic Line, he took over his squad after their leader was wounded. “Trapped with two others in a shell crater by machine gun fire and grenades hurled at them, he crawled out of the crater and knocked out the enemy machine gun nests with grenades. Scrambling back to the crater, a grenade bounced off his helmet and into the crater. He smothered it with his body and was killed instantly. The other men suffered concussions and partial deafness but survived.” His parents received notification of their son’s death at the Manzanar camp in central California where a flag flew over its entrance. Note: A review in the 1990’s resulted in the awarding of 20 additional Medals of Honor to Nisei soldiers, including Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Following the war, the relocation survivors and their intrepid warrior sons returned home to quietly and effectively rebuild their lives, continuing through the decades to epitomize many of the values that we hold sacred. A majority of them have college degrees and they’ve made significant contributions in the fields of politics, science and technology, art and literature, sports and entertainment-all under the red, white and blue. Their ability to endure whatever life threw at them derived from two things-the acceptance of an age-old philosophical belief-Shikada Ga Nai (It Cannot Be Helped-maintaining dignity in the face of adversity), and unbreakable family ties which continue to bind them together.

A final reminder of who they are is reflected in the words of a memorial to the 442nd located in Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles. “This memorial is reverently placed here by the Japanese American Community-in memory of American soldiers of Japanese ancestry who fought, suffered and died in World War II that Liberty, Justice and Equal Opportunity in the Pursuit of Happiness might come to ALL democratic and peace-keeping people everywhere regardless of race, creed, color or national origin.” What that it would be so.

As I wrote at the outset, it certainly is a grand old flag. But in light of the experiences of the Nisei and Issei, Cherokee, Tuskegee Airmen, victims of Agent Orange and the majority of today’s immigrants, the words of its pledge need to be changed. “With liberty and justice for SOME.”

Ray Lenarcic is a 1965 State University of New York at Fredonia graduate and is a resident of Herkimer.