One of the four was Mits Koshiyama, who lived in Sunnyvale more than 50 years ago. At that time he was treated like any other American citizen. He was a senior at Fremont High School when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on Feb. 19, 1942, directing 120,000 Japanese-Americans and legal resident aliens into internment camps during World War II.

Koshiyama was immediately uprooted and sent to the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming, an internment camp where he lived until he was uprooted again—to prison.

When U.S. soldiers went around the camps asking for able young men to enroll in the Army, Koshiyama refused. "They asked us if we were willing to serve in the Army, and I said yes, but only if my constitutional rights were returned to me first and we were released from these camps," said Koshiyama, 70, who now lives in San Jose.

Megumi, also known as Grace Fleming, based her performance on interviews she had conducted with some of the panelists. Her story centered around the story of "Grandpa Lucky," a Japanese-American man who had served in the 442nd Battalion, along with other "volunteers" recruited from the internment camps.

Megumi said afterwards, "These men are very composed men, but when they talk about their war buddies dying, they get emotional. It touches me. I want to capture some of their emotions."

Megumi said she hopes to give young Japanese-Americans an understanding of what their parents and grandparents went through.

"This particular story is about Japanese-Americans, but it applies to all of us."

Megumi said that with the United States heading toward a war something like the World War II internments could happen again. "If we know what's happened in the past, we can make sure these tragedies don't happen again," she said.

Former internee Koshiyama agrees. He hopes that if Americans are forced to register with the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service they will be given due process. "If we're charged with any kind of crime, then we should have our day in court to prove our innocence. During World War II, we were denied those rights," he said.

After Koshiyama refused to join the Army, he was sent to trial along with other Japanese-Americans. The judge told them that they were eligible for the draft and said the young men were good American citizens and were not exempt from serving in the Army. Koshiyama asked the judge, "Why are we locked up in these camps and denied our rights?"

Koshiyama said the judge did not respond to his question and found the men guilty. They were sentenced to three years in prison, and Koshiyama served 25 months before being released for good behavior.

Koshiyama came back to Sunnyvale after being released. He was left alone, he said, despite a resolution that Sunnyvale passed in 1944 urging Congress to remove people of Japanese descent from the state of California. It wasn't until Aug. 2001 that the city council finally rescinded the resolution.

Koshiyama said he thinks the resolution perpetuated a climate of racism that was no different from any other community during that time. "I think most people had a rough time coming back and settling down again, wherever they went," Koshiyama said.