<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" I suppose that a lot of the blog discussion this week is going to be about the extent to which a democracy surrenders to fear, and the damage it does to its institutions of self-government when it does so. In fact, I&amp;#039;m sure of it. So, in that spirit, I&amp;#039;d like to share a story someone sent me over the weekend about the passing of one individual American who declined to surrender to fear, and thereby reinforced, and did not damage, our institutions of self-government and the spirit that ought to suffuse them. How do you preserve your freedom? Stop talking about it and help preserve someone else&amp;#039;s. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 that made the relocation possible by declaring certain parts of the West to be military zones, Al Tsukamoto, whose parents arrived in the United States in 1905, approached Mr. Fletcher with a business proposal: would he be willing to manage the farms of two family friends of Mr. Tsukamoto&amp;#039;s, one of whom was elderly, and to pay the taxes and mortgages while they were away? In return, he could keep all the profits. Mr. Fletcher and Mr. Tsukamoto had not been close, and Mr. Fletcher had no experience growing the farmers&amp;#039; specialty, flame tokay grapes, but he accepted the offer and soon quit his job. For the next three years he worked a total of 90 acres on three farms - he had also decided to run Mr. Tsukamoto&amp;#039;s farm. He worked 18-hour days and lived in the bunkhouse Mr. Tsukamoto had reserved for migrant workers. He paid the bills of all three families - the Tsukamotos, the Okamotos and the Nittas. He kept only half of the profits. Many Japanese-American families lost property while they were in the camps because they could not pay their bills. Most in the Florin area moved elsewhere after the war. When the Tsukamotos returned in 1945, they found that Mr. Fletcher had left them money in the bank and that his new wife, Teresa, had cleaned the Tsukamotos&amp;#039; house in preparation for their return. She had chosen to join her husband in the bunkhouse instead of accepting the Tsukamotos&amp;#039; offer to live in the family&amp;#039;s house. &amp;quot;Teresa&amp;#039;s response was, &amp;#039;It&amp;#039;s the Tsukamotos&amp;#039; house,&amp;#039; &amp;quot; recalled Marielle Tsukamoto, who was 5 when she and her family were sent to the Jerome center. The internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was an insult to the American idea and a blot on the civil liberties of this country almost unparalleled in American history -- yes, it was even worse than what the NSA has been doing since 2001. This guy stood up against someone worse than faceless bureaucrats. He stood up to his neighbors. That is always the toughest things, especially in a small place. Mr. Fletcher&amp;#039;s willingness to work the farms was not well received in Florin, where before the war some people had resented the Japanese immigrants for their success. Japanese children in the area were required to attend segregated schools. Mr. Fletcher was unruffled by personal attacks; he felt the Japanese farmers were being mistreated. &amp;quot;I did know a few of them pretty well and never did agree with the evacuation,&amp;quot; he told The Sacramento Bee in 2010. &amp;quot;They were the same as anybody else. It was obvious they had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor.&amp;quot; After the war, resentment against the Japanese in Florin continued. If Mr. Tsukamoto tried to buy a part at the hardware store only to be told that the part was not in stock, he would ask Mr. Fletcher to buy it for him. Really, the only thing it takes to preserve what matters is one person who remembers what the country is about. This guy should have a statue on the freaking mall. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a18730/how-to-save-your-freedom-061013/>