Mind Matters: ‘Hold these truths’

Posted by Dr. Kayta Gajdos on March 19, 2014

Did you know that 110,000 Japanese Americans were herded into internment camps during World War II? Many were citizens, other were residents who were never allowed citizenship. The historian George Santayana has said that history repeats itself until we learn from it. So I wondered, watching the moving one-man play, “Hold These Truths,” by Jeanne Sakata, what the United States and elsewhere is doing now that is not unlike what was occurring in 1942.

People’s Light and Theatre presented this play as part of their Community Matters series. Joel de la Fuente portrayed Gordon Hirabayashi who, guided by Quaker principles, decided to openly defy internment. This led to his imprisonment. He “invited” prosecution so that he could appeal his verdict before the Supreme Court. Although he did not win there, he has since been awarded —although posthumously — the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his principled stand against Japanese-American internment.

The argument of the Supreme Court at the time was that there was “military necessity” for internment. The government documents that debunked this notion were suppressed and only surfaced years later.

In fact, the major impetus for the concentration camps was not so much military necessity as it was prejudice. Allowed only two suitcases per person, families lost their property and possessions. Some farmers stated blatantly that they wanted the Japanese-Americans gone so they could have their land.

Racism thrives on a fear of the “other” and a pretense of safety. Such prejudice is not eradicated but perhaps we can heed Gordon Hirabayashi’s own words, “I seek to live as though the ‘ought to be’—‘is!’”

* Kayta Curzie Gajdos holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and is in private practice in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. She welcomes comments at MindMatters@DrGajdos.com or 610-388-2888. Past columns are posted to www.drgajdos.com.

About Kayta Gajdos

Dr. Kathleen Curzie Gajdos ("Kayta") is a licensed psychologist (Pennsylvania and Delaware) who has worked with individuals, couples, and families with a spectrum of problems. She has experience and training in the fields of alcohol and drug addictions, hypnosis, family therapy, Jungian theory, Gestalt therapy, EMDR, and bereavement. Dr. Gajdos developed a private practice in the Pittsburgh area, and was affiliated with the Family Therapy Institute of Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, having written numerous articles for the Family Therapy Newsletter there. She has published in the American Psychological Association Bulletin, the Family Psychologist, and in the Swedenborgian publications, Chrysalis and The Messenger. Dr. Gajdos has taught at the college level, most recently for West Chester University and Wilmington College, and has served as field faculty for Vermont College of Norwich University the Union Institute's Center for Distance Learning, Cincinnati, Ohio. She has also served as consulting psychologist to the Irene Stacy Community MH/MR Center in Western Pennsylvania where she supervised psychologists in training. Currently active in disaster relief, Dr. Gajdos serves with the American Red Cross and participated in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts as a member of teams from the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.Now living in Chadds Ford, in the Brandywine Valley of eastern Pennsylvania, Dr. Gajdos combines her private practice working with individuals, couples and families, with leading workshops on such topics as grief and healing, the impact of multigenerational grief and trauma shame, the shadow and self, Women Who Run with the Wolves, motherless daughters, and mediation and relaxation. Each year at Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, PA she leads a griefs of birthing ritual for those who have suffered losses of procreation (abortions, miscarriages, infertility, etc.); she also holds yearly A Day of Re-Collection at Temenos.Dr. Gajdos holds Master's degrees in both philosophy and clinical psychology and received her Ph.D. in counseling at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her professional affiliations, she includes having been a founding member and board member of the C.G. Jung Educational Center of Pittsburgh, as well as being listed in Who's Who of American Women. Currently, she is a member of the American Psychological Association, The Pennsylvania Psychological Association, the Delaware Psychological Association, the American Family Therapy Academy, The Association for Death Education and Counseling, and the Delaware County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Board. Woven into her professional career are Dr. Gajdos' pursuits of dancing, singing, and writing poetry.