Spies?
February 27, 2008 – 6:30 amSpies?
While treating myself to a visit to the Michener Museum, www.michenermuseum.org, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, I decided to sit awhile in the Nakashima room. I had hoped for peace and quiet as I sat on Nakashima furniture surrounded by reminders of his life. I decided to glance through his daughter’s book about his life and legacy.
I never cease to be amazed by our behavior to American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II. George Nakashima was born in Spokane of Japanese parents. He graduated from University of Washington with a degree in Architecture and then went on to M.I.T. to receive a Master’s degree in Architecture.
While teaching and making furniture in Seattle in the early 1940’s, he and his young family were interned at Camp Minidoka in Hunt, Idaho, along with many other Japanese-American citizens. Through his connection with a Bucks County family, he was released in 1943, moved to the New Hope area and perfected his craft.
I can’t help but think of the many German-born immigrants and the American-born citizens of German ancestry living on the east coast. Since they looked like the rest of us, they were free to go about their business with no questions asked. In my book We Knew We Were at War: Women Remember World War II, there are several instances of suspicious persons, possibly spies.
Mary remembers that her aunt had had a boarder who worked in one of the steel mills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the late 1930s, he packed his things and quietly moved out. The family was convinced he was a spy.
Peggy was secretly questioned by the FBI about her boss at the Franklin Arsenal. He was a brilliant physicist of Russian-Jewish descent. She never knew if he was a spy or not, but she had her suspicions.
My own experience concerned a German family who lived around the corner from me in Chester, Pennsylvania. Their son was in my class at elenmentary school and one of my favorite playmates. His father worked at the Sun Ship Yard in Chester. One day, Putey did not go to school. My friends and I thought he was just sick, but upon our return from school, we learned that the family had moved out during the night. Of course, the suspicion was that the father was a spy.
Were these people spies or not? Who knows?
For more World War II stories, please go to www.peggeorge.com.
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