A Story In A Story

There is an old Japanese man who owns a store that I shop in once in a while. His father owned the store before him.
The area is built up now but it wasn't that long ago that it was a farming community. Many Japanese settled here and started their own small farms.
His father started the business by supplying fertilizer and other farm products to farmers. He did well and as the farms disappeared he switched to supplying small growers and gardeners and homeowners with those type products. It's an old fashioned store, a step back in time and, it is one of a few stores of it's type to survive the new era of the mega store.
I was there last week and struck up a conversation about how things have changed over the years when he told me an interesting story about his life. He told me how hard his father had been on him and his brothers and sisters. "All I did was work all the time, from dawn to dusk every single day, year after year." he said.
In 1942, when the war came he and his family were rounded up like all the Japanese people in the area and taken to internment camps. His family went to one called Gila River, south of Phoenix Arizona. He said, "you know it may sound funny but at the time I liked it in the camp. I didn't have to work so hard and it was the first time I got to play baseball and meet girls and go to dances." Laughing he said, "I had to go to prison to have fun." He was 19 years old and said he'll never forget that a few older guys escaped and later on they found their bones somewhere out in the desert. He said he couldn't understand why they would want to leave.
I obviously don't bring this up to take away from what America did to Japanese Americans during that time. It was wrong and even after understanding why these wartime calculations were made it doesn't change the fact that these were rash decisions that were racial in nature and reached in part due to hysteria which at minimum calls into question the judgment of those responsible. It was an indignity officially recognized by the U.S and finally apologized for in 1988.
My point is that the story is an example of how opinions can be buried in and seemingly untethered to the wider view that depicts a situation most accurately. In other words there is always going to be someone who will say with all honesty something that someone else can use to advance their case on some issue.
In this case a 19 year old detainee is obviously not where one should look for the truth and youthful obliviousness easily explains away his comments but in similar situations people routinely reach the wrong conclusion using bad information.
Thoughtful people check the validity of their opinions with various detachment tools in effort to shed light on underlying biases. In this case by simply asking oneself how fair it would have been if they themselves were subjected the same treatment might yield a clearer perspective.
Fortunately for now politicians seemed to have stopped offering us currently active American soldiers opinions on such questions as whether or not we should be in Iraq. But not long ago when the primary season was in full swing references to discussions with soldiers was a popular way to make political points. Senator McCain did this on occasion.
I've always felt that under the circumstances of war, that random discussions by politicians with soldiers about larger issues such as the validity of war should be disallowed. I hope we never hear this tactic again but it needs to be monitored.
I like Senator McCain but there always seems to be a lingering question about his judgment that never has been resolved for me. I know that politicians don't always tell the truth but that doesn't erase the fact that when they don't, they're lying.
Here are two examples that make it hard for me to trust him. First, no matter how much he pretends, he'll never convince me he really likes or agrees with President Bush, especially after what the Bush campaign did to him in South Carolina when they faced off in 2000. Second, I think he is acting much more hawkish about this war than he actually is. Like his opposition to torture, I think his war time experience would have rendered him equally adverse to the rationale for this war. Now that it is underway, being a soldier beyond anything else, he will support our troops like no one else can. But had he been in the White House on 9/11/2001, I don't think we would have invaded Iraq. Also the retaliation against Osama Bin Laden would have been waged effectively and would have been far more productive. His Viet Nam experience and subsequent knowledge would have assured this.
I only wish that Senator McCain had separated himself from President Bush and proposed some kind of winding down of the war so he could have been a much more relevant candidate. I'm interested in seeing how he makes up for these shortcoming. I think he has a difficult time ahead of him.
And finally, a happy ending to the store keeper story. When they left for the camp, a non-Japanese neighbor told his father not to worry, he would watch over things while they were gone. After 3 years in the internment camp they returned to find everything just as they left it, just a thick layer of dust covering things. In no time they were back in business, working harder than ever. His father remained grateful to his neighbor for the rest of his life.