Enduring Democracy: The Monterey Petition

Director: David Schendel | 1h 7m | 2022

Led by John Steinbeck's editor, a group of women activists protest Japanese American incarceration and resist racism in WWII California. Recently in a dusty filing cabinet in Monterey, California a local historian made the amazing discovery of a 16mm film from 1938 showing the local Japanese American Community having fun at the wharf and playing baseball. Along with this remarkable never-before-seen film of a community about to be destroyed was a trove of signed petitions demanding the restoration of civil rights to those same Americans. As historian Tim Thomas dug deeper into the origins of both the film and the petition drive he discovered a story that stands as a lesson for all Americans interested in preserving our democracy. At a time when the fear of WWII gripped our nation, kitchen table conversations led to a door-to-door petition drive motivating citizens of the Monterey peninsula to resist economically motivated racism and welcome back fellow citizens held in concentration camps for 3+ years solely due to their Japanese ancestry. Toni Jackson-who worked as an editor for John Steinbeck and was Ed Ricketts' common-law wife-wrote the petition, A Democratic Way of Life for All, in 1945. It stands as the only organized public resistance to the well-funded hate campaign waged against Japanese-Americans as they began the painful return home to suspicious communities. "Enduring Democracy: the Monterey Petitions" explores the motivations of the wealthy individuals who financed hate campaigns as well as the daring women who spearheaded the carefully thought out response. A twitter war before mobile phones, the battle was fought in the editorial pages of several local newspapers as racists emboldened by Anti-Japanese war propaganda posted full page ads to discourage Japanese Americans from returning to their homes and businesses. Inspired by Mollie Sumida's letter to the editor written while imprisoned in camp and impervious to threats of violence, residents banded together to get their community to sign Toni Jackson's petition pledging "The Democratic Way of Life for All." The petition drive and subsequent posting in The Monterey Herald effectively put a stop to the public efforts of several well funded fear campaigns against California Japanese American Citizens.