Rain, Rain go away – And it did, just for the Los Altos Rotary Club meeting.   By 12:15 p.m. the sun was shining brilliantly and TIM BYRD and KEN GRAHAM offered a welcome hand to grab because the program for today was spectacular involving historical events of importance with today’s lifestyle reality.
 
PP AL TRAFICANTI led us in the flag salute and SHIV SHASTRI led us in an old 1939 international classic, “Beer Barrel Polka” song that starts as “Roll out the barrel, we’ll have a barrel of fun”.
 
Because this was President’s Week, JEAN NEWTON FRAGUGLIA repeated interesting sayings by former presidents George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and Gerry Ford.
 
TRACIE MURRAY, GARY MAGGARD and CINDY LUEDTKE were Rotarians with guests.
 

President JOHN MOSS offered the names of the candidates for the board of directors we will vote on in two weeks. The slate is still open for additional names to be brought from the floor.  But, at present, we have the following slate; JOHN CARDOZA, JOE CORRAL, STEVE FICK, JOSEPH LoCONTE, JERRY MOISON, and DAVID SMITH.
 
Pres. JOHN MOSS announced the District Conference will be held in San Jose on April 11,12 and 13.   “Women in Rotary” will be a featured part of the luncheon program on Saturday the 12th at 2:15 p.m in recognition of twenty years that women have been accepted into the Family of Rotary. 
 
John said 20 years ago, the Rotary Club was a bastion of "men only" exclusion. Women, banned from membership, were relegated to secondary citizenship as "Rotary Ann" associates.  Now, more than a generation later, Rotary roles are reversing -- at least in the fact that women now in Rotary often run the show.

“It is believed,” John said, “Gloria Hom of the Palo Alto Club was the first woman admitted to Rotary in the world, but it’s a little known fact the Seattle Rotary Club had women members years before the Supreme Court Ruling.”  It turns out they slipped under the radar by only using the initial of their members first names for membership when reporting to Rotary International.
 
One of the more interesting announcements is the upcoming Cioppino Dinner to be held the evening of March 15.  The cioppino chefs, PP JOE RENATI and DAVE LUEDTKE  work all day to make a delectable seafood feast in the old Italian style. They could use more volunteers to help out, especially with clean up that evening.   
 
VAL CARPENTER, speaking for JERRY MOISON the art show maestro, said an outside firm has been hired to handle the trash. However we need volunteers to coordinate the effort. If you see a full bag of trash, be helpful and take it to the curb.
 
PP STEVE ANDERSON provided the sad news that the poker tournament for next Friday night has been cancelled.    Reason; the ante was too small and not enough sharks were interested.  
 
KENDRA GJERSETH, our fellowship director, asked for a show of hands who would like to visit Filoli Gardens for a two hour tour and box lunch.   Will it go?  Who knows, since about 12 hands were raised. 
 
LARRY CHU, Jr. brought the members to attention because it was fine time.  His first patsy was GARY MAGGARD who surrendered a measly $10 for his speech. After that,  SHIV SHASTRI got nicked for $50 because of his “Roll out the Barrel” song.  Apparently this song was perceived as being out of Shiv’s normal repertoire of musical classics.
 
After, Club Treasurer, SANDIE WHIPPLE gave a good example why we are fined at the club, she was assessed $50.  JACK KELLY suggested a  golf course where Rotarians could play our annual tournament, but several members didn’t like the suggestions, so it cost JACK KELLY  $5 and BOB RAYL $20 for wanting to join him at Deep Cliff.
 
JEAN HOLLANDS contributed $50, DAN O’DONNELL forked over $20, and PP DICK DUHRING gave $20 while PE SETH MANNING offered $30 for his 30th year in Rotary.
 
KAREN OWEN joined the President’s Club and BILL PALMER said he only gave money for his wedding and his birthday.  It will cost him $10 in May.
 
THE TEN-MINUTE SPEECH
With his wife Sandy as his quest, GARY MAGGARD provided us with an interesting ten-minute talk about himself.  Not a personal advertisement like many ten-minute speeches was in the past, but a down to earth commentary on his life.
 
Born in 1948, as a native of Georgia, Gary spoke about growing up in the south. He spoke about his father in the military and as he grew up he moved to Atlanta and became a carpenter apprentice.  Realizing he needed an education to escape the “hammer and nails” lifestyle, he enrolled in night school at Georgia Tech, graduating with a Bachelors in Engineering six years later.  After graduating sent his resume to including Lockheed who was looking for workers for overseas assignments.  He never ended up overseas, but he got a job.
 
“Out of more than 1,000 resumes, mine was pulled and I was hired and sent to Charleston, South Carolina,” Gary said.  “After a short time, I was transferred to San Jose, California where I worked for the next 25 years.”
 
Most of Gary’s work at Lockheed was secret and he didn’t even tell his wife what he did.  So, whenever anyone asked Sandy what her husband did, she said, “He is keeping the world safe for democracy.”
 
After experiencing some medical challenges, Gary retired from Lockheed about seven years ago.  He and Sandy will be married 21 years.   With the help of Sandy’s strength and compassion, as well as support of others during his illness, Gary was able to recover and slowly get his life back.   “With that in mind, I wanted to give back to humanity so I joined the Rotary,” he said.
 
Presently Gary and Sandy are guest lecturers with Crystal Cruise Lines and 
travel about three months out of every year.  They have visited every port in the world where Crystal Cruise sails. 
             
 
THE MAIN SPEAKER          
Mas Hashimoto, the speaker for the February 21 Rotary meeting, dropped a lot of history on the members.  He told them about stuff our history books never mentioned.  In blunt terms, he told us how hard the Japanese-Americans struggled during World War II while the audience was quiet and couldn’t help but be sympathetic.
 
Being proud of his heritage, Hashimoto opened his half-hour presentation by reading the Japanese-American Creed, ‘I believe in America’ by Mike Masaoka. It was read before the United States Senate on May 9, 1941 before Pearl Harbor and it should be noted that the author’s wife is Norman Mineta’s sister.
 
Hashimoto, who grew up in Watsonville, CA, graduated from San Jose State University in 1957, and was interned from the time he was six until he was 10 years old.  He was never charged with a crime and had no rights, but he was still sent to prison. “It should be remembered that no Japanese living in the U.S. was ever indicted for espionage ”, he said.
 
He went so far as hinting this wrongful prejudice and internment could happen again with other nationalities now living in United States. Hashimoto said, “We are deeply concerned that once again we are close to the brink of repeating some of those very same mistakes.”
 
Avoiding the podium, Hashimoto spoke from a chair sitting with the audience and operated his slide show flawlessly.  He discussed his personal recollections of imprisonment telling what really happened after former President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. 
 
“Nothing happened to Italians or German people living in California after Pearl Harbor, but California racism was evident.  It resulted in 120,000 men and women of Japanese blood from around the nation to be sent to internment camps,” said Hashimoto.  Executive order 9066 issued by FDR created the move of Japanese-Americans to internment camps.
 
“What did I do? I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t even charged for anything. So why were 120,000 of us interned?  Because we looked like the enemy,” he said.
 
“I never got a day in court, said Hashimoto, a retired Watsonville High School teacher. “We were guilty by the way we looked.” Hashimoto, now aged 70, said his number was 12524D during his internment. Hashimoto handed everyone in attendance an identification tag showing where the prison camps were located in California and the family identification on the other side.
 
Most of the evacuees had four days to prepare for the selling or care-taking responsibilities of their homes, businesses and belongings.  Many worried about and were still responsible for paying their bills and mortgages. Possessions they worked hard for were sold extremely cheap. Pictures of loved ones were left behind, along with animals and anything that resembled a weapon.  Mas’ family did not sell their home but gave the key to an attorney friend.
 
“Racism was tremendously high in California,” he said. “Everything was geared for WASPS, or White Anglo Saxon Protestants. You had to be a WASP to be considered an American.  Japanese-Americans in Hawaii were never interred.  It was just racism toward Japanese-Americans in California.”
 
Hashimoto said his family was detained at the California Rodeo Grounds in Salinas for several days and later transferred to the internment camp in Poston, Arizona. 
 
“The buildings were made from tar paper and were miserably hot with continuous dust storms.  If you had 10 people in your family you got two rooms,” he said. “Each block had 250 people and at night if you had to go to the bathroom you walked 300 yards to the toilet. You ate mess hall style with no family discussions and the camps were ranked low on the list for receiving medical supplies.”
 
Hashimoto spoke about Japanese-Americans in the military during WWII.
 
The 100th/442nd Regimental Combat Team was 4,500 strong, but members received a significant number of individual decorations for bravery, including many, many Purple Hearts.  Thirty-eight members of the team came from Santa Cruz County of a total of nearly 100 Santa Cruz County residents who served during World War II.  Santa Clara County had more than 120 residents serving in WWII.
 
It was Japanese American solders of the 442nd who shot the lock off the gate at Dachau and fought their way through the Vosges Mountains to rescue the "Lost Battalion."  They accomplished the deadly ambush of Italy's Gothic Line, climbing a cliff in silence and total darkness as some fell to their deaths with out uttering so much as a whimper.
 
Showing a newspaper clipping, he didn’t mince words when Mas spoke of the treatment of the Nisei, the first-generation American-born children of Japanese parents, during the war. The 442nd was used as cannon fodder time and time again being sent into situations deemed too dangerous for white soldiers.
 
"They were expendable," said Hashimoto. "At first no one wanted the Japanese Americans. Again and again, they got the dirty jobs." The blood of all Americans who fought had the same color blood on the beaches of Normandy.”
 
He said the United States is rapidly changing and becoming more beautiful and diverse. “We’ve come a long, long way, “ he said as the clock ticked on well passed the usual hour when the Rotary meeting is over.