An Insider’s Response to Racism: Abe Fortas and the Japanese Question during the Asia-Pacific War, 1941–1945

Abe Fortas (1910–1982) has been best known for service during his legal career as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States for four years from 1965 to 1969. His supporters have characterized his life as a lawyer who supported and defended the American Civil Rights Movement during the tumultuous periods of the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. However, observers of his career have paid little attention to the fact that Fortas was one of the few American bureaucrats who took the stand in defense of those of Japanese ancestry in the official hearings in the 1980sinvestigating the internment of Japanese Americans during World War ii. Fortas, as undersecretary in the Department of the Interior from 1942 to 1946, had a close relationship to key U.S. policies dealing with people of Japanese ancestry during the Asia-Pacific War, including the establishment of martial law in Hawai‘i and the ending of the Japanese internment. Fortas’s responses to and critiques of U.S. policy regarding the Japanese American question reveal the intertwined dynamics of how white racism developed and challenges against it at the governmental level.

Displacement, Diversity, and Mobility: Career Impacts of Japanese American Internment

In 1942 more than 110,000 persons of Japanese origin living on the U.S. West Coast were forcibly sent away to ten internment camps for one to three years. This paper studies how internees’ careers were affected in the long run. Combining Census data, camp records, and survey data, I develop a predictor of a person’s internment status based on Census observables. Using a difference-in-differences framework, I find that internment had long-run positive effects on earnings. The evidence is consistent with mechanisms related to increased mobility due to re-optimization of occupation and location choices, possibly facilitated by camps’ high economic diversity.

Novel Functional, Health, and Genetic Determinants of Cognitive Terminal Decline: Kuakini Honolulu Heart Program/Honolulu-Asia Aging Study

To investigate inter-individual differences in cognitive terminal decline and identify determinants including functional, health, and genetic risk and protective factors, data from the Honolulu Heart Program/Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, a prospective cohort study of Japanese American men, were analyzed. The sample was recruited in 1965-68 (ages 45-68 years). Longitudinal performance of cognitive abilities and mortality status were assessed from Exam 4 (1991-1994) through June 2014. Latent class analysis revealed two groups: maintainers retained relatively high levels of cognitive functioning until death and decliners demonstrated significant cognitive waning several years prior to death. Maintainers were more likely to have greater education, diagnosed coronary heart disease, and presence of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε2 allele and FOXO3 G allele (SNP rs2802292). Decliners were more likely to be older and have prior stroke, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and greater depressive symptoms at Exam 4, and the APOE ε4 allele. Findings support terminal decline using distance to death as the basis for modeling change. Significant differences were observed between maintainers and decliners 15 years prior to death, a finding much earlier compared to the majority of previous investigations.

Aging of a Model Minority: A Diachronic Analysis of Two Quantitative Research Studies on Aging of Japanese in New York

This is a diachronic analysis of two quantitative research studies on the aging of Japanese and Japanese Americans living in Greater New York. How have older Japanese individuals, who once have been referred as “model minority,” lived and aged in Greater New York? All the data in this paper are based on the first research study conducted in 2006 and the second in 2018 (Ethical approval reference number 6, 2018). This paper reveals both the social transitoriness and the cultural immutability of the Japanese elderly community in Greater New York. The following is a summary of the findings: (1) a growing Japanese American community with US citizenship, higher academic qualification, and better communication competency has been observed. (2) The allowable range of private expense to hire personal caregivers has been widened. (3) Not only the concerns and anxieties for later lives but also the plans and preparations for aging are much the same. (4) The elderly are provided with culturally specific care (with regard to language, food, and concept of care)—even allowed to live with other Japanese people—and the needs of caregivers who can understand Japanese culture are satiated. (5) Almost half of those in the community find it difficult to eliminate the possibility of returning to Japan, and some of them have already chosen to migrate back to Japan.

Methods used in 'ALDH2*2 association with longevity and reduced risk of cognitive decline in Japanese-American men'

ALDH2*2 is a loss of function mutation common in East Asian populations associated with facial flushing on exposure to alcohol and increased risk of certain cancers. Conversely, absence of the ALDH2*2 mutation is associated with increased risk of hypertension and cerebral microbleeds, and two recent studies report a higher frequency of ALDH2*2 alleles in nonagenarians compared to population control samples. We used survival analysis to investigate the association between ALDH2*2 and risk of cognitive impairment and death after controlling for midlife alcohol consumption and other covariates. Participants are 621 Japanese-American men (72 to 92) enrolled in the Honolulu Asia Aging Study (HAAS) and assessed for cognitive impairment for up to 20 years. Impairment was defined as crossing below a threshold score of 74 on the Cognitive Assessment Screening Instrument (CASI). Age at death was determined by Hawaii state death certificate. Ounces of ethyl alcohol consumed per month was assessed by structured interview (number, frequency, and type of beverage) conducted 25 years prior to baseline cognitive assessment. Persons heterozygous for the ALDH2*2 variant have reduced risk of cognitive impairment and reduced risk of death, compared to homozygote non-carriers. Covarying by alcohol exposure had no effect on observed associations. This study replicates previous findings associating ALDH2*2 with longevity, and provides evidence the protective effect extends to cognition. This poster details the statistical analysis carried out to obtain these results.