| “Neptune Beach in Alameda was a playground with a Merry-go-round, game concessions and above all, a swimming pool and a beach on San Francisco Bay,†said Tadashi “Arthur†Hayashi, who grew up in Alameda. “I went up to the booth to pay the pool fee when I was asked 'Are you Chinese or a Jap?'†“I was speechless and so one of my friends asked why. We were told if I was a Jap, I couldn't swim in the pool. None of us went swimming that day. So when the hate groups came out after Pearl Harbor, it brought to mind my first experience with what our older members of the community tried to shield us from. Our parents were denied citizenship by law in 1926.†Racism in Alameda, CA
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