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But the name of the country lane, "I hear 'Jap' cars and 'Jap' bikes all the time," Buddy Derouen, 69, a retired petrochemical worker who lives on the road, in the community of Fannett, said in a recent letter published in The Beaumont Enterprise. "Why not The competing positions are set to clash in a meeting on Monday at the Jefferson County Courthouse. Leading the county commissioners' agenda is a discussion of whether they should change the name. Advancing the issue this far has been a victory of sorts for Sandra Nakata Tanamachi, whose family settled in Last December, however, she allied herself with Thomas Kuwahara, a helicopter pilot from "We Japanese are often ignored, but we're still individuals with feelings," Ms. Tanamachi said in an interview, speaking with a thick Scott Newar, the lawyer representing Ms. Tanamachi and Mr. Kuwahara, said HUD had told them that it did not directly finance any housing programs in the county, a circumstance effectively limiting its actions. The Department of Transportation has asked Civil rights organizations, meanwhile, including the Japanese American Citizens League, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Anti-Defamation League, have voiced support for changing the name. Considerable outside involvement has come in recent weeks from the Japanese American Veterans Association. Drawing attention to the sacrifices its members made in World War II, the group will be using the meeting in Beaumont to discuss the role of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a segregated Japanese-American unit whose exploits included rescuing soldiers of the Texas 36th Division, national guardsmen who were trapped by German forces in the mountains of eastern France in 1944. "Jap Road should not be a part of the United States landscape,'' said Kelly Kuwayama, 86, a member of the 442nd who said he planned to travel from Washington to Beaumont to speak at the meeting. "And The thought of outsiders' descending on "We're not here to bash the Japanese," Wayne Wright, a retired petrochemical worker who is spearheading a movement to preserve the name, said in an interview before the meeting. "How can I be considered a bigot and a racist when I got a Puerto Rican son-in-law?" Mr. Wright's wife, Polly, said she believed the name was originally intended to honor the memory of Yasuo Mayumi, a Japanese farmer who, according to local lore, settled in the area in 1905 before returning to |
"If we change the name, we're conceding to the idea that it was meant the wrong way - and it wasn't," said Ms. Wright, pointing to wood on her floor that she said had come from Mr. Mayumi's house nearby. "We're proud of the name of our road."
"I might be in the same boat if I were them,'' Terry Shima of Gaithersburg, Md., vice president of the Japanese American Veterans Association and former member of the 442nd, said of those maintaining silence. "It's completely understandable. It is very Japanese, especially in a place where you're far outnumbered, to bite your tongue and not make waves. That is part of why we feel this is so important."
L. J. Bergeron, a retired pipe fitter and former gun shop owner who lives on
"If it's offensive to someone, they should either move or stay away from here," said Mr. Bergeron, 62, leaning on the Harley-Davidson parked in front of his home.
A change might focus attention on another stretch of road nearby. The town of
Ms. Tanamachi, the retired schoolteacher who brought the issue to the fore again here in
If the commissioners vote in favor of a change - if not Monday, then perhaps later - possible alternatives include
"Anything but Jap will do," Ms. Tanamachi said.