Tom T. Watanabe, a UCLA and University of Chicago–trained physician, testified before the Commission with striking memories of Los Angeles before and during mass removal. His words blended clinical precision with personal outrage, capturing both the indignities of camp and the hypocrisy of America’s values.

• Images of Loss: Recalled women and children on Terminal Island selling possessions to junk dealers, and the sight of Nisei families’ belongings scattered on lawns, marked with insultingly low prices.

• Curfew & Fear: L.A. divided into quadrants after Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans forbidden to cross lines. Doctors feared making night calls; Watanabe and Dr. Kobayashi, both citizens, were asked to risk it.

• Neighbors Turned Hostile: Friends of 30 years spat upon Issei elders and ignored them on buses — everyday cruelties rarely recorded.

• Medical Exile: Every Japanese American doctor, nurse, and technician expelled from L.A. County Hospital on a single day’s notice.

• Life in Manzanar: Put in charge of the X-ray department, tuberculosis ward, surgeries, and clinics — all for $19 a month. He worked seven days a week, training high school students to serve as aides because of the shortage of medical staff.

• Mixed Feelings on Redress: Acknowledged financial losses were massive, yet believed the greatest damage was educational disruption for young people. Compared reparations to modern salaries of athletes — millions earned in minutes — while Japanese Americans lost years behind barbed wire.

• Vision for the Future: Called for America to redirect the money and passion poured into space conquest toward conquering “inner space” — the hearts and minds of people, learning to walk in brotherhood.